Between The Lines
Summary: Sometimes the lines between love and friendship disappears.
By: Maggz
Disclaimer: I'm just a poor woman with an overactive imagination. InuYasha and Co. © Rumiko Takahashi
Author Note:
Hello everybody
What has been going on with my life, you must be wondering. Well, things haven't come out exactly as I expected... I've been sick and I lost my job a couple of days ago. But I have to go on... and thanks to the support of my friends and my family I'm getting over it already. The good thing is that at least I'll have more time to rest and work on my stories 'til I find a new job.
As you know I've been working on Innocent Beginnings; but apart from it- and some new projects in spanish (with my friends Leslie and Poodlez), I've been dedicated to revise my other published stories; and as a result some of them are in edition process right now. The truth is that after checking them again, my point of view has changed, and therefore the result doesn't satisfy me as much as it did before. It's the life of a writer, constantly coming up with new ideas...
Now is No Strings Attached turn, which has been thru an intense revision and edition process, generating significant changes in the plot, and also in the characters. Some things will remain the as they were in the original version, you will notice this as the story develops. Some others will change and new ones will be added. Along with these I'd like to mention:
The title changes from No Strings Attached to Between The Lines.
It's no longer a Kouga/OC pairing and becomes an InuYasha/Kagome/Kouga
As you can see in my previous stories, InuYasha has always been human but keeping his hanyou characteristics (silver hair, amber eyes). Nevertheless, in this one he's still human, but just like he looks in the original series when he's in human form: black hair, violet eyes.
I think that those are the most important just now. Besides, this story will keep its comical tone. I guess it's the best after all the drama we had in WHWM.
Well, enough rambling...
Enjoy the story...
Chapter 1
"Kagome, why are you sitting there looking out the window like that?" InuYasha asked as he tugged on the end of her ponytail. She looked away from the window and up at him, sticking out her tongue before answering him.
"I'm thinking, InuYasha. Maybe you should try that sometime." she said.
"We both know I'm no good at thinking... better at DOING!" he grinned and flopped down in the chair with her. She scrunched herself up into the corner of the big chair to make room for the two of them and sighed, resting her chin on her crossed arms.
"I thought you had research to do." InuYasha said, laying his head against the back of the chair in order to get a good look at her face.
"I do. I just... don't want to.", she said.
"What's the problem?", he asked.
"I've no idea who or what to use as my subject for this last grade, InuYasha. I've gone over it and over it a thousand times and can't make my mind up. It must be PERFECT! 80% of my final grade depends on it.", she said.
"So? You said you needed a subject to draw, right?" he asked, leaning back a little further to look at her. She nodded, not taking her eyes off the scene beyond the closed window. "So draw me!" he said, spreading his hands wide and smiling.
She didn't take the bait. They'd been down that road before.
"Kagome? Earth to Kagome? Did you hear me? I said draw ME!" he said and pulled his big feet up in the chair, turning toward her.
"InuYasha... I... NO! And I'm not discussing this with you again. Just leave it alone. I'll figure something out.", she said and with a huff of breath, turned in the chair and scrambled over his lap. He watched her go, his face a mixture of confusion and amusement. Were all women this complicated? Surely not!
He got up from the chair and followed her into the kitchen, leaning against the fridge as he watched her pull a box of cereal from the cupboard.
"I told you, you wouldn't have to PAY me. I'd be cheap work and I'm not at all ashamed of my body!" he grinned in spite of himself, scratching his tummy underneath his t-shirt.
"...Now THAT is the understatement of the year if I ever heard it, InuYasha... PULEEZE!" she frowned and walked toward him, bowl in hand.
"Well, it's true. Where in the world are you gonna find somebody willing to take their clothes off just so you can draw them? Tell me! Just how do you approach somebody and ask him or her that?" he said as he dipped a finger into her bowl and grabbed a cornflake.
She handed him the bowl and looked pointedly at the fridge door. He moved.
"You don't just go up and ASK somebody, InuYasha. Students are available to DO it. I just can't find one that I WANT to sketch is all.", she said as she grabbed the milk carton and turned around. InuYasha held out the cereal bowl and looked at her as she frowned, pouring the milk.
"Why do you have to be so damned hard to please?" he grumbled. "What's wrong with ME? Why won't you draw me?" he asked her.
She capped the milk, took a breath and looked up at him.
"It's called 'sketching', InuYasha. And nothing is wrong with you. Nothing it at all. It's... it's ME. I just can't... no, I won't get into this with you again. Don't PUSH it!" she said and grabbed the bowl from him as she pushed the milk carton into his now empty hand.
"And for your information I am NOT hard to please, just very discriminating!" she said and walked past him and back toward her bedroom.
She sat down at her desk and spooned cereal into her mouth, not really tasting anything- but the rumble of her stomach earlier had insisted on being fed and this was as close as she was going to come. She was worried. Her entire grade depended on this one project and well, maybe InuYasha was right. Maybe she was just too hard to please, maybe she should relent and just sketch anybody. She took another bite of cereal and shook her head.
"No, can't do it. If I don't FEEL it, I can't DRAW it. I'll just do some people watching and see what I come up with. ", she mumbled around the cereal.
She heard the stereo come on in InuYasha's room and smiled...
"Bless his heart he tries. He just doesn't get it...", she thought as she finished up. Taking the empty bowl, she went back into the kitchen and slid it into the dishwasher. She walked back down the hallway and knocked on his door, opening it just a crack and peeking in.
"Since when do YOU knock?", he asked as he zipped up his jeans and reached for a clean shirt.
"InuYasha, I'm sorry. Don't be mad, OK?", she asked.
"Mad? I'm not mad, Kagome. I just don't understand you, but then again I never did.", he said as he pulled the shirt over his head and grabbed his shoes. Plopping down onto his bed, he slid one foot in and looked up at her.
"Don't look at me like that, you know it's true. I heard it often enough and don't say I didn't.", he said as he tied the lace and picked up the other shoe.
"Been there and done that, InuYasha.", she said with a lopsided grin and sat down next to him on the bed as he tied the other shoe.
"Yeah, I know... Sorry.", he said, smiling quickly at her and putting his arm around her shoulders.
"Want to go people-watch with me tomorrow by any chance?", she asked, wrinkling her nose.
"And again I wanna ask you. Just HOW do you propose to go up to some total stranger and ask if you can draw- I mean, SKETCH them?", he asked her as he stood up and grabbed his wallet, pushing it into his back pocket.
"Excuse me, Sir. I'm an artist. I've a project I'm working on and I'd like to ask you if I can DRAW you?", InuYasha teased in a high falsetto voice and grinned at her as he continued. "Oh yeah, I forgot. For the last sketch... SKETCH... you must be totally naked!", he laughed and ducked when she picked up his discarded t-shirt, balled it up and threw it at him.
"Something will come along, InuYasha. You just wait and see. Or somebody...", she said.
"Yeah, yeah... whatever.", he said, running a hand through his hair. "I'll bet you I can find one for you before YOU find one!", he challenged and she saw the glint of mischief in his eyes.
"NO... not one of your friends, InuYasha. I mean it. I will NOT be put through that.", she said with a laugh as he stuck out his hand to pull her up off the bed.
"You might just be surprised, little girl.", he said. "I've got a few ideas..."
"Oh God! That always means trouble!", she laughed and followed him from the room.
"I'll be back later. Don't wait up for me, Baby!", he grinned, watching her as she walked to the sofa and sat down in front of the TV.
"Don't get too drunk. I mean it!", she said, her eyes already glued to the screen.
"Mmmm...", he mumbled and grabbed his keys, closing the door and locking it behind him.