Disclaimer:: Oh, I~~~~~ WISH I owned Inuyasha, hurray, hurray! I WISH I owned Inuyasha, hurray, hurray!
____________________________
Inuki
Chapter Four :: Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone?
"Aaa~ this sucks."
Kagome looked over at Inuki, who was staring at the television. The screen was showing his program, but rolling forever over it was the snow show. Inuki leaned back and glanced out the window, where lightning crackled and the rains fell. As they had for the past six consecutive hours. He snorted in aggravation. "Damn rain... I'm missing my program."
He flicked the TV off and switched on the radio to catch the final bit of the weather report. "...severe torrential rains over the Sasaki and Murasaki districts. 20% rain predicted for the rest of the weekend, with a front coming back in next week. In other news--"
"Keh," Inuki muttered and Kagome sighed as she continued her housework, picking up the garbage in the living room. About then, there was a loud buzz at the dryer went off and Kagome looked at Inuki. "Seeing as how you have nothing better to do, why don't you help me?"
Inuki grimaced at the prospect of housework. Kagome frowned. "You're lucky, buster. You got out of this on the 11th when you wanted to sleep over at Shiina-sempai's house." Inuki flinched, hating that she had brought up the last full moon and wondering if she knew the true reason he'd been so adamant on leaving that evening.
Luckily she read his body language as nothing more than having been cornered into something he didn't want to do, and he stood, leaving the subject and padding down the hall to the laundry room. He gathered the freshly-dried clothes into a basket and brought it back to the living room to fold. Upon return he found Kagome watching some program on television.
"Oi! If I have to work so do you!" Inuki yelled, throwing a pair of her panties at her and Kagome blushed bright red as she fumbled with the catch. "HEY~ those are my underwear!"
"I know that," he said, undeterred, "NO one else wears lace except you~" She blushed and yanked the basket away from him. "Give me that!! Watch your stupid program then, I can't trust you with my underclothes!" Inuki nodded, settling in front of the fuzzy television set. "Thank you."
Kagome noticed a neon pink heart sticking out from underneath the other clothes and pulled it out. A pair of black boxer shorts with hearts on them. She grinned, snickering to herself, and then threw the neon underwear at Inuki. They landed gracefully on his shoulder. Mindlessly he reached up to grab them and when his eyes fell on them he gawped, and it was his turn to blush. "HEY!"
Kagome was in the floor. "I KNEW they were yours!! Ever since you came to live here, that pair of boxers had been popping up!!" She giggled some more, and while she was distracted Inuki took the chance to paw through the heap for anything else embarrassing that his housemate may find, growling to himself in humiliation.
It wasn't his fault his uncle had a rather odd sense of humor.
Through with her fit, Kagome settled herself before the laundry again and began to dig through it. She had separated everyone's clothes and was in the process of folding Souta's when abruptly the phone rang and she reached over to get it. "Hai, this is Higurashi."
After a few moments Kagome blinked. "Yashagawa Takeru? Who? No sir, I don't know the--" She gasped as the cordless was abruptly snatched away from her and she glared at Inuki as he pressed the earpiece to his ear.
"Hey you--" He covered her mouth with his hand, gesturing silence. Then he turned and spoke into the mouthpiece. "Takeru?"
There was quiet for a moment before Inuki nodded. "I see, Mr. Shinomoto." He turned to Kagome and mouthed, 'A friend.'
*If he's a friend why didn't he just ask for Yashagawa-kun to begin with. Sheesh~* She tuned into his conversation and tried her best to listen in. It was difficult since Inuki refused to give her any detail at all as to what he was discussing, and her curiosity was killing her.
"Yes, I'm living with a friend of my mother's. Higurashi Kinoko-san. Yes, at the Higurashi shrine." He nodded a few times, as if forgetting the guy on the other end couldnt see him, and Kagome realized the guy was talking an awful lot and Inuki was taking it all in.
He nodded again. "The 16th at 9 am then. No, school won't be a problem." He sighed. "Thank you for your help Shinomoto-san. I'll be there. Goodbye."
He pulled away and turned the phone off, and Kagome turned away with a huff. "So? What's so important you'd have to be excused from school for?" After a moment with no response she opened her eyes. Inuki was looking seriously at her, and after a moment he looked blankly at the table. "Higurashi..."
"Yes?"
"Do you like me?"
She swallowed. Like him? How did he mean? Like him as a person? Friend? Something else? No, it was way too early for 'something else,' they'd only met 8 days ago. Her mind was running circles at the sudden odd question and she frowned. "Like you... how--"
"Never mind," he cut her off, quickly turning towards the kitchen. "What's that smell?"
Kagome sniffed a bit. All she could smell was her own honey and plumeria perfume, and the hazelnut incense in the corner. "What smell?"
"I smell something burning."
Again, Kagome sniffed the air hesitantly. She didn't smell anything out of the ordinary. "I don't smell anything burning," she told him and he turned to her, pointing at his nose. "My nose is better than yours. What are you making for dinner?"
Kagome gasped suddenly and rushed to the kitchen. Inuki watched her go and sighed despondently. What if he never saw her again? He didn't want to go back there. It wasn't like Takeru had ever hurt him, physically or otherwise, but then.. he'd never done *anything.*
According to Takeru, Inuki didn't even exist.
But here, he was surrounded by love and friendship... even if Higurashi could be bitchy, it still made him happy to see her face in the morning rather than Takeru's. He didn't want to leave.
Suddenly Higurashi let out a squeal, snapping the black-haired boy mack into focus. Assured she had screwed up something, Inuki followed and grimaced at what was in the pot Kagome uncovered. "What the hell is this, glue?"
"It was supposed to be rice...." she said, tugging at the sticky white glop with the spoon.
"Looks more like plaster," said an unsympathetic Inuki, "But whatever it is, I'm not eating it."
Three veins popped out on her forehead, and Kagome very nearly screamed Osuwari at him before realizing it wouldn't affect him. So instead she made a mental note to bash him with another flower pot later. She sighed and turned off the rice, and headed across the room to finish the dinner dishes.
Several minutes later, a heavy stench rose in the air, and Kagome let out a squeal that nearly burst Inuki's sensitive ears as she flung open the oven.
"What'd you mess up now!?!" he demanded from down the hall, and Kagome yelled back, "Nothing, shut up and mind your own business!"
"You're *messing* with my business! I have to eat that you know!!"
"I thought you said before you weren't going to!"
"Well I'm definitely not now!"
Another vein stood out on her forehead as she slammed shut the oven, having removed the roast chicken. A very well-roasted chicken; he was dry, black and crispy. Kagome set it on top of the oven in a huff.
After a three more minutes she called down the hall, "Yashagawa-kun, dinner's ready!"
~*~
"Is this it?"
"Yup."
Inuki narrowed his eyes at the cup ramen before him. "Not much of a dinner if you ask me."
Kagome pouted as she dug into her own noodles. "Nobody's asking you."
Inuki eyed her quietly before taking his chopsticks and digging into his ramen as well. They ate in silence, as they were prone to do. That was always how it was, unless they were talking about school or work.
Kagome hated the silence. "Yashagawa-kun?"
He looked up, looking slightly surprised. "Hm?"
"Why'd you ask me if I... liked you?"
Inuki continued eating. "No reason."
Kagome frowned, setting her cup down. "Obviously there was a reason! Because you..." She stopped herself, swallowing. *For just a moment, Yashagawa-kun's face looked so sad.*
At her concern, Inuki forced himself to smile more excitedly than he cared to. "I just wanted to know if I ever left, if you'd miss me."
"Oh, that's all?" Kagome breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh I thought you were gonna ask me to... go out with you or something!"
A sudden swarm of butterflies fluttered in his stomach at her comment, and he blushed slightly. It hadn't been the farthest thing from his mind, because Higurashi was a beautiful girl and you would be stupid or blind not to notice. But he certainly wasn't ready to ask her out, and he felt discouraged from the sound of her relief when that hadn't been the case.
He grinned. "No, of course not! You think I'd go out with a pig-headed woman like you!?"
"You jerk~!"
~*~
The next morning, Inuki had soccer practice. It was the second practice of the season, and Kagome, unbeknownst to anyone else, loved watching them practice. She snuck out after Inuki every morning and watched them practice for the hour before class started.
She hooked her fingers into the fence as she watched the soccer team pass the ball between each other. The team had been split in halves and their "practice" was to play a game against each other and work out plays and such. Kagome usually went brain-dead at the mention of sports; she wasn't good at remembering anything like this, but she liked watching Inuki.
She spotted him immediately; he was too easy to see, even from far away. He had the longest hair of any of the others guys on the team, and was the second tallest.
And as she had seen days before, he was the best player on the team. The newest member and yet he was lecturing the captain on how they should play. No matter the defense the captain put up, Inuki managed to get through it. She could hear him yelling all the way by the fence where she was.
"...and the line's too wide, you gotta tighten it up! If I can get through here, that means some Moshimori High porker can too! I want two over by the goal at all times, don't move unless the ball is coming at you! Manta I want you over there with Shiina."
She laughed out loud, mostly to herself. That was so like him. She looked up to see Inuki's head turn towards her and she gawped. *He heard me from way over there?!!*
She wanted to sink into the ground and disappear. She had absolutely no reason for being at school so early other than the fact that she'd wanted to come and see him play.
The bell for school rung and the team members dispersed, and no matter how quickly she tried to get away, Inuki was trailing her, and they sat next to each other in class. She'd have to face him regardless.
"Oi, Higurashi!!" She froze, and the taller student jogged up beside her. She turned to face him, and mentally thunked her head into a wall. She had avoided one only to have run into the other, and she smiled wanly at the sight of her visitor. "Hi.. Houjou-kun..."
The dubious student smiled at her. "Wow, what are you doing here so early?"
She smiled helplessly, hoping that at any moment Inuki would appear and bail her out. "Watching the team practice."
Houjou nodded and then as if she hadn't said a thing at all switched subjects. "Well, I haven't gotten the chance to talk with you much in the past week, what with my poetry club after school and your being at work and everything, which I think it's really swell of you do volunteer work at the hospital, that's so like you... but anyway like I wanted to say, the spring festival starts tomorrow and I got some tickets for the Japanese drama they're showing and I wondering if maybe you'd wanna go with me tomorrow?"
Kagome sweatdropped at him. Houjou just smiled back at her, unaware of the fact she wasn't even considering agreeing; her mind was still stuck on how in God's name he got all that out in one breath. He rode his bike alot, she supposed somehow that would work his lungs a bit; he was quite a talker also, and in any case, being that cheerful all the time meant you had to be pretty healthy...
"Higurashi, are you alright?"
She nodded vaguely, still in thought, and her eyes caught his face. As soon as she'd given him an affirmative response, he'd started smiling again. She winced. If he smiled anymore, his face would break in half. She wanted to ask if it hurt to smile that much. Surely it had to.
"Well, so do you want to go?"
I'll want to go to the festival with you when Hell freezes over, she told him mentally. There was no way out of this situation. She sighed, starting to reach up and accept, when at that moment--
"She's with me," said a sudden voice from the side, and Kagome looked up to see Inuki at her arm. He casually slipped an arm around her shoulder, and she blushed a little bit, but for the sake of the moment didn't pull away. Houjou looked unfazed.
"Oh you two have plans tomorrow! I'm sorry!! Well, Higurashi, you and I can go another time then!" The birdbrained freshmen rode away with a smile, waving, and Kagome raised an eyebrow. His confidence is admirable, really, but sheesh. After an entire year of being ditched and/or told no flat-out, one would think the boy would've lost his confidence in the matter.
As soon as he was out of sight, Inuki unraveled himself from her side and headed towards the front entrance. "C'mon, the first bell's gonna ring soon."
Watching him walk ahead of her, Kagome suddenly missed the previous contact. His chest had been warm and surprisingly comfortable. It felt odd saying she belonged to anyone but Inuyasha, but being against Inuki's chest like that had felt... right. And suddenly she wanted to know why he'd hugged her.
"Why'd you do that?" Kagome asked aloud and Inuki turned to look back at her. "Do what?"
"You hugged me."
He snorted. "Keh~ Don't get too excited over just a hug. You looked uncomfortable. I just stepped in for a moment to bail you out, and unless we at least looked close he wouldn't believed me for a minute."
He looked at her, missing her disappointed, irritated glare. "Didn't look like he believed me much anyway. He's too stupid for you. How come you haven't just told him to eat his shorts and get on with life?"
Kagome's irritation with him dissipated with the odd question and she giggled a little at the thought of telling Houjou-kun to eat his shorts --and the mental image caused a side-splitting laugh to come from her. Inuki grinned, slowing a bit to walk at her side. "You like that, huh?"
She laughed. "You're too much!" He grinned, pleased with himself, and she looked up at him. "Yashagawa-kun, I, uhm... I'm sorry."
"For what?" he wondered and Kagome frowned. "About what happened last night, you had asked me if.. I liked you or not, and I didn't even answer."
Inuki bit his lip, dreading her reply, and shrugged, hoping to avoid it. "Higurashi, you don't have to--" He paused when a small hand grasped the sleeve of his windbreaker and tugged on it. He turned to face her and she looked up at him sincerely.
"I would," she said, "It makes me happy to see you. And if you left... yes, I would miss you."
Inuki stared at her for a moment and then smiled and Kagome's heart skipped a beat at its realness. He nodded. "Thanks."
The morning bell rang and both students gasped. "Ah shit~" Inuki growled to himself, and Kagome stamped one foot. "We'll never make it up to Akihito's now!" Inuki cursed aloud, and then he turned to Kagome, grabbing her hand. In an instant he swept her off her feet and took off towards the school. She swallowed, shocked at his speed-- it was nothing like what he displayed in his soccer games or in practice. It was totally different.
Like he wasn't even human.
She instinctively leaned into his chest, her small fingers knotting into his soft cotton shirt. Going unnoticed by Kagome, Inuki blushed at the way she curled up against him. She smelled so good; she was wearing the honey and plumeria scent he especially enjoyed. He didn't know why, but it had always been his favorite, since he was a child. He skidded to a stop in front of the class and set her down, and averted his eyes, hoping his blush had dissipated. "There, we're uhm... only a little late."
*Lame lame lame!* He kicked himself mentally for such a stupid line, but Higurashi seemed unaffected. "Thanks." She turned and headed in, and Inuki watched her go quietly. It happened again: she reminded him of the dream. Maybe it was her scent; maybe her name. He wasn't sure.
He'd had it again this morning. It was the reason he'd gotten up so early. After the dream, he could never sleep. Had never been able to, even since it started, so long ago...
The blood flowing down his body. The smell of death. The muffled sound of her voice. Her scent, the scent of honey and plumeria. The smell of her tears. He couldn't see anything. Nothing but darkness. Two silvery streams of tears going down her cheeks. Why was she crying? He hated it when she cried...
A globe of soft pinkish-purple light entered him, and it was so very warm. But what was it for... his body was going cold. And he whispered her name.
It was the one part of the dream that followed him to the waking world. Her name. Every night, as he woke in a cold sweat, her name was on his lips.
Kagome.
~*~ To be continued ~*~
a/n :: Okie, time to chat. ^-^ First, slvrstarlight had wondered if Inuki would remember anything from his past life and originally the answer was no. Kagome hadn't (remembered anything that is) and the only thing she had in common with Kikyou was her feelings for Inuyasha. But then I realized I had already made Inuki alot like Inuyasha, so wtf. I might as well not dwell on the Kagome/Kikyou thing when Inuki/Inuyasha is already entirely different. So I incorporated his memories into his dreams. ^-^
Second, this is the fourth frickin time Ive revised chapter 4. (which is the reason I was a little late as of recently; grr!!) I kept getting ahead of myself and putting in scenes I didn't quite want to show yet. The original chapter four will probably be something like chapter 7 or 8 and the second version of chappie 4 is the new chappie 5 (::sigh:: confused yet?). So instead you get this one (plus the hint that Inuki senses a connection between himself and Kagome) ^-^V Squee!
As always please review!! I luff the reviews!!! Okie, ja~!
~*~ V^-^V ~*~
~Tessen
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Inuki
Chapter Four :: Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone?
"Aaa~ this sucks."
Kagome looked over at Inuki, who was staring at the television. The screen was showing his program, but rolling forever over it was the snow show. Inuki leaned back and glanced out the window, where lightning crackled and the rains fell. As they had for the past six consecutive hours. He snorted in aggravation. "Damn rain... I'm missing my program."
He flicked the TV off and switched on the radio to catch the final bit of the weather report. "...severe torrential rains over the Sasaki and Murasaki districts. 20% rain predicted for the rest of the weekend, with a front coming back in next week. In other news--"
"Keh," Inuki muttered and Kagome sighed as she continued her housework, picking up the garbage in the living room. About then, there was a loud buzz at the dryer went off and Kagome looked at Inuki. "Seeing as how you have nothing better to do, why don't you help me?"
Inuki grimaced at the prospect of housework. Kagome frowned. "You're lucky, buster. You got out of this on the 11th when you wanted to sleep over at Shiina-sempai's house." Inuki flinched, hating that she had brought up the last full moon and wondering if she knew the true reason he'd been so adamant on leaving that evening.
Luckily she read his body language as nothing more than having been cornered into something he didn't want to do, and he stood, leaving the subject and padding down the hall to the laundry room. He gathered the freshly-dried clothes into a basket and brought it back to the living room to fold. Upon return he found Kagome watching some program on television.
"Oi! If I have to work so do you!" Inuki yelled, throwing a pair of her panties at her and Kagome blushed bright red as she fumbled with the catch. "HEY~ those are my underwear!"
"I know that," he said, undeterred, "NO one else wears lace except you~" She blushed and yanked the basket away from him. "Give me that!! Watch your stupid program then, I can't trust you with my underclothes!" Inuki nodded, settling in front of the fuzzy television set. "Thank you."
Kagome noticed a neon pink heart sticking out from underneath the other clothes and pulled it out. A pair of black boxer shorts with hearts on them. She grinned, snickering to herself, and then threw the neon underwear at Inuki. They landed gracefully on his shoulder. Mindlessly he reached up to grab them and when his eyes fell on them he gawped, and it was his turn to blush. "HEY!"
Kagome was in the floor. "I KNEW they were yours!! Ever since you came to live here, that pair of boxers had been popping up!!" She giggled some more, and while she was distracted Inuki took the chance to paw through the heap for anything else embarrassing that his housemate may find, growling to himself in humiliation.
It wasn't his fault his uncle had a rather odd sense of humor.
Through with her fit, Kagome settled herself before the laundry again and began to dig through it. She had separated everyone's clothes and was in the process of folding Souta's when abruptly the phone rang and she reached over to get it. "Hai, this is Higurashi."
After a few moments Kagome blinked. "Yashagawa Takeru? Who? No sir, I don't know the--" She gasped as the cordless was abruptly snatched away from her and she glared at Inuki as he pressed the earpiece to his ear.
"Hey you--" He covered her mouth with his hand, gesturing silence. Then he turned and spoke into the mouthpiece. "Takeru?"
There was quiet for a moment before Inuki nodded. "I see, Mr. Shinomoto." He turned to Kagome and mouthed, 'A friend.'
*If he's a friend why didn't he just ask for Yashagawa-kun to begin with. Sheesh~* She tuned into his conversation and tried her best to listen in. It was difficult since Inuki refused to give her any detail at all as to what he was discussing, and her curiosity was killing her.
"Yes, I'm living with a friend of my mother's. Higurashi Kinoko-san. Yes, at the Higurashi shrine." He nodded a few times, as if forgetting the guy on the other end couldnt see him, and Kagome realized the guy was talking an awful lot and Inuki was taking it all in.
He nodded again. "The 16th at 9 am then. No, school won't be a problem." He sighed. "Thank you for your help Shinomoto-san. I'll be there. Goodbye."
He pulled away and turned the phone off, and Kagome turned away with a huff. "So? What's so important you'd have to be excused from school for?" After a moment with no response she opened her eyes. Inuki was looking seriously at her, and after a moment he looked blankly at the table. "Higurashi..."
"Yes?"
"Do you like me?"
She swallowed. Like him? How did he mean? Like him as a person? Friend? Something else? No, it was way too early for 'something else,' they'd only met 8 days ago. Her mind was running circles at the sudden odd question and she frowned. "Like you... how--"
"Never mind," he cut her off, quickly turning towards the kitchen. "What's that smell?"
Kagome sniffed a bit. All she could smell was her own honey and plumeria perfume, and the hazelnut incense in the corner. "What smell?"
"I smell something burning."
Again, Kagome sniffed the air hesitantly. She didn't smell anything out of the ordinary. "I don't smell anything burning," she told him and he turned to her, pointing at his nose. "My nose is better than yours. What are you making for dinner?"
Kagome gasped suddenly and rushed to the kitchen. Inuki watched her go and sighed despondently. What if he never saw her again? He didn't want to go back there. It wasn't like Takeru had ever hurt him, physically or otherwise, but then.. he'd never done *anything.*
According to Takeru, Inuki didn't even exist.
But here, he was surrounded by love and friendship... even if Higurashi could be bitchy, it still made him happy to see her face in the morning rather than Takeru's. He didn't want to leave.
Suddenly Higurashi let out a squeal, snapping the black-haired boy mack into focus. Assured she had screwed up something, Inuki followed and grimaced at what was in the pot Kagome uncovered. "What the hell is this, glue?"
"It was supposed to be rice...." she said, tugging at the sticky white glop with the spoon.
"Looks more like plaster," said an unsympathetic Inuki, "But whatever it is, I'm not eating it."
Three veins popped out on her forehead, and Kagome very nearly screamed Osuwari at him before realizing it wouldn't affect him. So instead she made a mental note to bash him with another flower pot later. She sighed and turned off the rice, and headed across the room to finish the dinner dishes.
Several minutes later, a heavy stench rose in the air, and Kagome let out a squeal that nearly burst Inuki's sensitive ears as she flung open the oven.
"What'd you mess up now!?!" he demanded from down the hall, and Kagome yelled back, "Nothing, shut up and mind your own business!"
"You're *messing* with my business! I have to eat that you know!!"
"I thought you said before you weren't going to!"
"Well I'm definitely not now!"
Another vein stood out on her forehead as she slammed shut the oven, having removed the roast chicken. A very well-roasted chicken; he was dry, black and crispy. Kagome set it on top of the oven in a huff.
After a three more minutes she called down the hall, "Yashagawa-kun, dinner's ready!"
~*~
"Is this it?"
"Yup."
Inuki narrowed his eyes at the cup ramen before him. "Not much of a dinner if you ask me."
Kagome pouted as she dug into her own noodles. "Nobody's asking you."
Inuki eyed her quietly before taking his chopsticks and digging into his ramen as well. They ate in silence, as they were prone to do. That was always how it was, unless they were talking about school or work.
Kagome hated the silence. "Yashagawa-kun?"
He looked up, looking slightly surprised. "Hm?"
"Why'd you ask me if I... liked you?"
Inuki continued eating. "No reason."
Kagome frowned, setting her cup down. "Obviously there was a reason! Because you..." She stopped herself, swallowing. *For just a moment, Yashagawa-kun's face looked so sad.*
At her concern, Inuki forced himself to smile more excitedly than he cared to. "I just wanted to know if I ever left, if you'd miss me."
"Oh, that's all?" Kagome breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh I thought you were gonna ask me to... go out with you or something!"
A sudden swarm of butterflies fluttered in his stomach at her comment, and he blushed slightly. It hadn't been the farthest thing from his mind, because Higurashi was a beautiful girl and you would be stupid or blind not to notice. But he certainly wasn't ready to ask her out, and he felt discouraged from the sound of her relief when that hadn't been the case.
He grinned. "No, of course not! You think I'd go out with a pig-headed woman like you!?"
"You jerk~!"
~*~
The next morning, Inuki had soccer practice. It was the second practice of the season, and Kagome, unbeknownst to anyone else, loved watching them practice. She snuck out after Inuki every morning and watched them practice for the hour before class started.
She hooked her fingers into the fence as she watched the soccer team pass the ball between each other. The team had been split in halves and their "practice" was to play a game against each other and work out plays and such. Kagome usually went brain-dead at the mention of sports; she wasn't good at remembering anything like this, but she liked watching Inuki.
She spotted him immediately; he was too easy to see, even from far away. He had the longest hair of any of the others guys on the team, and was the second tallest.
And as she had seen days before, he was the best player on the team. The newest member and yet he was lecturing the captain on how they should play. No matter the defense the captain put up, Inuki managed to get through it. She could hear him yelling all the way by the fence where she was.
"...and the line's too wide, you gotta tighten it up! If I can get through here, that means some Moshimori High porker can too! I want two over by the goal at all times, don't move unless the ball is coming at you! Manta I want you over there with Shiina."
She laughed out loud, mostly to herself. That was so like him. She looked up to see Inuki's head turn towards her and she gawped. *He heard me from way over there?!!*
She wanted to sink into the ground and disappear. She had absolutely no reason for being at school so early other than the fact that she'd wanted to come and see him play.
The bell for school rung and the team members dispersed, and no matter how quickly she tried to get away, Inuki was trailing her, and they sat next to each other in class. She'd have to face him regardless.
"Oi, Higurashi!!" She froze, and the taller student jogged up beside her. She turned to face him, and mentally thunked her head into a wall. She had avoided one only to have run into the other, and she smiled wanly at the sight of her visitor. "Hi.. Houjou-kun..."
The dubious student smiled at her. "Wow, what are you doing here so early?"
She smiled helplessly, hoping that at any moment Inuki would appear and bail her out. "Watching the team practice."
Houjou nodded and then as if she hadn't said a thing at all switched subjects. "Well, I haven't gotten the chance to talk with you much in the past week, what with my poetry club after school and your being at work and everything, which I think it's really swell of you do volunteer work at the hospital, that's so like you... but anyway like I wanted to say, the spring festival starts tomorrow and I got some tickets for the Japanese drama they're showing and I wondering if maybe you'd wanna go with me tomorrow?"
Kagome sweatdropped at him. Houjou just smiled back at her, unaware of the fact she wasn't even considering agreeing; her mind was still stuck on how in God's name he got all that out in one breath. He rode his bike alot, she supposed somehow that would work his lungs a bit; he was quite a talker also, and in any case, being that cheerful all the time meant you had to be pretty healthy...
"Higurashi, are you alright?"
She nodded vaguely, still in thought, and her eyes caught his face. As soon as she'd given him an affirmative response, he'd started smiling again. She winced. If he smiled anymore, his face would break in half. She wanted to ask if it hurt to smile that much. Surely it had to.
"Well, so do you want to go?"
I'll want to go to the festival with you when Hell freezes over, she told him mentally. There was no way out of this situation. She sighed, starting to reach up and accept, when at that moment--
"She's with me," said a sudden voice from the side, and Kagome looked up to see Inuki at her arm. He casually slipped an arm around her shoulder, and she blushed a little bit, but for the sake of the moment didn't pull away. Houjou looked unfazed.
"Oh you two have plans tomorrow! I'm sorry!! Well, Higurashi, you and I can go another time then!" The birdbrained freshmen rode away with a smile, waving, and Kagome raised an eyebrow. His confidence is admirable, really, but sheesh. After an entire year of being ditched and/or told no flat-out, one would think the boy would've lost his confidence in the matter.
As soon as he was out of sight, Inuki unraveled himself from her side and headed towards the front entrance. "C'mon, the first bell's gonna ring soon."
Watching him walk ahead of her, Kagome suddenly missed the previous contact. His chest had been warm and surprisingly comfortable. It felt odd saying she belonged to anyone but Inuyasha, but being against Inuki's chest like that had felt... right. And suddenly she wanted to know why he'd hugged her.
"Why'd you do that?" Kagome asked aloud and Inuki turned to look back at her. "Do what?"
"You hugged me."
He snorted. "Keh~ Don't get too excited over just a hug. You looked uncomfortable. I just stepped in for a moment to bail you out, and unless we at least looked close he wouldn't believed me for a minute."
He looked at her, missing her disappointed, irritated glare. "Didn't look like he believed me much anyway. He's too stupid for you. How come you haven't just told him to eat his shorts and get on with life?"
Kagome's irritation with him dissipated with the odd question and she giggled a little at the thought of telling Houjou-kun to eat his shorts --and the mental image caused a side-splitting laugh to come from her. Inuki grinned, slowing a bit to walk at her side. "You like that, huh?"
She laughed. "You're too much!" He grinned, pleased with himself, and she looked up at him. "Yashagawa-kun, I, uhm... I'm sorry."
"For what?" he wondered and Kagome frowned. "About what happened last night, you had asked me if.. I liked you or not, and I didn't even answer."
Inuki bit his lip, dreading her reply, and shrugged, hoping to avoid it. "Higurashi, you don't have to--" He paused when a small hand grasped the sleeve of his windbreaker and tugged on it. He turned to face her and she looked up at him sincerely.
"I would," she said, "It makes me happy to see you. And if you left... yes, I would miss you."
Inuki stared at her for a moment and then smiled and Kagome's heart skipped a beat at its realness. He nodded. "Thanks."
The morning bell rang and both students gasped. "Ah shit~" Inuki growled to himself, and Kagome stamped one foot. "We'll never make it up to Akihito's now!" Inuki cursed aloud, and then he turned to Kagome, grabbing her hand. In an instant he swept her off her feet and took off towards the school. She swallowed, shocked at his speed-- it was nothing like what he displayed in his soccer games or in practice. It was totally different.
Like he wasn't even human.
She instinctively leaned into his chest, her small fingers knotting into his soft cotton shirt. Going unnoticed by Kagome, Inuki blushed at the way she curled up against him. She smelled so good; she was wearing the honey and plumeria scent he especially enjoyed. He didn't know why, but it had always been his favorite, since he was a child. He skidded to a stop in front of the class and set her down, and averted his eyes, hoping his blush had dissipated. "There, we're uhm... only a little late."
*Lame lame lame!* He kicked himself mentally for such a stupid line, but Higurashi seemed unaffected. "Thanks." She turned and headed in, and Inuki watched her go quietly. It happened again: she reminded him of the dream. Maybe it was her scent; maybe her name. He wasn't sure.
He'd had it again this morning. It was the reason he'd gotten up so early. After the dream, he could never sleep. Had never been able to, even since it started, so long ago...
The blood flowing down his body. The smell of death. The muffled sound of her voice. Her scent, the scent of honey and plumeria. The smell of her tears. He couldn't see anything. Nothing but darkness. Two silvery streams of tears going down her cheeks. Why was she crying? He hated it when she cried...
A globe of soft pinkish-purple light entered him, and it was so very warm. But what was it for... his body was going cold. And he whispered her name.
It was the one part of the dream that followed him to the waking world. Her name. Every night, as he woke in a cold sweat, her name was on his lips.
Kagome.
~*~ To be continued ~*~
a/n :: Okie, time to chat. ^-^ First, slvrstarlight had wondered if Inuki would remember anything from his past life and originally the answer was no. Kagome hadn't (remembered anything that is) and the only thing she had in common with Kikyou was her feelings for Inuyasha. But then I realized I had already made Inuki alot like Inuyasha, so wtf. I might as well not dwell on the Kagome/Kikyou thing when Inuki/Inuyasha is already entirely different. So I incorporated his memories into his dreams. ^-^
Second, this is the fourth frickin time Ive revised chapter 4. (which is the reason I was a little late as of recently; grr!!) I kept getting ahead of myself and putting in scenes I didn't quite want to show yet. The original chapter four will probably be something like chapter 7 or 8 and the second version of chappie 4 is the new chappie 5 (::sigh:: confused yet?). So instead you get this one (plus the hint that Inuki senses a connection between himself and Kagome) ^-^V Squee!
As always please review!! I luff the reviews!!! Okie, ja~!
~*~ V^-^V ~*~
~Tessen