By Psychocynic
...and her younger sister SexyBod
Disclaimer: Inuyasha and it's characters do not belong to me, though everything else (including Potato Palace and the original story) belongs to me.
AN: Sorry it's late. A certain SexyBod had not helped me for this chapter, being now that she is sooo interested in Sailor Moon again. insert glare This chapter was also quite hard being that quite a few things had to be wrapped up. This is the last chapter of Part 1, Dreams Not Over. The story is NOT ending, though. Anyways, me and SexyBod now have another project. Remember a while ago, when we mentioned Summer Snack Shop? Yeah, well, you can go look for it now under SexyBod's name this time! APOPP is in my file, so it's only fair that SSS is in SexyBod's file!!! I also have a new, more serious story, written by myself this time, Wish Anything! Go read and review it!!! And I tried answering a few reviews by email, but I'm lazy and it doesn't work out too well.
Now, on to the story!
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Chapter Eight
Dreams Not Over
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The fickle rain had stopped yet again, and would probably continue later. What was it's problem?! Though, even after the rain, the summer sky at night was still quite bright. The fat black clouds shifted an inch, and the moon and the still-refusing-to-set sun showered it's light below and illuminated a certain youth...
Inuyasha was unhappily splashing thick, sticky black paint onto the sides of his car.
He knew he had to do it.
Otherwise suffer the consequences of a speeding ticket, compensation for damages done, Father's wrath...
He did not have a million dollars to spare.
He did not have 15 years of his youth to waste.
His hot beautiful desirable gorgeous sexy stunning delightful tasty yummy red convertible seemed like a reasonable exchange.
Yes, despite how much he wanted to keep it - to drive it - to kiss it - to touch it - to love it - to run over those reporters with it.
So he had to continue standing here covering his car in tar.
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Nearby, Sesshoumaru was feverishly scraping through the contents of the storage room, the one which the potato peeler had not-so-carefully crashed into, for any color of paint other than red. He had found a bucket of black stuff earlier, which he had handed over to his brother.
Inuyasha seemed to be rather cooperative, though. Too cooperative.
Sesshoumaru turned his head a moment to wonder at how Inuyasha was taking this. For in Inuyasha's eyes, anything short of painting a red convertible black was absolutely sacreligious. A terrible taboo. How could he bear this? Sesshoumaru had almost a flash of pity. Almost.
But when he turned, he saw that Inuyasha had a hand in the can trying to DIG the sludge out. Huh?
It was either dried-out, or... it wasn't paint at all.
He watched as Inuyasha, with a mighty effort, unstuck a glob of black gum and smacked it on the unpainted side of his car.
It stuck.
Inuyasha poked it. The blob did not budge. Inuyasha got his finger stuck in it. He pulled. Said finger was covered in web-like threads. Was this stuff paint at all?!
He highly doubted it.
Sesshoumaru watched, amused, and turned to continue his search. A while later, he hit the jackpot.
A jug, with watery dark liquid in it? Sesshoumaru poured a bit of it on the ground, and it was black. Good. But it did smell weird, though... Well, you put two and two together. Thick black goo, and thin black soup. Mix it up, and ta-da!
And that is exactly what they did.
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Meanwhile, a certain potato peeler looked out the window, saw her goal, jumped out happily and ready to rejoin them and eagerly offer some help, until she looked down and realized that it was the second floor.
And it wasn't the least of her problems yet. Kagome was still wearing her Potato Palace Uniform. And it was a skirt.
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"KYAAAAAAA-!!!"
Sesshoumaru looked up in time to see a parachute that looked suspiciously like a Potato Palace uniform and a pair of panties and legs attached dropping down with speed too great for something that was supposed to slow falling things. The passenger of the said parachute bounced like a rubber ball a few times before the brown cloth mushroom settled down, revealing that it was indeed a peeler's uniform and that the dreadfully clingy potato girl was back.
Sesshoumaru cringed.
He SO wanted to spray her with pesticide.
He turned away, away from the eager peeler and focused on trying to successfully coat the car with the strange but satisfyingly dark enough substance. Nearby, Inuyasha wiped his hands on the wall of the storage room and made his way back into the house, hopping on various trashcans and rooftops in order to reach his destination. Probably gone to grab their stuff and the rest of his gaudy garb.
So the remaining Yaseishin brother sighed and continued to 'paint' as he wearily anticipated his departure from the parasitic peeler, who was excitedly hopping around him in circles and chirping her delight at having found them again, made no comment as she wondered aloud on where his brother had gone, politely and patiently said nothing as she babbled enthusiastically about the crazy news on TV, endured the annoying-ness of her asking tearfully if he and Inuyasha were going to leave soon, and then putting in that if so was the case, she hoped to see them again, and if that peeler didn't stop talking soon Sesshoumaru felt like he would explode of exasperation until...
"Nee... Why are you painting that car with bean paste and soy sauce?"
WHAAAAAAAT???!!!!!!
They had been "painting" with bean paste and soy sauce?! Okay, that would explain the strange smell and consistency... and since most bean paste isn't ink-black and slimy, he would assume that the bean paste had gone bad and come to think of it, there was an inch-thick layer of dust (which he hadn't paid much attention to, because aged paint didn't matter too much) on the jug of soy sauce, thus leading to the conclusion that it was rotten too, and the stench would probably never wash off his hands, let alone the convertible... Why did they even believe for an instant that paint could be found in this decrepit old shack and that anything could possibly go right at the living quarters of the "thing" that had landed them in this fiasco in the first place?!
Terrible though it was, it still was a VERY good thing that Inuyasha had not been there at that moment.
Sesshoumaru barely had enough time to react to this shocking proclamation as the aforementioned Inuyasha appeared in the window just then, right on cue, with all his crazy crimson clothes stuffed amazingly into that tiny book-sized suitcase of his. He then leapt down from the windowsill, again using several roofs and old boxes as an assorted stairway, hopped into the car's front seat, crammed in the key, and the engine started to roar as Inuyasha motioned with his hand for Sesshoumaru to get in too.
The potato peeler made a beeline for the convertible as well.
Uh-oh.
Seeing this, Sesshoumaru hastily signalled to Inuyasha to drive away first, and FAST.
He could easily catch up earlier, and besides, the last thing he needed was for the girl to find out where they lived.
Inuyasha gave a casual nod towards his brother, looked sadly at the blemishing black on his prized and beloved once-red car, glared at the potato peeler with obvious disgust, and barreled off through the debris of the wall previously crashed through by the aforementioned potato peeler.
The girl looked wistfully after his brother's departure, and Sesshoumaru almost felt a pang of guilt until she turned to focus her infatuation upon him instead.
Needless to say, he ran for it.
Or flew.
But few words could describe the grace in the way he sort of weightlessly took to the air as the snowy white kimono fluttered charmingly after him, as auric eyes wandered behind in a reflexive backwards glance before he leapt onto the moonlit rooftop.
Then, as if whisked away by the very wind itself, he vanished in a blur of movement, and leaving unbeknownest to him, a potato peeler that looked now a thousand times more woebegone than when Inuyasha had left.
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Meanwhile, Inuyasha slowed down the speed after driving what seemed enough distance between him and that Potato Palace worker.
Whew!
He heard a few footsteps sounding his way.
Oh no... did the potato peeler follow him? He had made sure to drive at 77 miles an hour!
He slowly swiveled his head around, cautious but sure that she couldn't POSSIBLY have done so.
After all that driving in weird twists and turns, through run-down alleyways and secret detours, slowing and speeding in various patterns, looping around several blocks and over wheelchaired old ladies, charging into various fast-food drive-thrus, and completely tearing through the local park. Surely she could not have...?
His neck turned in steady increments of 2 degrees.
He braced himself for the attack.
He sent a silent last prayer towards God above.
It turned out to be an old man out for a late jog.
Inuyasha did a comical fall, and bumped his nose on the steering wheel.
Okay, he thought, he'd been cursed enough today. A guy could not have endless bad luck for a day; it had to have ran out already!!!
Yes, Inuyasha thought with new meaning, it is over for now, nothing else could happen-
A loud crack was heard as a figure landed on the back of Inuyasha's head, and then lightly bounded into the back seat.
Inuyasha tearfully turned around to glare indignantly at the new arriver, who happened to be Sesshoumaru. His brother leaned back casually in the patent leather seats and buckled the belt. He looked up and offered a half-hearted wave, and a drawling "Yo, Yasha."
Inuyasha sniffed. It was about time anyway, considering the inhuman speed his brother possessed, but, there still was no need to land on him!
Inuyasha thumbed his nose, sighed, and gritted his teeth, suffering through Sesshoumaru's barks to hit the road already and a serious battle of control.
NOW nothing would happen to him alright! It is now-
A sunglass-sporting police officer rode up to the driver's side on a bicycle, and looked Inuyasha over.
"Hmmmm," he said matter-of-factly, stroking his chin and scanning over the convertible.
Inuyasha stared at him in horror. Oh no... he knew. The police had caught him for his freeway rampage from earlier on.
After all he'd been through already...
The potato peeler didn't get him but now a stinking police officer did...
And he'd sacrificed his darling car to a black and muddy-looking disguise...
All for nothing...
"What's with this weird stuff on your car? It smells like shit." the policeman asked good-naturedly, wrinkling his nose.
Inuyasha twitched, and Sesshoumaru, seeing that Inuyasha would be less than articulate about the sore subject of the filth on his car, took matters into his own hands.
Sesshoumaru gave his brother a persistant shove to unstick the latter's petrified position, glared contemptuously at the startled cop and left him a nasty comment about how he was probably smelling himself, and Inuyasha didn't even bother wasting a second to take the chance and whoosh away.
And they were gone with the wind...
...and left a very disgruntled looking cop in their wake, covered from head to toe in the bean paste and soy sauce which blew off from the speed of the accelerating car.
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At Potato Palace...
A certain tasteless brown-suit-clad man strolled through the hallways on a last check-up of all the low-level departments.
He sighed.
If only he'd be promoted to the position of the revered Mr. Potato Head... but noooo, the Yaseishin brothers-loved- squishing him down low...
Inuyasha, that turd... always pounding him with one of those heavy wooden mallets used for mashing potatoes, commenting all the while that he looked like a potato anyway in those raggy-looking brown clothes, knowing that he, a low-status boss, could not strike back, then yelling for a group of peelers to haul him away...
Sesshoumaru, that bastard... always tossing him out to do humiliating janitor jobs along with that disgusting booger, Jaken, and then kicking them both into the trash dumpsters as if he, Kouga, was of the same snot as the sorry little wart...
If only he'd had a chance...
(If only he knew that chance would reveal itself soon.)
And all of a sudden, a dark and eerie shadow emerged from the looming black.
Kouga looked at the shadow... and the shadow looked at him...
(-whoosh- -insert dramatic sweep of wind-)
And the said shadow sneezed and shuffled into the light, squat and extremely grubby.
It was a janitor clutching a mop.
"Oh-! Mr. Kouga-!" he sobbed.
"Hmm?" Kouga scoffed, while at the same time patting his heart in both shock and relief that it had only been the janitor, dirty old yucky Jaken.
Jaken was looking quite woe-ridden, wheezing and breathing as though he'd just contracted emphysema.
"Why haven't you locked up already and gone home?"
"I... I c-can't!!" he said, his voice sounding progressively higher with each syllable, like he'd puffed in a balloonfull of helium.
"Oh? Why not?" Kouga said, looking skeptical.
"I c-can't l-leave until ev-every-th-thing's wuh-wrapped uh-uh-up!" the be-questioned janitor hiccupped, gripping his mop still tighter.
"And...?"
"I'm missing a potato peeler, both Mr. Potato Heads, and 200 potatoes!!!" Jaken flailed the mop about, stutters gone, sounding quite hysterical now.
"200 potatoes? Oooh, that potato peeler's gonna get skinned by Sesshoumaru..." Kouga muttered to himself, forgetting the fact that he had been the very one to order the peelers out in the first place, "...and WAIT. Did you just say that the despicable Yaseishin brothers have gone MISSING?"
"Oh- yes, Mister. The business meeting should not have taken so long, so I had Mr. Miroku make a call, and it turns out that Sesshoumaru-sama and Inuyasha-sama never even turned up at the appointed restaurant."
Kouga looked like he was going to propose to the toad-like janitor, so full of a barely-contained exhilirating feeling was he.
"Thank you. You may leave now, Jaken." With those words, Kouga marched off in an erratic fashion (right arm and leg moving in unision, and vice-versa), lunatically laughing his ponytail off, leaving an astonished-looking janitor and a mop behind.
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And lastly, to finish tangling up the day resembling a hairball that has been redundantly worked up some more...
"WHAT?!!! You LEFT my CLOTHES at THAT girl's HOUSE?!!!!" Sesshoumaru exploded, temporarily disabling Inuyasha's eardrums for at least a couple of hours.
"So what?!!! It's my clashy flashy red suit that we should be worrying about!!! That idiot girl must have stolen them!" Somehow, the supposed-to-be-deaf eardrums were working quite fine (or maybe Inuyasha could lipread).
"WHO'D WANT THAT SUIT?!?!?!"
"HEY!!! It's all YOUR fault you have bad taste in females!!! She's YOUR girl, so YOU go and take care of it!!!"
Sesshoumaru snorted. "I don't even know her NAME, Inuyasha. You have amazingly poor powers of deduction. And I am never going back, EVER, hear?!?! If you want to retrieve your ugly suit, do it without my involvement."
If it was anybody else, the conversation was obviously over. However, Inuyasha was his brother and Sesshoumaru could never hope to get rid of him.
"Keh. As if you weren't planning all this mess simply to get-" Inuyasha was cut off with a murderous growl.
Inuyasha, upon hearing his moody brother loudly cracking his knuckles, hastily steered their conversation back on track, something more G-rated.
"Anyways, AT LEAST I got your suitcase too!"
"I was under the impression that you had gotten everything," Sesshoumaru snarled, his lethal fangs flashing viciously as he weighed emphasis on the last word.
"Yo there, calm down. At least we got away." To the two brothers, this fact was valued high above everything else.
"Yes... At the very least."
The brothers seemed to at last arrive at an agreement, but their yelling had alerted THE Ultimate Mr. Potato Head that his two meeting-skipping sons had come home.
Uh-Oh.
Not to mention that they now could not go back to that potato peeler's house. Her very presence had deeply traumatized the both of them, especially Sesshoumaru.
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Sometimes crazy things happen
Even when you just want to have a little fun
But if you wait a little while
You'll realize that the stuff has just begun