Sorry for being late, ^^;;;;; Merry Christmas from me! I hope you enjoy this waffy fluff I wrote for you~ lol
Disclaimer:: I don't own Inuyasha. ::quiet blank stares:: Well I dont!
____________________________
Inuki
Chapter Five :: The Bracelet
"Yashagawa-kun."
Inuki mumbled something in his sleep and turned his head, and Kagome grit her teeth in aggravation, narrowing her eyes. With the soft erasery end of her pencil she poked him hard in the shoulder. "Ya-sha-ga-wa-kun."
"Go away; m'sleepin'..." he mumbled and Kagome frowned. It was Wednesday evening; Inuki had to be at work in ten minutes and yet there he sat, slumped over the living room table, sawing enough firewood for three winters.
And snoring was not an appropriate environment to study in. Kagome poked him again. "Get up you oaf, you have work!"
He sat upright with a start, glaring at her sleepily. "I. Am. Not. An. Oaf." he growled, standing and shuffling down to the bathroom. Kagome shook her head pitifully, and sighed, glancing at Mama who was watching the afternoon news and sipping tea. "What is it you LIKE about him?" she demanded and Mama smiled. "He is a sweet boy, a hard worker and considerate. You should try to appreciate him more."
"There's nothing to appreciate, he's a bum!" Kagome trilled, but Mama only laughed.
Kagome settled back to her studying, sighing. Well, not completely a bum. Just that morning she had told him how she really felt about the situation. And in all honesty he was. He did work hard, he was a decent guy at heart. He was just too honest some times and a complete jerk at others.
Take last weekend for example. Friday night he had been normal, except slightly edgy. Plus the fact he clipped his nails at least ten times that evening; everytime Kagome looked at him his nails were an inch or two longer than he usually kept them.
Saturday morning, he'd noticed something on the calendar --Kagome couldn't understand what he'd noticed other than it was the 11th of April in the year 1998-- and he immediately requested that he stay over at Shiina's house for the night.
Mama, being the caring loving soul she was, agreed and around 3 pm Inuki disappeared. The next morning he'd returned, looking as normal as ever with the exception he was exhausted. Kagome was incensed. Barely in school a week, having lived with them for that long at least and that idiot had partied all night!
And he still tended to stay up too long, thus the sleepiness today! How dare he slack off when he knew he had to work?!
*Bum,* she threw out again, *He's just lazy.*
Inuki appeared again, redressed, his face washed and his long hair rebraided. He yawned, the only sign that he was still sleepy, and Mama looked up at him. "Inuki-kun, it's still at 9 am tomorrow, right?" She glanced at the board, where "9 am" was still scribbled next to Inuki's name.
'The board' was the brand new dry erase board Mama had purchased to keep everyone's schedules straight. Inuki nodded and dug through his backpack, on the hunt for some elusive article.
He nodded. "It's an off-day because of the teachers' conference, so school won't be a problem. So yeah, still at 9." Mama nodded. "Will you still need me to come down for you?"
"Uh-huh... "
"Wait a sec, what's going on?" Kagome wondered, remember he had mentioned it yesterday. Mama smiled. "I have to sign some papers for Inuki-kun tomorrow."
"What kind of papers?" Kagome nosed, and Inuki glared at her. "Papers papers. Stay outta my business, brat."
Kagome flared instantly.
"Excuse me!? I am NOT a brat, you self-centered, egotisical, stubborn, stupid, JERK!" She gathered her stuff in one swoop and stomped up the stairs to her room, "All you ever think about is yourself and for all I care you can beat yourself unconscious!" Her voice faded and was complimented by a slamming door. Mama sighed. "Oh, Kagome-chan..."
To his credit, Inuki softened after Kagome had gone and looked at Mama. "Ms Higurashi, are you sure I shouldn't tell her now? She'll be pissed at me if I don't." Mama smiled. "Kagome-chan has this way of getting over things she doesn't like in the beginning. It's probably better to tell her afterwards."
Inuki sighed. "Why the hell does she hate me so much? She told me..." He blushed slightly, remembering what Kagome had told him that morning.
I would. It makes me happy to see you. And if you left... yes, I would miss you.
"Well according to what she told me, she doesn't hate me but still..." Mama put her hand on his shoulder, patting gently. "There are things about you that remind her of someone she loved. It's still hard for her."
"Oh... an ex, huh?" Inuki swallowed, his eyes narrowing, and he glanced back up the stairs. *So Higurashi...*
~*~
"Tadaima!"
Kagome leaned out to look in the hallway. At the door, Mama and Inuki were slipping off their shoes. Inuki looked neutral as always, but Mama looked quite happy.
"You were gone forever!!!" Kagome noted, "What kind of freaking papers were these?!" Mama smiled. "Courthouse hearings always take quite some time, Kagome-chan."
Kagome gawped. "C-c-c-COURTHOUSE?! Why were you there?!!" She stood up and glared at Inuki, poking him in the chest. "You UTTER JERK! It was that partying you did last Saturday!!! How DARE you go and get in trouble with the cops and then make my mother bail you out!!!! You're a guest in this house, not a family member!!!"
Inuki looked down at her coarsely, wondering why he had tried to be nice and appeal to her mother to tell her such huge news ahead of time, but with her response to it, accusing him of being in legal trouble-- that miffed him a little bit more than a lot. "I'm not trouble, baka onna," he growled, "I was making Higurashi-san my legal guardian."
Kagome's mouth dropped open. "What?"
"Today is Inuki-kun's 16th birthday!" Mama exclaimed, "He now has the right in court to claim whom he accepts as a legal guardian until his 18th birthday!"
Inuki sat down, snatching up a stray pickle from what was left of Kagome's sandwich. "I've been trying to appeal for a different guardian since I was 14, but you can't choose until you're 16. Shinomoto-san is my mother's lawyer and he represented my case for me. That was why I went to court today: to be released of my brother's custody." He glared at her. "Thanks SO much for being supportive."
Kagome softened, narrowing her eyes and trying to ignore his attempt at pulling a guilt trip. "Well why didn't you just TELL me. I have a right to know! This is my house too!"
Inuki looked at her, slightly wide-eyed, and then popped another stray pickle into his mouth. Sincerely he said, "You're right. You have a right to know." He grinned at her teasingly. "Higurashi, I'm you're mother's legal ward now. You're stuck with me for two more years."
Three veins popped out on Kagome's forehead. "YOU!!! You're annoying!" Inuki grabbed a tomato this time, and Kagome snatched the tomato and then the sandwich from him. "AND STOP EATING MY LUNCH!!"
"Well," began Mama, "Since it IS your birthday! Would you like to go out tonight?" Inuki looked up at her proposition and grinned. "Hey, yeah! That would be great, Ms. Higurashi!" Mama smiled in delight and then turned to her daughter. "Kagome-chan, since you know this part of town better than Inuki-kun, why don't you go with him?"
Kagome, secretly loving the idea of him being gone all night --first for play and then for work-- suddenly stopped, irked. "Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa! Wait!! I don't want to spend the rest of my day off with him!!"
Mama's face dropped into the basic disappointed-mother Look. "Kagome-chan, I thought you said you would try to get along with him. It disappoints me that you haven't." Mama sighed melodramatically.
Kagome growled a bit, mostly to herself, and finally said, "Fine, I'll take him out."
Instantaneously Mama turned back into herself. "Arigatou, Kagome-chan~! Oh look!! Tonight is the spring festival~!" She whipped out a paper flyer that she had been holding behind her back, and Kagome wondered if she had somehow set her up.
The teen growled again to herself. *Ma~ma~!*
~*~
"Okay, just to make sure you understand this totally and fully!" Kagome said defiantly, "I'm not here for you, it's because Mama asked me." Inuki slipped on his denim jacket, chuckling to himself. "Yeah yeah, whatever. More like she MADE you. You oughta be happy though!" Inuki said seriously, and Kagome glared at him. "Why?"
"You got a date with me~" Inuki teased, and Kagome blushed bright red. "This is NOT a date!" She roared, and Inuki laughed out loud. "Then why are you blushing?" the taller teenager asked cheerfully and Kagome pouted, crossing her arms. "Mou~!"
*It's not a date.* She insisted to herself as they walked down the street. For tonight the street had been blocked off; as Mama had pointed out, the annual spring family event was tonight, and in full swing. Midway games, bad music and booths handing off everything from foreign treats to native delicacies lined the sidewalks, and in the street itself, people meandered like lost sheep.
Personally Kagome loved festivals; she had ever since she was a child. But having to go with Inuki was like taking her little brother. Fortunately or unforunately (Kagome had yet to decide) Mama had tied that little monster at home with the promise of take-out pizza and rented movies.
And Kagome was stuck on a date with her live-in pig. *It's not a date,* she insisted to herself, *I am NOT on a date with this JERK! Besides, who would take a girlfriend to a festival as a date!*
Thwack.
Kagome's mouth dropped open. Oh, he SO did not just hit her?! She turned to him, fire blazing in her eyes. Inuki wasn't fazed, his hand slightly raised in the gesture of having just fluffed her on the hair. "You're so spaced out you're drooling on yourself," he explained. Kagome gasped and wiped the spit from her mouth and sighed. "What do you want to do first?"
Inuki grinned mischievously. "Heh heh~"
~*~
"You're pathetic," Kagome told the eating teenager, who was hunched over a bowl of ramen, much resembling a starving dog, and he glanced up at her. "What can I say, I love ramen. It's been my favorite since I was a baby. My mother used to add ramen flavoring to her breastmilk for me." He grinned triumphantly when Kagome squealed in disgust, and he waved a hand at her. "I'm just kidding, don't get your panties in a knot."
She grimaced as he returned to his bowl. "Would you at least *act* like you're HUMAN? I mean, we're in public!"
He sighed exaggeratedly and slowed his manic behavior, stopping every so often to open his bottle of Sprite and sip at it. He was halfway finished before he looked up at her. "You wanna go play some games next?"
"Yeah," Kagome said. She stood up, sighing. Just because she was stuck with him didn't mean she had to have a bad night. She was determined to have fun.
As with most festivals, the midway games were your basic, stupid games that were probably rigged to suck your of your money. The ring toss, dart throw, skee ball-- all that mess. Kagome KNEW that the games were set up to lose, but it didn't stop her from throwing a good deal of her money at it.
She had already lost a good $40 dollars on the games --she had a REALLY good time-- when she found something she knew she could win, regardless of the rigging.
Archery.
"Aaaah, MOU!!" she cried out, stamping her feet as she watched amateurs fling arrows into the ground, snap themselves with the bowstring, accidentally poke themselves in the eye with the arrow. "I wish I had known this one was here, I have this BEAT!"
Inuki snorted, having watched her lose her life's savings. He was pretty certain after the whole event that Higurashi wasn't good at anything except yelling at him. "Yeah ri~ight." He shifted his winnings to his other hip. He'd managed to beat the games despite the setup, and carried a bag of all sorts of candies and stuffed animals-- what he needed plush creatures for he hadn't decided yet.
Kagome turned on him, sticking one finger in his face and shaking it. "I could prove it if I had a dollar."
Inuki handed her a single dollar bill. "Prove it. But~ whatever you win you have to give to me."
"What?!" she demanded, "Why?!"
"It's my dollar bill," he pointed out.
Kagome sighed and turned to the owner anyway. She would show that jerk a thing or two. "I'll take one arrow, okay?"
"Just one?" he asked in surprise and she nodded. "One's all I'll need."
Kagome set the arrowhead to the bow and pulled back on the bowstring. Her hand wavered slightly, considering her purse hung off one arm and acted as a weight against her aim. There were four targets: one at 5 feet, another at 10 feet, another at 25 and the last at 50. She looked over the target she'd chosen and aimed to overshoot, to make up for the extra weight and the unbalanced aim she would have regardless of the shot.
Inuki stared. She was aiming a little too high, and for the red-and-white target that was farthest away, the 50 feet. "You'll never hit it, Higurashi," Inuki insisted, and Kagome tightened her shoulders, pulling her elbow in and her arm straightened. "I'll hit it. I never miss my mark anymore."
She let go.
In the instant she released it Inuki felt a jolt of deja vu go through his body. Instead of the navy patterned dress Higurashi was wearing, there was a bland green and white sailor style school uniform over her. She stood the same though, bow out in front of her, the other hand thrown back slightly with the recoil of the released bowstring. The same determined face.
And it was one of many he'd seen before.
As quickly as it had come, the vision was gone and with a sharp twang! the arrow flew and slammed directly into the center of the target. "Bullseye!" The booth owner roared, and some passersby who'd stopped to watch gave her a few cheers and applause. Inuki swallowed, trying to shake off the intensely cold feeling that had struck him when he saw it. *What...*
Kagome lowered the bow, and the owner grinned at her, pulling out the grand prize. "For you, miss. That was an amazing shot!"
Kagome graciously accepted it, bowing in thanks, and looked over her prize. A thin gold bracelet, very obviously a woman's. Without a doubt she wanted it, but then, she'd made that stupid bet with Inuki. Knowing him he would totally stick to it, regardless of the fact it was a woman's piece of jewelry.
She handed it to him, feigning indifference. "Here." When he didn't take it instantly, Kagome glanced up at him. He was staring at her in confusion. "In too much of a shocked silence to accept what I won for you?"
He shuddered slightly, as if he'd just woken from a daze, and reached out to take it finally, nodding as he did. "Sorry." He snapped the clasp closed and admired the way it hung from his left wrist. Then he grinned and was normal Inuki again. "Thanks!"
She stuck her tongue out. "Well you're welcome, whether you meant that or not."
By chance, Inuki glanced up, at the large clock tower in the middle of the square. 4:56 pm. He grimaced. "Ah shit~ I'm gonna be late for work if I don't hurry!"
He shoved his bag of goodies at Kagome and the surprised girl haphazardly took it. Inuki nodded at her. "Thanks for comin' with me and don't take any of my stuff!" He turned to run off, but then stopped. "Oh yeah," he murmured, almost like an afterthought, and then turned back.
He smiled the true smile she hardly ever saw on him. "That really was an awesome shot, Higurashi. I mean it." Kagome blushed slightly, and smiled then. "Thank you." He nodded, and turned again, running towards the bus stop. It was only just as he was out of sight that Kagome gasped as her own afterthought occurred to her. She took off after him, and caught up just as he was stepping onto the bus. "Yashagawa-kun!"
He turned back and glanced at her, eyes wide. She smiled brightly. "Happy birthday."
He grinned in thanks and flashed her a peace sign, and then stepped onto the bus. There was a winded whine as she bus' brakes disengaged and it pulled away. Kagome waited until she couldn't see it anymore before she turned back and headed back towards home, feeling strangely satisfied with herself.
~*~ To be continued ~*~
a/n :: Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! Fluff, yes? Hee hee~ As always, please review! Okie, ja~!
~*~ V^-^V ~*~
~Tessen
Disclaimer:: I don't own Inuyasha. ::quiet blank stares:: Well I dont!
____________________________
Inuki
Chapter Five :: The Bracelet
"Yashagawa-kun."
Inuki mumbled something in his sleep and turned his head, and Kagome grit her teeth in aggravation, narrowing her eyes. With the soft erasery end of her pencil she poked him hard in the shoulder. "Ya-sha-ga-wa-kun."
"Go away; m'sleepin'..." he mumbled and Kagome frowned. It was Wednesday evening; Inuki had to be at work in ten minutes and yet there he sat, slumped over the living room table, sawing enough firewood for three winters.
And snoring was not an appropriate environment to study in. Kagome poked him again. "Get up you oaf, you have work!"
He sat upright with a start, glaring at her sleepily. "I. Am. Not. An. Oaf." he growled, standing and shuffling down to the bathroom. Kagome shook her head pitifully, and sighed, glancing at Mama who was watching the afternoon news and sipping tea. "What is it you LIKE about him?" she demanded and Mama smiled. "He is a sweet boy, a hard worker and considerate. You should try to appreciate him more."
"There's nothing to appreciate, he's a bum!" Kagome trilled, but Mama only laughed.
Kagome settled back to her studying, sighing. Well, not completely a bum. Just that morning she had told him how she really felt about the situation. And in all honesty he was. He did work hard, he was a decent guy at heart. He was just too honest some times and a complete jerk at others.
Take last weekend for example. Friday night he had been normal, except slightly edgy. Plus the fact he clipped his nails at least ten times that evening; everytime Kagome looked at him his nails were an inch or two longer than he usually kept them.
Saturday morning, he'd noticed something on the calendar --Kagome couldn't understand what he'd noticed other than it was the 11th of April in the year 1998-- and he immediately requested that he stay over at Shiina's house for the night.
Mama, being the caring loving soul she was, agreed and around 3 pm Inuki disappeared. The next morning he'd returned, looking as normal as ever with the exception he was exhausted. Kagome was incensed. Barely in school a week, having lived with them for that long at least and that idiot had partied all night!
And he still tended to stay up too long, thus the sleepiness today! How dare he slack off when he knew he had to work?!
*Bum,* she threw out again, *He's just lazy.*
Inuki appeared again, redressed, his face washed and his long hair rebraided. He yawned, the only sign that he was still sleepy, and Mama looked up at him. "Inuki-kun, it's still at 9 am tomorrow, right?" She glanced at the board, where "9 am" was still scribbled next to Inuki's name.
'The board' was the brand new dry erase board Mama had purchased to keep everyone's schedules straight. Inuki nodded and dug through his backpack, on the hunt for some elusive article.
He nodded. "It's an off-day because of the teachers' conference, so school won't be a problem. So yeah, still at 9." Mama nodded. "Will you still need me to come down for you?"
"Uh-huh... "
"Wait a sec, what's going on?" Kagome wondered, remember he had mentioned it yesterday. Mama smiled. "I have to sign some papers for Inuki-kun tomorrow."
"What kind of papers?" Kagome nosed, and Inuki glared at her. "Papers papers. Stay outta my business, brat."
Kagome flared instantly.
"Excuse me!? I am NOT a brat, you self-centered, egotisical, stubborn, stupid, JERK!" She gathered her stuff in one swoop and stomped up the stairs to her room, "All you ever think about is yourself and for all I care you can beat yourself unconscious!" Her voice faded and was complimented by a slamming door. Mama sighed. "Oh, Kagome-chan..."
To his credit, Inuki softened after Kagome had gone and looked at Mama. "Ms Higurashi, are you sure I shouldn't tell her now? She'll be pissed at me if I don't." Mama smiled. "Kagome-chan has this way of getting over things she doesn't like in the beginning. It's probably better to tell her afterwards."
Inuki sighed. "Why the hell does she hate me so much? She told me..." He blushed slightly, remembering what Kagome had told him that morning.
I would. It makes me happy to see you. And if you left... yes, I would miss you.
"Well according to what she told me, she doesn't hate me but still..." Mama put her hand on his shoulder, patting gently. "There are things about you that remind her of someone she loved. It's still hard for her."
"Oh... an ex, huh?" Inuki swallowed, his eyes narrowing, and he glanced back up the stairs. *So Higurashi...*
~*~
"Tadaima!"
Kagome leaned out to look in the hallway. At the door, Mama and Inuki were slipping off their shoes. Inuki looked neutral as always, but Mama looked quite happy.
"You were gone forever!!!" Kagome noted, "What kind of freaking papers were these?!" Mama smiled. "Courthouse hearings always take quite some time, Kagome-chan."
Kagome gawped. "C-c-c-COURTHOUSE?! Why were you there?!!" She stood up and glared at Inuki, poking him in the chest. "You UTTER JERK! It was that partying you did last Saturday!!! How DARE you go and get in trouble with the cops and then make my mother bail you out!!!! You're a guest in this house, not a family member!!!"
Inuki looked down at her coarsely, wondering why he had tried to be nice and appeal to her mother to tell her such huge news ahead of time, but with her response to it, accusing him of being in legal trouble-- that miffed him a little bit more than a lot. "I'm not trouble, baka onna," he growled, "I was making Higurashi-san my legal guardian."
Kagome's mouth dropped open. "What?"
"Today is Inuki-kun's 16th birthday!" Mama exclaimed, "He now has the right in court to claim whom he accepts as a legal guardian until his 18th birthday!"
Inuki sat down, snatching up a stray pickle from what was left of Kagome's sandwich. "I've been trying to appeal for a different guardian since I was 14, but you can't choose until you're 16. Shinomoto-san is my mother's lawyer and he represented my case for me. That was why I went to court today: to be released of my brother's custody." He glared at her. "Thanks SO much for being supportive."
Kagome softened, narrowing her eyes and trying to ignore his attempt at pulling a guilt trip. "Well why didn't you just TELL me. I have a right to know! This is my house too!"
Inuki looked at her, slightly wide-eyed, and then popped another stray pickle into his mouth. Sincerely he said, "You're right. You have a right to know." He grinned at her teasingly. "Higurashi, I'm you're mother's legal ward now. You're stuck with me for two more years."
Three veins popped out on Kagome's forehead. "YOU!!! You're annoying!" Inuki grabbed a tomato this time, and Kagome snatched the tomato and then the sandwich from him. "AND STOP EATING MY LUNCH!!"
"Well," began Mama, "Since it IS your birthday! Would you like to go out tonight?" Inuki looked up at her proposition and grinned. "Hey, yeah! That would be great, Ms. Higurashi!" Mama smiled in delight and then turned to her daughter. "Kagome-chan, since you know this part of town better than Inuki-kun, why don't you go with him?"
Kagome, secretly loving the idea of him being gone all night --first for play and then for work-- suddenly stopped, irked. "Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa! Wait!! I don't want to spend the rest of my day off with him!!"
Mama's face dropped into the basic disappointed-mother Look. "Kagome-chan, I thought you said you would try to get along with him. It disappoints me that you haven't." Mama sighed melodramatically.
Kagome growled a bit, mostly to herself, and finally said, "Fine, I'll take him out."
Instantaneously Mama turned back into herself. "Arigatou, Kagome-chan~! Oh look!! Tonight is the spring festival~!" She whipped out a paper flyer that she had been holding behind her back, and Kagome wondered if she had somehow set her up.
The teen growled again to herself. *Ma~ma~!*
~*~
"Okay, just to make sure you understand this totally and fully!" Kagome said defiantly, "I'm not here for you, it's because Mama asked me." Inuki slipped on his denim jacket, chuckling to himself. "Yeah yeah, whatever. More like she MADE you. You oughta be happy though!" Inuki said seriously, and Kagome glared at him. "Why?"
"You got a date with me~" Inuki teased, and Kagome blushed bright red. "This is NOT a date!" She roared, and Inuki laughed out loud. "Then why are you blushing?" the taller teenager asked cheerfully and Kagome pouted, crossing her arms. "Mou~!"
*It's not a date.* She insisted to herself as they walked down the street. For tonight the street had been blocked off; as Mama had pointed out, the annual spring family event was tonight, and in full swing. Midway games, bad music and booths handing off everything from foreign treats to native delicacies lined the sidewalks, and in the street itself, people meandered like lost sheep.
Personally Kagome loved festivals; she had ever since she was a child. But having to go with Inuki was like taking her little brother. Fortunately or unforunately (Kagome had yet to decide) Mama had tied that little monster at home with the promise of take-out pizza and rented movies.
And Kagome was stuck on a date with her live-in pig. *It's not a date,* she insisted to herself, *I am NOT on a date with this JERK! Besides, who would take a girlfriend to a festival as a date!*
Thwack.
Kagome's mouth dropped open. Oh, he SO did not just hit her?! She turned to him, fire blazing in her eyes. Inuki wasn't fazed, his hand slightly raised in the gesture of having just fluffed her on the hair. "You're so spaced out you're drooling on yourself," he explained. Kagome gasped and wiped the spit from her mouth and sighed. "What do you want to do first?"
Inuki grinned mischievously. "Heh heh~"
~*~
"You're pathetic," Kagome told the eating teenager, who was hunched over a bowl of ramen, much resembling a starving dog, and he glanced up at her. "What can I say, I love ramen. It's been my favorite since I was a baby. My mother used to add ramen flavoring to her breastmilk for me." He grinned triumphantly when Kagome squealed in disgust, and he waved a hand at her. "I'm just kidding, don't get your panties in a knot."
She grimaced as he returned to his bowl. "Would you at least *act* like you're HUMAN? I mean, we're in public!"
He sighed exaggeratedly and slowed his manic behavior, stopping every so often to open his bottle of Sprite and sip at it. He was halfway finished before he looked up at her. "You wanna go play some games next?"
"Yeah," Kagome said. She stood up, sighing. Just because she was stuck with him didn't mean she had to have a bad night. She was determined to have fun.
As with most festivals, the midway games were your basic, stupid games that were probably rigged to suck your of your money. The ring toss, dart throw, skee ball-- all that mess. Kagome KNEW that the games were set up to lose, but it didn't stop her from throwing a good deal of her money at it.
She had already lost a good $40 dollars on the games --she had a REALLY good time-- when she found something she knew she could win, regardless of the rigging.
Archery.
"Aaaah, MOU!!" she cried out, stamping her feet as she watched amateurs fling arrows into the ground, snap themselves with the bowstring, accidentally poke themselves in the eye with the arrow. "I wish I had known this one was here, I have this BEAT!"
Inuki snorted, having watched her lose her life's savings. He was pretty certain after the whole event that Higurashi wasn't good at anything except yelling at him. "Yeah ri~ight." He shifted his winnings to his other hip. He'd managed to beat the games despite the setup, and carried a bag of all sorts of candies and stuffed animals-- what he needed plush creatures for he hadn't decided yet.
Kagome turned on him, sticking one finger in his face and shaking it. "I could prove it if I had a dollar."
Inuki handed her a single dollar bill. "Prove it. But~ whatever you win you have to give to me."
"What?!" she demanded, "Why?!"
"It's my dollar bill," he pointed out.
Kagome sighed and turned to the owner anyway. She would show that jerk a thing or two. "I'll take one arrow, okay?"
"Just one?" he asked in surprise and she nodded. "One's all I'll need."
Kagome set the arrowhead to the bow and pulled back on the bowstring. Her hand wavered slightly, considering her purse hung off one arm and acted as a weight against her aim. There were four targets: one at 5 feet, another at 10 feet, another at 25 and the last at 50. She looked over the target she'd chosen and aimed to overshoot, to make up for the extra weight and the unbalanced aim she would have regardless of the shot.
Inuki stared. She was aiming a little too high, and for the red-and-white target that was farthest away, the 50 feet. "You'll never hit it, Higurashi," Inuki insisted, and Kagome tightened her shoulders, pulling her elbow in and her arm straightened. "I'll hit it. I never miss my mark anymore."
She let go.
In the instant she released it Inuki felt a jolt of deja vu go through his body. Instead of the navy patterned dress Higurashi was wearing, there was a bland green and white sailor style school uniform over her. She stood the same though, bow out in front of her, the other hand thrown back slightly with the recoil of the released bowstring. The same determined face.
And it was one of many he'd seen before.
As quickly as it had come, the vision was gone and with a sharp twang! the arrow flew and slammed directly into the center of the target. "Bullseye!" The booth owner roared, and some passersby who'd stopped to watch gave her a few cheers and applause. Inuki swallowed, trying to shake off the intensely cold feeling that had struck him when he saw it. *What...*
Kagome lowered the bow, and the owner grinned at her, pulling out the grand prize. "For you, miss. That was an amazing shot!"
Kagome graciously accepted it, bowing in thanks, and looked over her prize. A thin gold bracelet, very obviously a woman's. Without a doubt she wanted it, but then, she'd made that stupid bet with Inuki. Knowing him he would totally stick to it, regardless of the fact it was a woman's piece of jewelry.
She handed it to him, feigning indifference. "Here." When he didn't take it instantly, Kagome glanced up at him. He was staring at her in confusion. "In too much of a shocked silence to accept what I won for you?"
He shuddered slightly, as if he'd just woken from a daze, and reached out to take it finally, nodding as he did. "Sorry." He snapped the clasp closed and admired the way it hung from his left wrist. Then he grinned and was normal Inuki again. "Thanks!"
She stuck her tongue out. "Well you're welcome, whether you meant that or not."
By chance, Inuki glanced up, at the large clock tower in the middle of the square. 4:56 pm. He grimaced. "Ah shit~ I'm gonna be late for work if I don't hurry!"
He shoved his bag of goodies at Kagome and the surprised girl haphazardly took it. Inuki nodded at her. "Thanks for comin' with me and don't take any of my stuff!" He turned to run off, but then stopped. "Oh yeah," he murmured, almost like an afterthought, and then turned back.
He smiled the true smile she hardly ever saw on him. "That really was an awesome shot, Higurashi. I mean it." Kagome blushed slightly, and smiled then. "Thank you." He nodded, and turned again, running towards the bus stop. It was only just as he was out of sight that Kagome gasped as her own afterthought occurred to her. She took off after him, and caught up just as he was stepping onto the bus. "Yashagawa-kun!"
He turned back and glanced at her, eyes wide. She smiled brightly. "Happy birthday."
He grinned in thanks and flashed her a peace sign, and then stepped onto the bus. There was a winded whine as she bus' brakes disengaged and it pulled away. Kagome waited until she couldn't see it anymore before she turned back and headed back towards home, feeling strangely satisfied with herself.
~*~ To be continued ~*~
a/n :: Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! Fluff, yes? Hee hee~ As always, please review! Okie, ja~!
~*~ V^-^V ~*~
~Tessen