Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha... OK?
Many thanks to: Sibby and Lost soul... only two reviews? Do I really suck at writing?
Chapter 2: Match Makers
Kagome stretched and smiled. Saturday was very sunny and the snow on the outside looked beautiful. She had slept in and was feeling a bit groggily as she sat up in her colorful sheet of blankets. One of the first things that came into her mind was a nice breakfast with her two maids: Kanna and Kaede. The second thing that came floating into her mind was a nice steaming cup of coffee from the nearest Starbucks. The third thing that came into her mind was work and the answering machine, which she had neglected to answer when she came home worn from all that action-packtion in The Suzuki Corporation office building.
Deciding that the answering machine was first, then checking up her schedule on her palm pad, Kagome went downstairs to listen to her messages. The first one was from her mother who was calling from Britain about how much fun she was having and the second one came from Sango, who was giddily talking about the newest, exotic sushi bar down in fifth avenue. That was about it, so Kagome shuffled into the kitchen to be greeted by Rin the younger one of her maids and Kaede who was frying some eggs and bacons.
"Good morning sunshine, ye have woken up very late."
"I know, Friday was nuts, since I had so much to do."
"Friday? But Ms. Higurashi, today is Sunday. You've slept right through Saturday."
"WHAT!" Kagome screamed, scaring Buyo, a fat orange and brown and black-patched cat. The cat sulked under one of the white breakfast stools and hissed at her. "Oh no… I've missed out on my shopping appointment with Eri… she's going to be ANGRY!"
"Do not worry Ms. Higurashi," Rin's cute and happy voice intervened, "I have already taken care of that yesterday, Ms. Geko will understand."
"Thank you Rin." Kagome said as she let out a sigh of content, "Ah…" She stretched once more and happily sniffed the aroma of her promising breakfast before she scanned her palm pad. "Hmmm… no wonder Sango called yesterday, she called to remind me of our 12:00 meeting so she could buy a pair of new black pumps because she broke her other ones on Friday from hitting Miroku with it. And… after that, we are going to have some coffee and I'm free for the rest of the day! EXCELLENT! I now get to stay home and watch reruns of James Bond! YAY!"
"Shall I prepare your movie before ye come back?"
"No, no, Kaede, I'll be fine."
Kagome took a seat in front of the elderly lady who had just passed a plate of bacon, eggs, and toast in front of her. Kagome thanked her and grabbed her fork and her knife and began to pig out. Rin, in the meantime, had placed a glass of orange juice next to her along with the plate of butter and the jam.
Much to Kagome's demise, her peaceful breakfast was interrupted by the loud shrill noise of her cell phone. "Rin, could you please get me my cell phone pronto?" Rin obeyed with a cheerful quip as she disappeared into one of the many doors that led to Kagome's study. She strolled over and handed Kagome her phone. Kagome frowned when she realized that Inuyasha was calling her. As far as she was concerned, Inuyasha never called her phone unless he wanted to poke in some more work to make her life miserable. Kagome didn't answer the phone, just to make the aggravating, workaholic dog-boy angry.
Kaede and Rin stared, puzzled at their mistress will the phone continued to ring until it fell silent. Then, ten seconds later, it started up again, filling the serene morning in an almost angry shrill. Kagome groaned about annoying co-workers before picking it up on the tenth ring.
"WHY THE FUCK DON'T YOU ANSWER YOUR DAMN PHONE?" An angry voice screamed on the other end. The voice was so loud that Kagome had to hold the phone away from her ear, and her two maids visibly flinched under the long string of cusses and insults. "HELLO? ARE YOU THERE? I KNOW YOU'RE THERE, BUT YOU'RE JUST IGNORING ME! HELLO? HELLLLLO? EARTH TO STUPID WRETCH! OOOY! I'M TALKING TO YOU! WHEN I SPEAK TO YOU, YOU LISTEN TO ME! ME, ME, ME!" Kagome waited for Inuyasha to stop screaming and calm down.
"Have you calmed your senses now?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, first of all, I need to tell you that patience is virtue." Kagome replied sweetly, she could almost see Inuyasha's face color turning beet-red on the other end. "And second of all, why are you being awfully cranky on a lovely Sunday morning such as today? Learn to laugh, it's good for your…"
"I don't want to hear you making up jack-assed cheery morning crap. I called to tell you about another meeting with dad, Miroku, Cocky-Bastard, Sango, Kouga, and your own overly-happy ass. And it's TODAY, and it will start at eleven." Of course sometimes Inuyasha gave his older brother rude epithets such as Cocky-Bastard or Moron.
Kagome felt her stomach drop to her toes as her wonderful Sunday was ruined thanks to another plow of work with the Inutaisho Corporation. "Eleven? When will it end?"
"It will end at seven AM."
"WHAT? How can a meeting be EIGHT hours long? That's impossible!"
"Stop complaining Wretch. Now get your ass on a roll! It's ten thirty and I don't want you to be late, since dad never starts the conference without leaving anyone out! Meeting's in dad's office, be there!"
And without so much as a goodbye or waiting for a reply, the click on the other end proclaimed that the conversation had been terminated. Sighing loudly to herself, Kagome shoved the last of her toast into her mouth before gulping it down with a big wave of orange juice. "Kaede, I guess I have to go to work today after all! Well, forget the late night James Bond movies, I'll probably be doing work when I come back." Kagome called as she tore down the hall to wash her face and brush her teeth and then get dressed. Ten-thirty? Why didn't Inuyasha just call her or leave a message on her cell phone or e-mail or answering machine? Damn him! She scowled as she threw open the double doors of her huge walk-in closet. It was filled with the most expensive and tasteful clothing of New York. Shirts, jeans, pants, skirts and suits hung around her everywhere, none of them being non-label brands.
"Kaede, would you please stuff all the folders on my desk into my brief case?" Kagome called from her room as she dressed quickly in her white pantsuit from Valentino and a crisp pale-blue blouse. She stubbed her toe and cursed under her breath as she hobbled down her spiral stairs grabbing things left and right as she ran out of her apartment. Kaede handed Kagome her brief case while Rin handed her laptop bag. "Thanks!" She called out as she struggled to put on the same pair of Dolce and Gabbanna pumps.
But the wet feeling in her toes made her freeze dead in her tracks. Her shoes were wet thanks to Inuyasha and his water-squirting sword! "Kaede! Can you please be sure to order a new pair of Dolce and Gabbanna shoes for me? These are ruined!" Swearing that she was going to gain her vengeance on Inuyasha, Kagome pulled on a pair of kitten-heeled Versace knee boots. "And make sure they're the same exact pair!"
Kagome dashed into an elevator that was about to close on her and luckily made it in time. "B2…" She grunted savagely to a surprised and horrified Elevator lady. She rushed out of the elevator once she got to her floor and ran to her car, while simultaneously pressing the unlock button of her car. Tossing her stuff into the backseat, Kagome started the engine and tore out of the garage at break-neck speed. By the time she got to the Suzuki Corporations building she was already thirty minutes late.
Okay… just be cool and you won't humiliate yourself! Kagome thought to herself as she got into the elevator and pressed 200. Kagome took a deep breath and closed her eyes begging for the elevator to fly up to the two-hundredth floor like the wings of time. Kagome checked her watch and groaned when she realized that she was already almost an hour late. "DAMN THAT INUYASHA!" She screamed as the doors of the elevators slid open revealing a very shocked boy with long silvery hair and dog-ears on top of his head. "Oh my… holy…" Kagome covered her mouth.
"What did just say to me?" Inuyasha growled at her cracking his knuckles.
"Ah! So our sleeping beauty is here!" A cheery voice boomed. Kagome nearly cried in relief to see Inutaisho come bouncing out on… a bouncing ball? Yes, Inutaisho was sitting on a huge lime-green ball that had a handle attached to it. It make the Guru of the company look quite awkward since Inutaisho was wearing a straight-edged silver-gray suit and black dress shoes made from the finest leather in Italy. "Inuyasha, do not be rude and escort the lady so we can start our wonderful conference!" Without waiting for his son's reply, Inutaisho bounced back into his office.
"Dad…" Inuyasha snarled through grit teeth, "Get OFF that THING!"
"Please, my youngest, expand your vocabulary!" Was the only sing-song rely Inuyasha got from his father.
"I can't BELIEVE he actually said that!" Inuyasha grumbled as he yanked Kagome roughly out of the elevator adding with a sharp bark: "Don't just stand there, MOVE!"
When Kagome entered the conference room everyone was already there. Her friend Sango looked angry beyond words because her shopping day had been rudely interrupted and she was forced to wear a pair of white round-toed heels. Inutaisho had gotten off his bouncy ball and called Ayame who came calmly into his office. "Oh my, It's 11:55 already! I guess we'll have lunch first. Now, all of you have a choice for our lovely lunchie! Choice A is we stay here and eat some greasy Chinese food, and choice B is we go off to have some nice sushi or something. What will it be?"
"NOTHING!" Inuyasha shouted angrily jumping up and down. "We will all sit here and have our conference if that means that we all have to starve to death!"
"Inuyasha, have you forgotten that I am the leader of this corporation?" Inuyasha grumbled staring down at his toes. "However, I do agree that we did waste a lot of time. And no, Ms. Higurashi, I am not blaming you for our mindless diddle-daddle. Whether you were here or not, it would have been the same. And now, Ayame, I would love it if you got me fifty large Whopper burgers, sixteen boxes of cheese puffs, forty bags of extra-large French fries…" The rest of the group gawped as Inutaisho counted off his fingers thinking of anything edible for takeout foods. By the time Inutaisho had finished giving orders to Ayame, every single one of the participants of their conference had nodded off to sleep.
Two weeks later, Inuyasha grumbled as he got out of his Lexus, grouchier than ever before. No matter how hard he tried, he still hadn't gotten over the Sunday Conference disaster that happened exactly a week ago. Another Sunday conference squandered from sleeping! Thanks to dad and his appetite. He let out a frustrated yell and kicked his wheel with his toe attracting stares from fellow workers who had come for work. Pain shot up from his toe as the CEO jumped up and down grabbing onto his toe as though in extreme pain. The sound of a girl clearing her throat forced Inuyasha to whirl around only to come face to face with Kagome and her friend Sango. The two of them had just emerged from Sango's Mercedes Benz and were now looking at him with a great deal of curiosity. "What are you looking at? Got a problem?" He snarled as the two girls neared him.
"Speaking of early morning problems," Kagome quipped cheerily, "It seems as if you do need to spare some time for Anger Management classes after all!" The two girls giggled hysterically as they waved goodbye to the irritated CEO, his face as red his haori pajamas. Snatching up his briefcase, Inuyasha literally ran over to the two girls who were about to get into the elevator. With a rude remark ("MOVE!"), Inuyasha pushed past the girls making them stumble on their immaculate high heels. Satisfied with his small token of vengeance, Inuyasha smirked and straightened his gold-colored tie before giving his floor to the elevator operator. The two women entered the elevator, Sango looking very shaken and Kagome looking murderous.
Inuyasha smirked at her before reaching into the pocket of his black pinstripe suit for his palm pad. Inuyasha pretended to examine his schedule for the day as Kagome barked her floor number at the poor elevator operator, who cringed under her glare before she shakily pressed the buttons on the elevator. Forgetting about Kagome and her raging beauty, Inuyasha began to check his schedule. He frowned slightly when he realized that Sesshoumaru had left him a message asking him to attend the conference on toilet seat heating systems. Since when did the warm toilet seat reach Sesshoumaru anyway?" Just then he vaguely remembered shoving a bunch of files at Kagome the Friday before his disastrous Executive Sunday Conference. Somehow, he must have forgotten to destroy Sean's packet and it had gotten into the files he had rudely shoved into Kagome's arm after lunch.
No wait! I remember specifically asking Kikyou to shred Brenet's foolish ass-heating toilet seat and to dispose them. Then, when I asked her if she had done it a few minutes later, she told me she did. So then how did they get into Kagome's stack of work? Unless… unless Kikyou had neglected to execute his specific orders. YES! That was it! And then, thanks to her stupidity, she had mixed it up in Kagome's work pile. Of course he should have forced her to show the contents of the remains of that stupid idea, or at least he should have double-checked his absent-minded secretary, but he hadn't. How stupid of himself! Inuyasha started to bang his head against his palm pilot hard. He didn't notice that people were staring at him until he realized the elevator was awfully quiet.
Inuyasha stopped smashing his palm pilot against his head and looked up to see people gawking at him. "Oh man, you do need therapy." Sango said dryly.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GUYS LOOKING AT?" Inuyasha screamed freaking the heck out of Naraku the fidgety computer programmer. The elevator operator pressed the emergency-stop button on accident provided that she was trying to press 100 on the elevator when Inuyasha exploded. The elevator jolted to a stop causing everyone, including Inuyasha, to stumble over and fall down. The unfortunate Naraku had spilled his coffee on Inuyasha's shirt, making him yowl in pain.
"WHY DID YOU STOP THE DAMN ELEVATOR YOU CRAZY WOMAN?" Inuyasha roared at the poor elevator operator who was now cowering in the corner. "Are you trying to kill us or something?" He bellowed looming over the terrified Elevator operator who had now proceeded to roll up into a ball as Inuyasha cast a huge shadow over her, "Well, woman? WHAT ARE YOU DOING? RELEASE US… NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!"
"Yes, yes… of course, I'm sorry sir!" The woman scrambled to her feet and made failing attempts to press the emergency-stop button because she was shaking so much.
"STOP SHAKING AND JUST PRESS THE DAMN BUTTON ALREADY!" Inuyasha shouted pushing past the other people in the elevator, he almost reached his destination, when a hand gripped his ears atop of his head and yanked him backwards forcing him off balance. By this time, the Elevator Operator had finally managed to press the emergency-stop button again and the elevator resumed in it's ascending path. Inuyasha, however, didn't notice that. "Hey, what the…" Inuyasha started surprised, but he didn't need to wait any longer because the face of Kagome Higurashi loomed into his face.
"Leave the poor lady alone! It's not her fault she pressed the emergency-stop button."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you were the one who suddenly scared all of us to death including the elevator operator who was trying to press 100, but the sudden burst of that short temper of yours made her visibly flinch, thus making her hit the emergency-stop button."
"Are you saying this is MY fault?"
"Technically." Kagome said smoothly as the elevator operator got the elevator going again.
"WHAT? How can that be my fault? You were the one who was staring at me as if I were some walking zoo!"
"Well if you didn't start smashing your palm pilot to her forehead then nobody would have stared at you in the first place."
Inuyasha opened and closed his mouth both in shock and loss of words. At the same time, the elevator doors slid open and a familiar cheery voice filled the room, the voice of Inutaisho. "Hello my little pets!" He boomed as he roller bladed into the elevator, "Are we all programmed to get to work?" Inutaisho's greeting was met with as a chorus of yeses and nods. Inuyasha shrunk into corner hoping that Inutaisho wouldn't see him to humiliate him. Unfortunately, Inutaisho was a full inu youkai, and picked his scent up faster than he could run. "Ah… there's my little munchkin! Excuse me, excuse me… coming through!" Inuyasha froze as the now smiling employees made way for the Suzuki Corporations' Kingpin, leaving Inuyasha defenseless.
"Kagome! My little pet! How are you two? Having a little fun are we?"
"Um…" Kagome started uncertainly, "Hello, Mr. Suzuki, how are you?"
"Never better! Oops!" Inutaisho bubbled as he spilled some of his caramel frappucino onto Inuyasha's shirt as the elevator suddenly jerked upwards again. "Oh well, better send that to the dry cleaners ASAP!" Inutaisho gave out a hearty laugh and gave the now grumbling Inuyasha a friendly slap on the back. "Drats, now I have to go get more coffee! Oh well, I'll ask Gome to do that for me! Oh, and Kagome, this is your floor!"
"Wait! I want you to get off at my office today, I have some issues to discuss with you." Inuyasha snarled at Kagome. Both Kagome and Inutaisho raised their eyebrows at Inuyasha.
"Why congratulations to you, my son! You finally learned the art of intellectual talking! As a treat, I shall give you a gold star!" With that, Inutaisho wiggled his eyebrows at Kagome indicating that she should get off while he kept Inuyasha busy.
"FEH! I don't want a crappy sticker… OY! WOMAN! Where the hell are you going? I asked you to come to my office!"
"Darn! My son doesn't have a very large vocabulary after all, but I'll give you a golden star anyway, if you keep the day up speaking like a true business man, then I shall give you ten more!" Then Inutaisho blocked his son's path from the hastily retreating female CEO by reaching into his pocket and pulling out a page of stickers. He slapped two gold stars on Inuyasha's left chest, and by the time Inuyasha managed to wrestle around his father, the elevator doors closed and it continued to ascend.
Inutaisho hummed happily to himself as he waltzed out of the elevator on his roller blades as he bid the elevator operator goodbye. "Hello Ayame…" He sang as he danced past her humming a small tune. Ayame smiled at him and bowed to her.
"I have placed the contracts on your desk as ordered."
"Excellent!"
"Oh and Mrs. Suzuki is waiting for you." Inutaisho had almost reached the door when he fell over with one leg in the air. All the other secretaries, except Ayame, suppressed their giggles before rushing back to their seats.
"I-I-Izayoi?"
"Yes. She seemed greatly perturbed about something, although she refused to tell us what it was. Anyway," Ayame continued as she grabbed the now fearful Chairman and pushed him through the oak doors, "She has asked me to hold all calls and visits from fellow workers, she says that she had something very important to tell you. Have a pleasant day Mr. Suzuki."
Inutaisho stumbled through the doors of his office while he tried his best to hide his feet from the scathing eyes of his wife. Izayoi was standing at the floor-to-ceiling windows looking out the window as the morning sun began to rise above the New York City skyline to awaken the city. She had very long black hair and although she was forty-seven, she still managed to retain her petite figure. Inutaisho nervously fidgeted, and if he wasn't wearing his roller blades, he would have been shifting from feet to feet, but he didn't so he just stood stock-still. At any rate, Izayoi sharply turned to face her husband flashing her marvelous violet blue eyes at him. The sun's radiance seemed to make her white skin glow, making her appear twenty years younger than her true age.
"Ah… Izayoi! What a pleasant surprise!" Inutaisho said nervously trying to give her a casual wave to distract her from looking down at his feet. "What brings my pretty wife to my humble office?"
"HUMBLE OFFICE?" Izayoi screamed, making the Chairman jump out of his skin. "HOW CAN YOU CALL THIS OFFICE HUMBLE WHEN I WAS NEARLY KILLED BY A PAIR OF CO-WORKERS PLAYING HOCKEY ON THE FIFTH FLOOR? AND JUST TELL ME, WHY YOU'RE WEARING THOSE RIDICULOUS THINGS ON YOUR FEET?"
"Please, please, my dear, you do understand that we do get our job done nonetheless."
"Inutaisho, take those roller blades off! I have come here to discuss a very important matter."
"Wasn't the roller blade hockey the reason why you came up here?"
Izayoi laughed for the first time that morning, making her face light up even more making her more beautiful than before. "Oh please Inutaisho, you wouldn't believe that I came all the way here just to discuss that! Of course not! I came here to discuss Inuyasha's love life!" Inutaisho grinned sheepishly as he roller bladed over to his closet to take out a pair of hand-tailored Italian leather shoes.
"Well, fire away my love." He said as he roller bladed over to his couch to change his shoes. Izayoi smiled fondly at her husband before she joined him on the couch.
"Inuyasha is twenty-seven years of age and I'm getting worried sick for him! All he ever does is work, work, work, no fun!"
"Is that so? How come I didn't notice that before?"
"BECAUSE…" Izayoi snarled making Inutaisho flinch slightly in fear, "YOU were too busy playing tag on roller blades and playing video games when you were supposed to be watching out for Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru! In fact, I'm worried about Sesshoumaru as well! All they do is work, and I can barely remember the last time they ever had a girlfriend!"
"And your point is…?"
"My point is, Inutaisho, that we should at least make an effort to find them a suitable…"
"Mate?"
"Wife."
"Mate, wife same thing."
"Anyway, I feel that this time we must interfere!"
"I would love to do that my darling, but I don't think neither of them like having an arranged marriage."
"Inutaisho, Inutaisho, Inutaisho…" Izayoi said sighing as she wagged her finger in his face, "I am not talking about an arranged marriage. What I'm talking about is match making our dear sons until they choose the ones they want to spend the rest of their lives with."
"Feh! I can hardly imagine Inuyasha with a wife, he's too dense when it comes to love."
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" Inutaisho freaked out and was about to run away from his wife, but Izayoi grabbed him by his neck and started shaking him back and forth. At the same time the door opened with a very nervous looking Gome, directly behind her was Sesshoumaru who had one eyebrow raised in slight amusement.
"Father, what exactly are you doing?"
"Son!" Inutaisho cried out, "Please save me from Izayoi's wrath… she shall kill me with her demonic strength!"
"I see… I came to give you these insignificant resumes, I have no desire in hiring another assistant given that the other one nearly ruined my laptop by drooling all over it. In addition to that, I caught her snapping candid photos of me." With that, Sesshoumaru stepped up to the couple and casually dropped a manila folder filled with eager resumes for his assistant. "Hello Izayoi."
"Hello Sesshoumaru, is your job coming along fine?"
"Indeed it is." With that Sesshoumaru turned away from the shocked couple, but he suddenly stopped and turned around, "Of course I wouldn't mind if that Higurashi girl was my assistant, she seems to be the only one immune from my handsome features." As Sesshoumaru said those last lines, he flicked a lock of his shiny silver hair, both Inutaisho and Izayoi laughed nervously at the older brother who stood vainly before them. "Alas, the only problem with that girl is her sassy mouth." Without further ado, Sesshoumaru glided smoothly out of Inutaisho's office, leaving the two parents blinking at each other in wonder.
Once they were positive that Sesshoumaru was gone, Izayoi suddenly released Inutaisho's collar, sending him plummeting to the ground face first. "I GOT IT!" She triumphed with one fist raised in the air, "We'll try Kagome!"
"Are you sure you want to bring Sesshoumaru and Kagome together? I was thinking more along the lines of bringing Kagome and Inuyasha together."
"Well, if Kagome and Sesshoumaru fail, then we'll see how well she goes with Inuyasha."
"Oh… I don't know, Kagome doesn't seem to like Sesshoumaru very much… in fact, I think Inuyasha and Kagome have something in between each other. They seem to click together… the perfect picture!"
"Like I said, we'll see how Kagome goes with Sesshoumaru, and when they fail, we'll see how everything comes out with Inuyasha. Besides, I was thinking about setting him up with Kikyou."
"KIKYOU? I don't want her to be my daughter-in-law! You should have heard her scream! She sounds like she could kill even a banshee with her squeaky voice! Suppose Inuyasha went deaf because of her?"
"Inutaisho…" Izayoi growled, "It's not polite to say things like that about other people."
"Yes, yes, of course!"
Kagome sighed. When Inuyasha found out that Kagome had authorized Sean to another conference, he had rushed over to her office without a moment's hesitation and by the time he burst through her office doors so much without knocking, he realized that he could have called her up to his office. "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS CONFERENCE?" He yelled while taking gargantuan strides towards the Higurashi woman. Kagome, who was poring over her notes while typing furiously away at her desktop computer, acted as if she had not acknowledged him.
"I fail to find any flaws in Mr. Brenet's notes." Kagome said calmly without taking her eyes off her LCD monitor. By this time, Inuyasha was already at the other end of her desk.
"This is madness! Mere madness! Heated toilet seats? Yes, it may be a good idea, but we—no, the world does not have the technology to pull off something like that…"
"My, my Inuyasha, you actually sound as smart as you look."
"THAT IS NOT THE POINT WRETCH! DO YOU EVEN COMPREHEND HOW FUCKING BORING THAT SEAN GUY IS? I MEAN, HE'S LIKE A FUCKING LULLABY!"
"Inuyasha, I'm sure Sean isn't that bad. Besides, aren't all presentations supposed to be mind-numbing?"
"FEH! THIS GUY IS EXTRAORDINARILY BORING! I'm going, oh and just so to save your hide from that bore, take this, it should keep you occupied when he starts talking about chilly asses for three hours. And whatever you do, DO NOT leave it here in your office unless you want to regret it." With that, Inuyasha turned and stomped out of the room muttering incoherent curses to himself. Kagome blinked down at the Xerox Copy box in front of her. Whatever was Inuyasha talking about anyway? Shrugging to herself, Kagome continued to type steadily away on her computer until curiosity finally got the better of her.
Cautiously, she placed the box on her lap trying to guess what her partner could've possibly placed in it. Finally, she tore the lid off the box and in it were millions of… rubber bands? What was she supposed to do with all these rubber bands when she got bored during the conference? Stupid Inuyasha, what does he expect me to do with a bunch of rubber bands? Sighing to herself, Kagome checked her watch and decided it was time to go to her meeting. She had fully intended on leaving the box of rubber bands behind, but subconsciously, she left her office room carrying it with her.
Inuyasha was right. This man was boring! No, not just boring, but unbearable! Kagome sighed as she surveyed the members of the conference room. Inuyasha's eyelids were becoming heavy, Sesshoumaru had already fallen asleep next to him, Sango seemed intent, but she was really keeping an eye out for Miroku's wandering hand. Miroku was doodling on a piece of paper while Inutaisho was engaged in a game of connect four with Kouga, the head of the Advertisement department. An hour had already passed and Sean still hadn't moved on from the problem of the current people. Kagome had, at first devoted all her attention to him, then she tried, and then the started to doodle. In the end, she gave up and sat around watching Inutaisho silently pump his fist in the air after making a tenth row of straight four blacks. Suddenly, Kagome felt a kick beneath the table.
She noticed that Inuyasha no longer looked sleepy and was staring straight at her. Satisfied that he got her attention, he tore out a page from his notepad and folded it up into a paper airplane. Kagome cocked her head wondering what he was doing while he used his pen to scribble something down on one of the wings. She tore her attention away from Inuyasha and tried again to concentrate on Sean, but wasn't succeeding.
Suddenly, the paper airplane landed in front of her with Inuyasha's messy half-script half-print words saying: READ ME. Kagome unfolded the paper and a note on it read: Got that box? Kagome looked around and thought she hadn't brought "the box" until she looked under her chair and sure enough, it was there. So that was why Inuyasha gave her those rubber bands! Kagome wasted no time in grabbing her own pen and writing: Yeah, how many do you want? Then crumpled it into a ball and flicked it across the room at Inuyasha. Inuyasha opened her note, read it, and held up five fingers.
Flashing him the thumbs-up sign, Kagome tore out a page from her notepad and transformed it into a paper airplane. Then she stuffed five rubber bands into it before letting it take flight. She, herself, grabbed one rubber band and carefully arranged it around her thumb and index finger. When finished, she admired her handiwork before pointing at the sleeping form of Sesshoumaru in front of her, aiming for the navy blue crescent moon on his forehead.
WHIZZZZ! THWACK! Kagome silently whooped as Sesshoumaru slowly opened one golden eye. Although he didn't react, he sure looked pissed. Inuyasha was next to him, oblivious to the damage Kagome had just caused. He was too busy making a chibi Kouga with his five rubber bands. One of Inuyasha's fangs peeped over his lower lip while he had the tip of his tongue sticking out in the upper right-hand corner of his mouth. The cold golden orbs briefly searched the conference room for the culprit before they slowly closed again. How boring. Kagome was expecting for him to jump up screaming in pain or anger, but he didn't. Leave it up to Sesshoumaru, I wouldn't be damned if he didn't scream even if he got hit by a bullet train. Kagome thought dryly.
Wondering what else she could do with a bunch of rubber bands, Kagome fished her hand into the box beneath her chair and grabbed a fist-full of rubber bands. She then began to knot them up until they became tiny pelts. Kagome smirked and arranged one of the rubber band pelts in between her forefinger and thumb. She searched the room for a perfect suspect until her eyes landed on a triumphant Inutaisho who was about to squash Kouga's chances in forming a row of four red chips.
Ready, aim… FIRE! Kagome flicked the rubber band pelt at Inutaisho's hands that were mockingly passing about the top of the yellow and blue Connect-Four contraption while Kouga watched tensely, knowing the consequences. The pelt hit his thumb forcing him to release it in the wrong place far from Kouga's row of three. "YEEEEEES! I WIN!" Kouga shouted happily. He grabbed his red chip with excitement and "slam-dunked" it into its correct slot. Inutaisho sulked and glared around the room to find the criminal, but Kagome had already hidden her pelts. Annoyed that he didn't find the culprit, Inutaisho grudgingly started a new game. This time, his golden eyes flicked across the room while he played.
Kagome smirked, while Sesshoumaru closed his eyes again. She decided to try her luck at hitting Sesshoumaru's moon on his forehead again. Positive that Sesshoumaru had fallen asleep, she flicked the pelt at him, but this time, his hand quickly shot up to his forehead and he flicked the pelt away from him. The pelt flew towards Inutaisho this time, but Inutaisho had his eyes open and, faster than Sesshoumaru had deflected Kagome's pelt, released his light whip, screaming at the top of his lungs, "DIE EVIL PELT!" In a flash of blue, the poor pelt disintegrated into nothing but dust. Not only was the small pelt destroyed, but so were all the things that his long light whip touched. Inuyasha, who was now working on a Kouga face with his rubber bands, ducked without looking, and Sesshoumaru jumped up landing gracefully on the table. Miroku calmly turned his head to the side, pushing Sango away from him to save her. Sean, who had now gone completely over the edge with his presentation made wild gestures moving out of the way of the light whip without realizing it.
Unfortunately, the projector wasn't saved as Inutaisho's light whip sliced neatly through it making it crash down in the middle of the conference table, which was, god forbid, mahogany. Inutaisho's light whip had also succeeded in creating some holes in the walls and slicing some of the chairs in half and breaking the windows.
Kagome and the rest (excluding Sean, and Inuyasha who was putting the finishing touches on his mini-Kouga) glared at Inutaisho who was standing in his chair with one foot on the table, his right arm extended up towards the ceiling as his light whip slowly dissipated into his two fingers. "HAHA! NOBODY MESSES WITH THE CONNECT FOUR KING!"
"DIE SESSHOUMARU'S NOSE!" Inuyasha screamed as he clamped his hand on Sesshoumaru's nose. Sesshoumaru merely glared at his younger brother.
"Father, do you have any idea what you've just done to our conference room?"
"Huh?" Inutaisho put on a confused face, but it quickly melted off his face and reformed into a sheepish look as he realized he just demolished half the room. Inuyasha, who had fallen over in his chair because Sesshoumaru had shoved him, stood up.
"Geez dad, mom's gonna kill you." Right when he said that, the door opened and Izayoi's head popped in as the lights went back on, or the ones that somehow managed to survive Inutaisho's light whip. Inutaisho gulped.
"What the… INUTAISHOOOOOOOOOOOO! WHAT DID YOU JUST DO TO THIS THREE-MILLION DOLLAR CONFERENCE ROOM?"
"Good luck dad." Was all Inuyasha said as he jumped up to his feet to leave the conference room. Kagome had also stood up as she discreetly swept the remaining rubber band pelts into her brief case. And slowly, one by one, each members of the conference left, leaving Sean, who was shaking in terror in the corner to face the wrath of Izayoi.
As the group of six calmly walked away from the conference room, they heard Izayoi screaming: "EVIL PELT? DO YOU HONESTLY THINK THAT ONE MEASLEY LITTLE PELT WOULD HAVE CAUSED THIS DISTRUCTION?"
"How did your conference go, Inuyashie?"
"How many times do I have to ask you not to call me that, Myiami?"
"I'm sorry sir."
Inuyasha FEH-ed haughtily and was about to go into his office when he suddenly froze at the door stiff as a board. He stood there for a while before returning back to the secretary that barely came to work. He put his face in front of her and scrutinized her, "Myiami? You actually came? What a miracle! First dad ruins our conference room, then Kagome creates the greatest feat of smacking Sesshoumaru dead-on in his forehead with her rubber band and now you manage to somehow show up! What has gotten into this mad, crazy, merry-go-round world? Eh… oh, and I do not want you to disturb me in any way unless I call on you." He babbled into the blushing secretary's face before putting on a disgusted face and marching away.
Inuyasha tossed his brief case onto his desk and began to shuffle through it, searching for some paperwork. When he found none, he clicked his brief case shut and sat in his chair before promptly turning to his computer to do some more work. Little did he know that somehow, after excusing a scared Sean, his parents had made up very quickly. Now, Inutaisho and Izayoi were squashed together in front of his door watching him through the keyhole with worried expressions on their faces.
"Izayoi… now I'm really starting to get worried. He's gone straight to work after magically surviving that awfully boring presentation… I mean, after that ENLIGHTENING presentation of course," Inutaisho nervously corrected when confronted with Izayoi's flashing glare. Meanwhile, Kikyou and Myiami were blinking at the two.
"Inutaisho? Izayoi? What are you doing here?" A girl's voice came from behind them. The two nearly yelled out loud and turned around to face Kagome Higurashi who had a puzzled look on her face. She was standing there holding onto her coat with a scarf around her neck with a handbag slung on her shoulder.
Immediately, Myiami shot out from her seat and began hovering around Kagome telling her that Inuyasha didn't wish to be disturbed. Kagome flashed her a glare and hissed, sounding oddly like Sesshoumaru, "Do you have any idea what the time is? It's 13:35, and Inuyasha hasn't eaten anything since breakfast."
"But, but…"
Inutaisho and Izayoi watched in awe as Kagome shoved past Miyami and threw open the door to the lion's den. They knew that when Inuyasha meant, "do not disturb", he really meant it. "Inuyasha! Why are you sitting there working? You haven't eaten anything all—"
"GET OUT! GET OUT, GET OUT, GET OUT!" Inutaisho cringed as a brief case, a cell phone, a palm pilot, pencils, erasers, a shoe and a paperweight flew out of the open doors. "MYIAMI! I THOUGHT I ASKED YOU TO HOLD ALL CALLS AND VISITORS!" Myiami was now visibly shaking, hardly able to speak. What astounded the parents the most was Kagome's bold voice.
"HOW DARE YOU!" Kagome screamed, "I CAME HERE TO GO TO LUNCH WITH YOU, BECAUSE I CARED, AND THIS IS THE TREATMENT I GET? I'M OUT!"
"FINE! WHO WANTS TO EAT LUNCH WITH A WRETCH LIKE YOU?"
"OKAY THEN!"
"OKAY!"
"GOOD!"
"OKAY!"
"OKAY!"
"GOOD!"
"ALRIGHT! AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED, I'M GOING TO GO TO MYOKO'S TO GET SOME SUSHI!"
"SO?"
"SO? SINCE IT'S FAR AND I DIDN'T BRING MY CAR, I'LL BE TAKING YOURS!"
"WHAAAAAAAAAAAT? GO RIDE WITH SANGO!"
"SHE ALREADY WENT OUT TO LUNCH WITH MIROKU, YOU DOG TURD!"
"DID YOU JUST CALL ME DOG TURD? HOW CARE YOU, YOU INSOLENT GIRL! GET OUT OF MY SIGHT AND YOU ARE MOST DEFINITELY NOT GOING TO USE MY CAR!"
"TOO BAD, SINCE I ALREADY HAVE YOUR KEYS! AND, MR. HOTSHOT, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SEE IT FOR AN HOUR, UNLESS YOU PLAN ON JOINING ME!"
"ARE YOU THREATENING ME?"
"WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO IF I SAID I WAS?"
"GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! WELL YOUR PITIFUL BLACKMAILING DOESN'T WORK WITH ME!"
"WE'LL SEE! GOOD BYE! I'M GOING TO CRASH YOUR CAR AND FLATTEN THE TIRES WHEN I COME BACK!"
"NO YOU CAN'T!"
"YES I CAN!"
"CAN NOT!"
"CAN TOO!"
"CAN NOT!"
"CAN TOO!"
"CAN NOT, NOT, NOT!"
"OH YES I CAN TOO, TOO, TOO!"
"YOU CAN'T BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE THE CAR KEYS!"
"I DO HAVE YOUR KEYS!"
The sound of a set of keys jangling was heard and the sound of heels clicking across the marble floor was heard, as Kagome emerged from Inuyasha's study looking shaken and angry indeed. Sure enough, she held his keys in her hands, twirling it around her index finger as she raged across the foyer of Inuyasha's office and into the elevator.
"OY! Wait! Get back here, wretch!" Inuyasha yelled running after Kagome as he clumsily pulled his coat on. "STOP!" He ran into the elevators just as the doors slid shut. Inutaisho and Izayoi looked at each other. Kagome was definitely the one for one of their sons. Now, the only thing left was to see which ones of their sons were to be with her.
Inuyasha growled to himself as he eased the car around the bend to Myoko's, one of the jazziest places on earth. He cast a sidelong look at Kagome who was leaning back in her seat next to him with a look of triumph plastered on her face. Scowling to himself about annoying, stubborn female CEOs, Inuyasha pulled his Lexus up to the main entrance where a door boy immediately leapt forward to open their doors. Upon seeing Inuyasha's haughty face, he immediately paled and bowed to him, "Welcome to Myoko, Mr. Suzuki." He said humbly. Inuyasha simply peered down at him through his nose before coolly stepping away from his car to escort Kagome into the restaurant. A smartly dressed woman immediately straightened herself up while fixing her hair upon seeing Inuyasha. "Have you made your reservations, Mr. Suzuki?"
"No, she did." Inuyasha said nodding curtly at Kagome. The woman's polite look slightly faltered to a slight sneer when she laid her eyes on a calm Kagome. Inuyasha flashed her a glare making her straighten up again and put on her fake smile.
"Have you made any reservations, miss?"
"Yes, I do believe I asked Kagura to reserve a table under Higurashi Kagome." The woman expertly flipped through her booklet of reserved tables. Much to her dismay, she found Kagome's name. "Ah here it is, please follow Jenna to room nine." Kagome nodded as she turned to follow Jenna who had come bustling out of the restaurant. She had a set of earphones in her ears and a microphone attached it, making it look awkward with her sky-blue kimono. As Inuyasha turned away from the woman, he flashed her a glare and hissed, "The next time I see you mistreating one of my employees, I will promptly have you removed." Making sure that he had the woman stiffen in fear, he stalked away.
Inuyasha took his shoes off along with Kagome as Jenna slid open a traditional Japanese private dining room. She placed a pitcher of water and two menus on the low table as Inuyasha and Kagome arranged themselves on the floor, tucking their feet into the small hole under the table. Kagome immediately opened her menu to scan through the sets while Inuyasha did the same occasionally tossing glances at her over his menu. Finally, Kagome lowered her menu and asked him what he wanted. Inuyasha looked away and said whatever she wanted. After arguing a bit over who could eat what they wanted, they came to a conclusion of choosing what they both wanted.
So much without looking up from his menu, Inuyasha reached out with a clawed hand to smartly tap a buzzer that called one of the waiters/waitresses. A woman dressed in a red Kimono and a white obi silently slid the sliding door open with a polite smile. "Shall I take your order?" She asked politely. Inuyasha calmly ordered and with the sharp flare of his golden eyes, sent the waitress out, trembling. Inuyasha noticed that Kagome stared wide-eyed at him. Did she notice the difference? He hoped not.
Usually, Inuyasha acted just as composed, haughty, and confident as his older brother to a lesser extent, but in front of Kagome, he was the whining, immature irate ape… err… make that dog. Inuyasha closed his eyes and crossed his arms across his chest clearing his throat at the same time. He slowly opened one eye to see what Kagome's reaction was, but her face didn't really show any signs of emotions. Well, at least she wasn't looking at him. He hoped that she didn't think he was like Sesshoumaru. That cocky bastard… he thought to himself, He thinks he's king of the world or something. Inuyasha lifted the pitcher and poured Kagome a glass of cold tea before then poured himself a cup as well. Kagome raised an eyebrow at him.
"I didn't know that you knew how to pour tea for others first."
"Woman! You know very well who my parents are. Do you honestly expect them to let me get away without learning manners?"
"Really? They taught you manners? Wow! If they taught you manners, how come you're always rude, cocky, mean, and ignorant? You sure you got a masters degree from U Penn?"
"WHAT? Me? COCKY? Okay, I get the mean, rude, and the ignorant part, but I do not, I repeat, I do not understand the cocky part of your lame-ass observation! I thought Sesshoumaru was the cocky one!"
"Well, Sesshoumaru's cocky-er, and you're just plain cocky!"
"FEH! Not like you're any less cockier!"
Just as they were about to engage in their scary throwing-things-at-each-other war, a slight knock came from the door, and Inuyasha immediately dropped his mean, rude, and ignorant personalities. "Yes?" The door slid open and the same woman who took their order before came in with a tray of appetizers.
"Your food shall be arriving shortly." She said before backing out of the room and leaving. Inuyasha shrugged and picked up his chopsticks. Kagome did the same, but she hesitated.
"Well, what are you doing? Ladies first." Kagome raised another eyebrow but took a piece of the appetizer and so their lunch started. It was actually a very fun and interesting lunch. In between plates of the finest and most expensive sushi, and deep-fried shrimps and vegetables, Inuyasha and Kagome discussed a bit about their business before that collapsed into an entirely different type of conversation. They talked about Miroku and his hindquarter-rubbing habit and ways to heal it. They also talked about how Inutaisho built Suzuki Corporations out of scratch and a bit about Sean and his boring speeches.
Sesshoumaru leaned back against his chair in a small, yet pricey café letting out a satisfied sigh. He had just finished a solitary lunch in New York's finest restaurant and cast cold shudders at any women who he had caught laying eyes on him. Bored out of his mind, Sesshoumaru checked his email from his laptop finding that he had no messages except for a reminder from Jaken about an up-coming dinner party for Dan Filander. Dan Filander was actually a close friend to Inutaisho, and the dinner party was actually for his birthday. How he hated parties, he hated it when people came and bothered him. Alas, he knew Inutaisho would force him to go to the party and find a temporary mate for the party.
That was one of the worst things about a huge dinner party accompanied by a ball. Of all the things you can do on your birthday, why did the fool choose a dinner party? He asked to himself, his eyebrows knitted together in annoyance. Anyway, other than the reminder from Jaken, his email account was empty... typical. Sesshoumaru checked his watch to see that he still had a good hour and thirty minutes left of lunch. He sighed out loud and checked the messages on his cell phone, again nothing but business contacts. Fighting the lonely feeling that formed at the back of his throat, Sesshoumaru muttered, "Good, no irritating fools to bother me about mindless titter-tattle," before he flipped his phone shut.
Deciding that he should get back to work early, Sesshoumaru rose from his seat in the café leaving behind a meager amount of tip on the table before gliding out of the café. As usual, Sesshoumaru shot all the women a glare as they drooled over him. He lived a lonely life especially after his mother had died when he was only seven. The only things that happened in Sesshoumaru's life was work, sleep little, frown, glare, and work; nothing more, nothing less.
Frowning slightly about the nippy air around him, Sesshoumaru unlocked his apartment door and pushed it open. Jaken was not here because a relative of his had passed away, thus leaving the poor vice-president all alone inside a huge apartment. Sesshoumaru leaned over his answering machine with a slightly hopeful manner that at least someone called him. Much to his delight, there was one call for him. Forgetting to remain calm and cool, Sesshoumaru excitedly pushed the play button and frowned immediately as his father's voice filled the room about him finding a suitable girl. In fact, Inutaisho was bubbling about having found a perfect girl for him and was asking him to at least give her a try. "…Remember, come see me first thing tomorrow morning in my office no later than seven."
Letting out a loud sigh of frustration, Sesshoumaru dropped onto his couch thinking about who this woman was that he was to try out again. He remembered when he was a bit younger, his father had tried to get him to go out with the neighbor's daughter, by the name of Nina Welsh. However, that relationship ended up in a disaster, provided that they had too much in common, including their personalities. Both of them had to have nearly everything go their way, and Sesshoumaru had tried to keep the relationship up for the sake of Inutaisho, but he couldn't take it any more. So, they clashed and got into a very big fight, with Sesshoumaru storming out on her. In fact, that was three years ago, so long ago that Sesshoumaru had forgotten what they had argued about. The only words he remembered from their bitter separation were: "If you walk out on me now, you'll never be able to see me again." Sesshomaru had stopped, and, without turning around told her, "Do whatever you wish," before stalking coldly out on her.
Nina had told him that he would regret it and that he would be a sour lonely man for the rest of his life. Yes, she was right about the sour and the lonely part, but he certainly didn't regret it, especially when he ran into her at SAKS to buy Izayoi a birthday gift exactly a year ago. She was with a new guy he didn't know, and she was bossily dragging the poor guy around telling him to do this and that. This was a couple days after Inuyasha and thrown a fit at her for being, as he politely put it, a bitch, and she was once again on her own.
They had run into each other when they both reached for the same diamond necklace. At first he didn't recognize her, she had become more beautiful than he remembered and hadn't he known about her sour attitude, he would have regretted losing her. "Well, well, well, if it isn't Sesshoumaru? What are you doing here? The last time I saw you at daddy's birthday party, you were without a date! Did you find one, or are you struggling to keep one?"
"What happens in my love life is no longer of your concern, woman." Was all Sesshoumaru said before ignoring her completely to ask the sales lady for the price of the necklace. Nina looked greatly agitated since nobody ignored her like that. And when no one was looking, shoved him out of the way so he humiliatingly stumbled over to the side. Crows of laughter erupted from the passersby as Sesshoumaru calmly stood up dusting the dirt off his pants. Outside, his ice-like mask barely flickered, but in the inside he was boiling in anger. He silenced the crowd with his cold glare before moving on to another store. "Take that! Never mess with Nina Welsh!" Came her triumphant reply as Sesshoumaru coolly walked away.
Yes, it was awfully humiliating, and to make matters worse, Nina had found so many ways to embarrass him whenever they met in public affairs, Sesshoumaru had stopped all sources of entertainment includingconcerts, exhibitions, and parties. He onlywent to parties when forcefullydragged to themby Inutaisho.The last thing he needed was to run into Nina at Dan Filander's birthday party. She was bound to humiliate him there. Sesshoumaru rubbed his palms into his forehead as he leaned forward in his couch. If Nina wasn't at any of these social events, then he would never be humiliated. But somehow, Nina managed to pop up in nearly all of his public events. He secretly thanked her for herbimboness, otherwise, he probably would have been humiliated in front of his inmates during important business conferences.
Sesshoumaru sighed once more before he slowly got up from his position on the couch. Tomorrow night was going to be a long night. Sesshoumaru hoped that he would fall ill that day and not go, but right now, the only feeling he was getting was nervousness. Without breaking his thick porcelin mask of apathy, Sesshoumaru decided to forget work for the night and fell into his bed in exhaustion without changing into his pajamas.