Chapter 6: Where's the Dog?
Sesshomaru woke up bright and early, but found that the girl was already up and about, rushing to and fro in her silly little skirt...a sailor outfit he supposed. She was brushing her teeth and digging around for socks under the bed at the same time. What was the rush? He couldn't help but wonder. But he was silent and she didn't even notice he was up. His golden eyes glinting in the dim room.
The girl went into the bathroom to spit out a mouthful of tooth paste and then rushed back into the room to begin packing her things into a bag. The books all disappeared off of the desk and it was suddenly spotless, thrust into the unorganized backpack and then slung over her shoulder. As she hurried he heard the woman from before calling up, "Kagome, hurry up or you'll make Souta late for school!"
Who was Souta? He kept watching the girl in silence and soon she was racing for the door, slamming it behind her in her rush and racing down what he could only imagine to be stairs.
He waited for a moment...not exactly holding his breath, but listening closely. After ten minutes he felt certain that the house was cleared and slowly slipped down from the bed. Waiting until the dizziness left him and then wandering over to her desk. He had seen her quickly scratching out something onto a sheet of paper during her rush. And he saw it was a note to him.
Sesshomaru,
Please stay in this room. If my mom comes up hide. PLEASE HIDE! Also, I will be back when the hands on the clock on my wall look like this...
She had made a quick doodle of the clock with its hands pointing at the 4 and the 12. Okay... Whatever time that meant. But at least he could know when to expect her back. Though, he hardly planned on staying in here all day. Or hiding from a human woman if she came up... He wondered why her Mother couldn't see him. Suppose it would just be awkward... Maybe she hadn't told her mother about holding him captive. Heh. He SHOULD show himself.
He noticed on the edge of the desk were his folded pants, oh thank the gods she had returned them. He wanted out of these tight pants now.
He listened closely to the sounds of the house, confirming he was alone, and then changed into his white pants. Relieved by the airy feel of them. Much better.
Well...time for a look around.
He went to the door, limping a bit.He tried to slide it open... What? He had seen it open before... Then it dawned on him. Kagome had always turned that knob on the door to exit, pushing it open rather than sliding it. How odd. He tried it, his hand slipping a few times, but finally the door creaked open and he was staring out into a hallway. The scent of the other humans in the house was not as pleasant as Kagome's... But he wandered out, opening other doors upstairs. A bathroom... A room with a young boy's scent everywhere. The other end of the hall, the master bedroom which was home to the scent of the older woman, Kagome's mother. Then he went to the end of the hallway, opening the last door of the upstairs.
Instantly the stench of old people hit him and he made a face... If the scent was so strong... That meant the source was inside there. He didn't know why he felt his heart jump, but he didn't feel like confronting any human, even an aged male.
He relaxed when he heard snores, however, and peered inside to see that the human was sprawled out in a bed, sound asleep. A relief.
He closed the door slowly and then turned towards the stairs. Looking down them he felt a doubt about going down... It looked like a lot of hard work in his condition, and coming back up them would be worse. What if the older woman returned and caught him snooping around?
Heh, as if he cared. That thought did the exact opposite of its purpose, and instead the demon lord began down the stairs. Wincing with every step until he reached the bottom. Finding himself inside a giant room...it had a bunch of strange chairs, very long, perhaps to fit more humans on it at once... hmm. There was a giant box in the front of the room, all the chairs were turned to face it. He blinked in curiosity and slunk across the room to examine it. It had a bunch of bumps along the front of it.
He pressed one and found that the entire screen exploded to life with pictures and sounds began to blast out of it. What sort of sorcery was this! He scrambled back for a moment, baring his teeth and snarling. But when the box didn't seem to acknowledge him at all he relaxed, staring at the pictures.
He grimaced when he heard a door upstairs open and went into a panic mode. That human was going to catch him! He moved forward quickly, back to the box, and began to press buttons at random, but the box just grew louder.
"Sakura?" The old man called. Sesshomaru could hear the man coming down the stairs now. Aha! He found the right button and the loud creature with its flashing screen turned off.
Sesshomaru decided to heed Kagome's advice and shot behind one of the chairs, crouching low and listening to the old human standing at the bottom of the stairwell, grumbling something about faulty electronics and then heading to the kitchen slowly.
The demon lord rose to his feet, listening in on the man. Damn... the staircase was in full view from the kitchen where the old man was at now.
Sesshomaru stood for a moment, listening as the man fixed something to eat in the other room and then frowning when he heard the man was coming into this front room with its loud black box and big chairs. He dropped back down and slunk through the second doorway into the kitchen just as the old man entered the living room from the other side.
Relieved, the demon lord stood up straight and quickly strode across the kitchen. Leaning forward to watch the old man turn on the black box, the volume falling to a tolerable level and then the man seemed to focus completely on the box and its colorful picture screen...
He slunk up the stairs, limping a bit after all that sneaking around and crawling on his knees. But he went back into Kagome's room as if it were a sanctuary and plopped down on the bed. Glancing up at the clock. The hands were both on the twelve... Damn.
He lounged out on the pink bedspread and closed his eyes. Dozing off.
He awoke to a scratching at the door. His nose twitched before his eyes opened and he let out a savage growl. A cat! It had smelt him out and was tearing at the door savagely, not very happy that a door was in 'its territory'.
He was about to go out there and scare that damned cat off so he could continue his nap when he heard that old woman's voice from the other side of the door. "What is it Buyo? Kagome leave a snack in there that you want?" The door opened and Sesshomaru inwardly cursed, rolling over the edge of the bed quickly and under it, between it and the wall.
He listened as the cat came right in and began sniffing around, he could see it from under the bed, its hair on end. What a FAT cat!
He suppressed his instincts to growl at it and instead paid attention to the feet of Ms. Higurashi as she entered the room.Thejeans from before lay onthe floor in a pile with the other's Kagome hadbrought up, amess at the foot of her bed."Silly, 'Gome. Just tossing them on the floor like this." The woman walked to the foot of the bed and picked up the jeans, setting them on the bed and beginning to hold them.
The cat went forward and under the bed, glaring at Sesshomaru with angry yellow eyes. He glared right back and bared his fangs. Fighting not to growl.
Ms. Higurashi stopped folding suddenly and he heard her lean across the bed, little did he know she had just spotted a strand of silvery white hair and had plucked it off the pink bedspread. Twirling it between her fingers she frowned. Dropping it back down and picking up the pile of folded jeans to head outside. "Buyo", she called and the fat cat. Thinking of dinner, the cat turned with one last hiss and then trotted to the door, his belly jiggling under him.
The door to Kagome's room closed behind the cat and Sesshomaru was alone again... He shifted and slowly rose, grunting when he found that getting back out was harder than it had been to get back here.
His tail switched back and forth rapidly and then he decided just to stay here, just in case the woman planned to come back. He could duck out of sight within seconds.
Of course...the demon lord dozed off again and didn't wake until the door was already open and the intruder had entered. But he relaxed when he saw it was only Kagome.
The girl, however, was staring at the head protruding from behind her bed. They both stared at each other for a moment, then he growled and said, "Are you going to help me get out from behind here or not?"
Inuyasha's wench...instead of stepping forward to help him, burst into laughter. Clutching her stomach in pain. He was stuck!
After quite a bit of growling on his part, and snickering from hers, he was free. Glaring at her darkly as he seated himself on the bed and rubbed his sore muscles. They were stiff from sitting in such a cramped space for so long.
She just shook her head and said, "I'm sorry, it was just so funny."
He snorted at her and lounged back on her bed. Both flinched when the door opened, and Sesshomaru flipped himself right behind the bed again, cursing his luck.
Kagome turned her head to look at her mother and smiled. "Hey Mom!"
Ms. Higurashi smiled at her daughter, but Kagome knew that face... It could only mean trouble.
"How was school, dear?" She asked. Sitting down on Kagome's bed. Sesshomaru winced as the thing swayed and pushed him against the wall for a moment.
Kagome plopped down on the bed beside her Mom, putting on an act to hide her nervousness and smiling, "Great!"
Ms. Higurashi nodded, and glanced about the room. She was certain now that Kagome was hiding something in her room...she could see through Kagome's act...but what was she hiding? And where would it be?
"Kagome...Where's the dog?" She came right out and asked it.
Kagome's jaw dropped and she knew instantly that she was very close to hitting on what her daughter was hiding. But Kagome shook her head, "What dog! I don't have a dog! Wish I did, but I don't!"
Sesshomaru rolled his eyes... great job... might as well just say she had a dog.
Her mother eyed her and said, "Then what about all those jeans you had?"
Kagome was quick to say, "A project in school! I only needed one pair though..."
Ms. Higurashi nodded, not believing, and then saying, "And the pork that went missing last night?"
"What pork? Must've been Buyo."
Ms. Higurashi nodded again, pretending she was buying it. Her hand trailing across the bedspread and then she plucked up a strand of long white hair. "Then explain this."
Kagome let out a gasp and shook her head, "Now how did THAT get there! Buyo must need a haircut!"
Ms. Higurashi shook her her head, she'd let Kagome get by for now, but she'd catch her soon enough.
The older woman rose to her feet and went towards the door. Turning back to look at Kagome, "Oh, and you'll need to cook din--" The woman had obviously spotted something at the foot of the bed, and now she looked very smug.
Kagome blinked and leaned forward to look over the railing of her bed in the direction her mother was looking, gasping.
Sesshomaru was laying under the bed, oblivious to the conversation at the moment, his tail switching back at forth... And that was what the two women were staring at.
His tail was protruding out from under the bed, just the tip of it, and it was in plain sight...
Busted.