A/N: Thanks to my beta, Fantastical Queen Ebony Black, this chapter is out quick. Thank her!
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10 Things You Hate About Me
Chapter 4: Patronizing!
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They walked through the thick weekend crowd, and took a seat at the bar due to their feeling of being out of place.
The band playing was pretty good, but Renkotsu wasn't that fond of girl-rock. He looked through the crowd and saw the two sisters walking towards the bar where he and his comrade were sitting. They finally made it through and Tsubaki ordered two waters from the bartender.
"Fancy seeing you here…" he noted vaguely.
Tsubaki's eyes hardened in a glare as she turned to the speaker. "What the hell are you doing here?"
He shifted a little. "Watching the band," he replied calmly.
Tsubaki looked over his head and found that her sister was…occupying herself with a conversation. What a traitor!
"Are you two stalking us or some shit?" she asked suspiciously.
"I was wondering… Hiten's having a party tomorrow night, wanna come?" he asked, changing the topic.
Tsubaki turned to leave. "Hmm…"
"Is that a yes?" he asked over the crowd.
"No!" she called back.
"Then it's a no?"
"No!" she repeated, smiling victoriously to herself.
Renkotsu shook his head in what might have been bafflement. Girls were just too…high maintenance and whiny for him sometimes.
Finally after a little while, he decided he wanted to leave. So…well, they left.
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Kagome had to laugh to herself when she told Sango about Naraku inviting her to Hiten's party and her accidentally shooting Mr. Toutou-sai in the butt during archery. She felt bad, but it still was kind of funny.
"Do you want to try to sneak down to get to the party before your grandfather knows?" Sango asked her.
She nodded and they crept down the steps and across the entryway to the front door.
"Wait! And WHERE might you two be going?" Grandpa Higurashi asked, coming out of the shadows with his hands on his hips.
"A small study group with a close bundle of friends?" Sango replied, trying to sound convincing.
"Otherwise known as an orgy?"
Kagome shook her head. "Gramps its just a party!" she whined.
"Are your sisters going?" he asked them testily.
Kagome and Sango looked at each other with disappointment clearly on their faces.
"No…but…" Kagome started hopelessly.
Tsubaki and Kikyou walked in, having just gotten home from work.
"You two know anything about a party?" their grandfather asked them warily.
"No," Tsubaki lied, shaking her head.
Kagome bit her lip, eyes narrowing. "You two do know about it! Why won't you just go so I can have some fun?"
Tsubaki looked at Kikyou and they shrugged.
"Please go? For your little sister?"
The elder of them rolled her teal eyes in disdain, giving in, though not for her youngest sister. "Fine, we'll make an appearance."
"Yay!" Kagome hugged each of her sisters and Tsubaki grabbed her coat, heading for the door. She opened it and, who would be standing there?
"I'm driving," she snapped at him, scowling.
Renkotsu pulled out his keys and handed them to Suikotsu. "Then you can take my car."
The four of them walked out, the two younger girls trailing behind. Those two jumped into Sango's car, and they all drove off.
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The party was goign full force by the time they got there, filled with drinking, smoking and horrible over-played pop music. Tsubaki looked around for Kikyou, but she had disappeared from sight. She had probably taken one look in and fled.
"Hey kitty-kitty, your little sister here?"
Tsubaki turned around with a glare. "You stay away from my sister," she snapped.
"I'll stay away from her, but I can't guarantee she'll stay away from me," Naraku said, walking backwards through the crowd.
Tsubaki glared, grabbing a shot off the tray another of the many cretins that was prowling around, gulping it down easily.
"Right on sister," the guy said, nodding.
"What are you doing?"
Uh-oh, Mr. Stick-up-the-ass had found her. She rolled her eyes.
"Getting smashed, man, isn't that what your supposed to do at a party!" she retorted vehemently, grabbing two more shots and gulping them down.
"I dunno, I always said 'do what you want'," he replied coolly.
Her glare lightened. "Funny, you're the only one!" she called walking through the crowd, walking by a familiar sight; Naraku, with Kagome in tow.
"Kagome," she hissed, grabbing her arm.
"Stop it! I'm trying to be normal for once, just please, please don't ruin it," Kagome replied softly, turning back to her idiotic escort. Naraku gave her a mockingly apologetic smirk and they turned away.
And Tsubaki was not above getting drunk at a party, not her, a few more swings of tequila and…
…She was table dancing, and then she passed out. And Sir-Renkotsu-of-the-assholes had to catch her. And then they were outside. This had all happened too fast for her dulled senses.
"This is so patronizing…" she said pulling away from Renkotsu and crawling up the hill on her own, only to stumble after a moment.
"Do you have to be so stubborn?"
"Do you have to be convinced that just become I'm drunk I'm some dependent shmoo who needs your help?" she asked as they finally got all the way up the hill, to swings. They might have been Hiten's little sisters' but right now they were occupied by two less-than-sober teenagers.
Or one sober teenager and one smashed one.
"Why are you helping me? You don't care if I choke on my own vomit or whatever…" Tsubaki muttered.
"Actually, I'd preferred it if you did live," he replied vaguely.
"Why?"
"Because then I'd have to go out with someone who actually, I dunno, likes me," he informed her with a kind of discreet sarcasm.
"Oh, like you could find someone." She rolled her eyes.
"See? Who needs affection when I have blind hatred?" he said, making an example of her retort.
Tsubaki looked up at him. "Maybe you aren't so horrid…" she murmured through her drunken stupor. But then she felt the tequila rising in her throat, so instinctively she looked down…
…And puked on his shoes. Well, he moved them after a second of initial shock- or disgust- or both. But he sat there until she finished. A remotely nice gesture in Tsubaki's mind.
Needless to say, Kagome wasn't having the same luck. She was troubled by the fact that her sister might have had something important to say and she blew her off like that.
"Naraku, I want to go home," she muttered miserably.
"But there's so much party left!"
"I want to go home!" she said forcing his arm off her shoulders and walking away from the taller male.
She walked past a familiar silver-haired figure who, like her, looked about to give in and leave. "Inuyasha…can you take me home?" she asked hopelessly.
He nodded silently and gestured for her to follow him.
In the car on the way back to her house, Tsubaki yawned and looked at the radio. "I should do this- I mean, Kikyou and I should…" she said snapping her fingers.
"What? Start a band?"
"No, install car stereos!" she hissed back sarcastically. "Yes, start a band! Gramps would love that…"
"You don't seem the type to listen to anyone besides yourself," he pointed out.
She rolled her eyes. "It isn't even that, he just expects us- me and Kikyou- to be something we aren't," she explained.
"Like?" Renkotsu asked.
"Kagome," she answered in a mock-preppy-cheerleader-bimbo-voice (a good one at that) with another roll of her teal eyes.
"At least he expects something out of you."
She looked at him in confusion. "What does that mean?"
"I'm told- daily- I'm a worthless bastard child with no future, but that's really none of anyone's business."
Tsubaki frowned. So he did have a reason for being a creepy asshole! "Maybe…you aren't the jackass I thought you were…" she mumbled as he parked her car.
He looked out the other window. "Trust me, I am."
Tsubaki bit her lip, then she got out. "Fine, think like that then," she snapped stomping away.
He shook his head, getting out of the car and starting for home.
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Kagome smiled slightly. "Thanks Inuyasha."
"You know- just because you're beautiful and smart doesn't mean you're better than everybody," he told her in a deadpan voice.
She bit her lip.
"You can't just blow people off to look cool!" he snapped, his voice rising.
She felt the tears forming behind her eyes, and in hope that he would stop making her feel like a condescending bitch, she leaned over and kissed him firmly on the lips.
She smiled lightly as she pulled away. Biting her lip and getting out of the car, she looked back only briefly and walked in the house.
He smiled and drove off.
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All done for this chapter, thanks again and review! Love love