A/N: Ee! Thanks to everyone who reviewed, and please keep it up! Ha! I finally updated Curse of the Gypsy and I will update it again much quicker than last time. I also hope to get Safer on the Outside up sometime in the next week or so. Anyway, I'm very much in love with this story, and I'm pouring myself into this work. Enjoy chapter 4!
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, or any fairy tale for that matter. I just own a little notebook where everything that leaks out of my head is put. And Frank the Toaster, who makes my life worth living…
Unexpected
Chapter 4
With the aid of the frog and the fairy,
The maidens Kagome and Sango continued on,
Each had an important task to complete,
In order to help Kagura's tale end happily…
After a fruitless search at the mall, all Kagura wanted to do was go home but she managed a pit stop by the school to drop off Sango. As she promised, she was off to help Miroku and Inuyasha with their motorcycles. A St. John always kept their word; her father taught her that.
"I'll call you if I get any goods," she promised Kagome as she got out.
"Oh, God yes," Kagome laughed. "I'll be in hell while Ayame is gone, leaving me to run the store all by my lonesome."
"You'll be fine," Sango laughed as she waved.
"Bye!" Kagome and Kagura waved back.
"So," Kagura said casually. "What goods are the pair of you digging up?"
"On your potential date," Kagome said with a smirk. "We want to make sure he's 100% before we set him up with you."
"100% what? I'm afraid. Our definitions are never the same thing!"
"100% perfect," Kagome laughed. "If he's anything less, he's not good enough for you to go with."
"Well, that's true," Kagura smirked and nodded. That only caused Kagome to laugh harder.
Meanwhile, Sango sprinted toward the auto shop, stuffing her MP3 player back into her pocket. As expected, Inuyasha and Miroku were in the shop, bikes and tools laid out accordingly. The pair of them, streaked in grease and dressed in the shop coveralls, was arguing over what to start first.
"Hi, boys!" Sango called, making both of them jump. "I see I haven't missed much."
"You would have if Demon would stop being an ass and just help me get started on the brakes!" Inuyasha growled.
"We should work on the engines before starting on the brakes," Miroku argued. "Why bother stopping if you can't go, Grimm?"
Sango rolled her eyes and made her way over to the tall shop lockers. She shrugged off her leather jacket and stepped into one of the large jumpsuits she often wore while working in the shop, in order to protect her clothes from ruin. While the boys behind her argued some more, Sango went about her usual routine of stuffing her long fall of hair down the back of her shirt, then pulling on an old baseball cap—backwards of course—to protect her head. Grabbing a pair of goggles from one of the workbenches, she sauntered over to the two old bikes.
"Fuel lines are shot," she muttered, inspecting the rusted pipes and decaying wires. "Definitely need new mufflers… rust's eating through the metal. New tires too."
Getting back up, Sango strolled over to the shop teacher's desk. Mr. Myouga—or Myouga to his students—was a small man with a round body and a bald head. Still, he knew more about vehicles than anyone else in the school, and he put up with less than any other teacher. Wise, but strict. Sango adored him. As she rummaged through the top drawer of his desk, she found a pen and grabbed a clipboard from his workstation.
Walking back over to the bikes, she began jotting down a list of the work needed to be done on each bike. Eventually, Miroku and Inuyasha stopped arguing long enough to see what she was doing and wandered over. They hovered about, trying to read over her shoulder, but Sango only grinned and moved to block their view.
"You know," she commented. "I could buy a brand new Harley for the kind of work you'll have to put into these things." Both boys looked crestfallen. "It's a good thing you have me to walk you through it!"
Inuyasha smirked. "Getting a little full of yourself, aren't you, Sango?" he asked while crossing his arms over his chest.
"Haven't caught up to you yet, Grimm," she said with a playful wink of a lavender eye.
"What do we have to do?" Miroku butted in, grabbing the clipboard from Sango's hands.
"A lot!" she retorted, trying to grab it back from him.
His eyes widened as he read over the list, blood slowly draining from his face. "Are you serious? We have to do all of that?!"
"'Perfection doesn't come cheap'," Sango quoted.
"But I don't have the money to buy all these parts," he complained. "I bought this piece so I wouldn't have to spend my life savings giving my truck an overhaul."
"Then you wasted your money," she said simply. "These bikes are in a sad state and will require a lot of love to come back from the brink of death."
"I have an idea," Inuyasha stated. Sango and Miroku turned to stare at him blankly. He only scowled at them. "Don't give me that look! This doesn't involve frogs or anyone's shorts on the flagpole, okay?"
They just grinned sheepishly at him.
"Tell us your brilliant plan," Miroku said, hopping up onto one of the workbenches.
"We could convince old man Myouga to make these bikes our midterm or something, you know? A final grade. We could work on them in class; he'd supply the parts. We could do an entire overhaul."
"You know," Sango said with admiration. "You're not as dumb as people think you are."
"No, I am," he grinned. "I just hide it well."
She laughed; then snapped her fingers. "Before I forget, did you guys get me what I asked for?"
"You mean the 'mole work' on Sesshomaru?"
"Right-o."
"Yeah, we got it." Inuyasha grabbed up his backpack from his workstation, unzipping it in order to pull out a few sheets of paper. One of them had a stain that looked like coffee, and another was smudged with grease. She wasn't surprised, but she was when she began flipping through the scrawled information.
"Wow, you did good!" she exclaimed. Before her was a well-documented list of random facts, including every CD and DVD owned by Sesshomaru and his daily schedule printed from his Palm pilot.
"He was pretty distracted last night," Inuyasha commented. "It was surprisingly easy to get it all."
"Only one more thing I need," Sango said with a smile. "Then you two will officially have a mechanic to work on your bikes."
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Kagome sat behind the counter of the video store, tapping her nails on the wood in a fast rhythm. She was dressed in black pants, her red shirt emblazoned with "Starland Video" on the pocket, and the tag bearing her name. There was a small TV beneath the desk so that she could watch the surveillance camera in the back of the store in case of shoplifters. The register hummed next to her, waiting happily for the chance to ring up a rental or purchase.
She hated it when her boss left her alone in the store. Granted, the owner of the store rarely stepped foot into the building itself. Daisuke Montgomery owned half the businesses in town, including the dinner and the bank where Kagome's mother worked. It was little surprise that Kagome would work for the same man that her mother worked for, but it was surprising that she dated her boss's son.
Hojo was always trying to convince her to work less, or to quit her job all together, but she always refused. Her family needed the extra income, even if that meant less social time for Kagome. And working at the video store really wasn't so bad, at least not when Ayame was there.
Ayame Rei, the fiery redhead who often worked the register with Kagome, was her only friend at work. She was the kind of girl who could make a joke out of any situation, and find the good in any person. Kagome had taken an instant like to the girl, and they always tried to coordinate their schedules together, but when Kagome had asked for extra hours, she also inherited the lonely Saturday nights.
She was bored stiff, same as always. Usually she'd bring her homework and get it done in her free time, but by some fluke, she didn't receive any this weekend. Instead, she had brought a new romance novel with her to read in case of emergency, but hadn't the heart to pull it out just yet. She was, after all, only an hour into her shift. If she started reading now, what would she do for the next seven hours?
In her annoyance with the quiet, Kagome walked over to the radio in the corner, the one that fed into the store speakers. She quickly adjusted the dial so that some alternative rock music blasted into the empty isles. Normally, she'd play a lot of piano ballads, or soothing music, or even dance music, but tonight she felt like something to keep her energized. That was when the phone rang.
"Starland Video," she chirped with as much energy as she could.
"Kag, it's Sango!"
"Oh, San, thank God it's you!" Kagome said fervently. "I was contemplating death via osmosis."
Sango giggled a little, told someone behind her to shut up, then continued. "I've got some great news! The two idiots came through! We've got enough information on Sesshomaru to write a novel."
"Really?" Kagome asked, hands gripping the phone in rapture. "That's great! We can begin Plan B now!"
"Yup, we just gotta get the two of them together, you know?"
"Sango, come on!" a voice from the background yelled. "We have to get out of here."
"Duty calls," Sango sighed. "Boys are so impatient, you know?" There were a few grumbles from the background and Kagome had to laugh. "But here, let me give you Sesshomaru's number," Sango said, reading a number off quicker than Kagome could find a pen.
"Say that again! You talk to fast!" Sango repeated it and Kagome wrote the number on her hand. "Okay, see you later sweetness."
"Bye, Kag."
While contemplating calling Sesshomaru or not, Kagome dug into her backpack that contained her change of clothes and reading material. She had also brought her sketchbook, something she never left at home. Kagome never considered herself an artist because of her resentment in the title, but if she ever decided against a career in fashion, art was something she could fall back on. Laying the pad down on the counter, Kagome began drawing out an idea that had been stuck in her head for days. Drawing cleared her head, and before she knew it, she was reaching for the phone.
"Maybe I'll just give him a little buzz," she muttered while punching in the numbers. "It couldn't hurt to soften him up a little."
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Sesshomaru sat in his office, like he did almost every evening.
It was not as though he couldn't go out. Sure, sometimes he had to baby-sit his little sister, Rin, who was only eleven, but mostly he just didn't want to. Jakotsu and Bankotsu were always trying to get him to party with them, hang out recreationally and instead of on school time. Sometimes they even managed to wrench him from stacks of papers and out into the night, but only when he was really out of touch with his priorities. Of course, he would hardly participated in their debauched and depraved acts of teenage normalcy. He'd guard the car, if anything, since they always managed to take his Lexus.
It was not as though he couldn't get a date either. There had always been this or that girl who wanted him. Sesshomaru was in no way deaf or blind to how females looked at him. He had been blessed with an inborn male beauty, something he attributed to his father. But he was a man of vision, and had no time for high school romance.
At least, that was what he had always thought. Never would he admit to his fascination with Kagura Hart, not that anyone would ask. He had never met a more dedicated writer, or a more ingenious mind, not to mention the fact that she was pretty damn hot. He respected her, which was a rarity for him. Attraction was something unexpected and not entirely welcome. It interfered with his work, and his work was his life.
The last thing he needed right now was to be backed into a corner with a blind date. Much less a blind date with the one person in his school he'd actually consider dating. He was too swamped right now. With college applications and the newspaper and the intern work he was doing for his father, unlikely romance was at best… unlikely.
Still, even after he had dismissed all intentions of going through with the date—much to the dismay of his two friends—he still couldn't get any work done. He was simply sitting at his desk, watching the metal balls click together on their wires—the strange office knick-knack had been given to him by his younger brother as a Christmas gift. "Something to make the office look lived-in" was the exact term, if he remembered correctly.
So here he sat in his office, doing nothing but watch hours of his life tick away uselessly before him.
At least, that was until the phone next to him rang, knifing through the silence and making him jump in his chair. Momentarily disoriented, he groped for the receiver and brought it to his ear to stop the loud noise.
"Hello?" he muttered.
"Sesshomaru?" a distinctive female voice inquired.
"Yes," he said slowly, processing the voice. He knew that voice… but it couldn't be…
"Oh good! I caught you during your busy schedule of reading and filing." She laughed, and in that moment he knew exactly who it was.
"Kagome?"
"Wow! I'm impressed that you recognized my voice," she said with amusement.
"I would be lax in my duties if I forgot your voice," he retorted. "But I wasn't aware that you had this number."
"Truth be told, I just got it tonight," Kagome responded cheerfully. Oh, how she was enjoying this.
"And how, may I ask, did you come by it?"
"Oh no!" she laughed. "I'm not divulging my sources. Really, a paper man of your caliber asking me to break my journalistic oath and reveal a source?"
She was just mocking him now, and that was beginning to annoy him. "Kagome…" He used his warning tone, the one that clearly conveyed that if she had a point, she'd better make it fast.
Kagome sighed, placing her pencil down and shoving the sketchpad under the counter. The door chime had sounded, signaling the entrance of a customer. Naturally, she had to act with some decorum. "Out of curiosity, have you talked to Jakotsu or Bankotsu recently?"
Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes at the phone. "Yesterday as a matter of fact. Why?"
"Did they, by chance, mention Homecoming to you?" There was a certain innocence in her voice, but he knew where she was going. She was one of the 'friends' that Bankotsu had mentioned, in regards to his escorting Kagura to the dance.
"Kagome, please tell me that you had nothing to do with this blind date…"
She smiled to herself. His voice was flat, but she thought she could just make out a hint of anxiety. "Sorry, but I am. And it's not a blind date. All you have to do is take her to the dance, nothing else. You don't even have to take her home! I swear, there will be no touching involved!"
Kagome turned around as she saw the customer approach the counter. He was a boy about her age, maybe half a foot taller that herself, with a backwards baseball cap over his head and a long brown duster. What struck her as strange was that he was wearing sunglasses—even though it had been dark for nearly an hour. Mentally, Kagome rolled her eyes. It was obviously some stunt to look cool.
"Hold on a second," she said to Sesshomaru, catching the phone between her shoulder and the side of her head when her costumer reached the counter. "Welcome to Starland Video," she chirped in her usual salesgirl voice, smiling falsely. "I hope you found everything you needed."
"Uh-huh," he muttered dismissively, tossing a DVD and a video game on to the counter.
"Kagome, are you at work?" Sesshomaru asked into her ear.
"Yeah, girl's gotta earn her money somewhere, right?" Kagome laughed while she typed a few buttons into her computer, multitasking like a pro.
"Won't you get into trouble?"
"No, my boss is never here, so it doesn't really matter," she told him while grabbing at the scanner. "Soul Caliber 2," she commented to her customer while scanning the case into her computer. "Excellent choice."
"Whatever," he said with annoyance. "I don't mean to interrupt your phone call or anything, but can you hurry it up?"
Kagome had to struggle to keep her false smile in place. "Yes sir, just give me a minute."
That's when the door opened and the small bell chimed, announcing another costumer. This was another teenaged boy, who scanned the area before catching sight of Kagome's customer. "Grimm, man, hurry up! I'm going to start chewing on your car seats if we don't get to some food!"
"Chill, Demon," the one called Grimm barked. He turned back to Kagome with a frown. "Can I go yet?"
"That'll be $11.56," Kagome said with a frown of her own, handing the two disks over. "They're both due back next Sunday, by noon."
He tossed a wad of crumpled bills on the counter. "Keep the change, that way you can pay for the rest of your phone call." Then, he stalked out of the store.
Kagome scowled. "Bite me, jackass," she muttered, counting out the $12 of her sale and tossing it into the register.
"Rough night?" Sesshomaru asked, carefully veiled amusement in his tone.
"Annoying costumers," she responded. Then she forcibly brightened her mood. "Tell me you'll take her, please? I'm going, so it's not like you'll even have to dance with her if you don't want to. I can spirit her away!"
"I seriously don't know about this..." Sesshomaru had removed his glasses and began chewing on one of the tips—a nervous habit he had been trying to break for quite some time.
"Why Sesshomaru Reaper," Kagome declared with a wicked grin that he couldn't see. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you were scared!"
That made him bristle with indignation. Male pride suffered nothing more fiercely than when a woman insulted his bravery, and Kagome knew that well. "I am not afraid," he said calmly, collected.
"Prove it," she dared.
"I don't have to prove anything to you," he said just as calmly. It was true, and Kagome was momentarily stumped. Then she smiled again.
"Prove it to her."
There was a long pause on both ends of the line until finally, "I'm going to regret this; I feel it in my bones."
"So you'll do it? Yay!" Kagome cheered.
Sesshomaru grumbled somewhat to himself. "Go back to work. We'll talk again."
"Okay, say hi to Rin for me!"
With that he hung up, and Kagome was no longer quite as bored when she resumed her post at the counter.
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Kagura had a bad feeling about this.
It wasn't one of those nervous or jittery feelings, like when you were about to take the first plunge on a roller coaster, or one of those numb, bad feelings where you're waiting for something to jump out at you in a haunted house. This was one of those pit-of-your-stomach bad feelings. The kind you get when you ask your stepsister and her best friend to find a date for you to the school Homecoming dance.
And they actually find a date.
"Do I know him?" she asked as they strolled down the hallway Monday morning.
"Yes," Sango said with a firm nod. She had taken charge as soon as the pair of them announced their intentions. They were going to introduce Kagura to her date that morning, in the hopes of setting up few 'rendezvous' as Kagome called them. That way, everything would be worked out.
"Does he know me?" she asked, feeling a little too nervous.
"Yes," Kagome reassured her, patting her arm and smiling softly.
"I'm having second thoughts about this…" she said, digging in her heels.
"Too late," Sango said with a frown, tugging her along by the iron-grip she had on Kagura's elbow. "We went through a lot of trouble to set this up. I thought you wanted Naraku to notice you?"
"I do!" she said firmly. "I just… maybe I can do it some other way. I mean, using a guy like this…"
"You shouldn't have asked us to help then," Kagome said matter-of-factly. "'Cuz he's coming this way."
Kagura looked all around, trying to find someone the two girls beside her might have decided to hook her up with. So far, she found no one up to par. "Where is he?" she asked, swiveling her head around.
"There," Sango pointed.
Kagura's jaw dropped as she saw her stepsister point at none other than Sesshomaru Reaper, exiting the newspaper office casually. For the first time in her life, Kagura Hart was speechless. That in itself was not a good sign at all.
A/N: Yay! Chapter 4 is done! Thank you to my editor for giving me a good tip for the Inuyasha/Kagome situation—there will be a few more brief encounters between the two of them where they have no idea who the other is. Please remember to review—and read my other stuff! (Shameless plug, but who cares!)