Previously:
She was almost out of the ally when the girl, Sango, called out, speaking for the first time. "Oi!" Kagome was a little surprised to hear the Australian accent. She turned around to see the two of them, with an unconscious Inuyasha spread between them, as they both stared at her for a bit, as if they hadn't expected her to actually turn around.
"Do you think…" Miroku asked, hesitating before smiling sheepishly. "Do you think we could ask you a favor?"
Kagome felt her stomach seize up, her body tensing in anticipation. 'Oh no…'
She knew what the favor was going to be. She could practically hear Miroku's voice already in her mind as she stared at the grinning, violet-eyed man. The three of them were caught in a long, thick silence until finally he said what she had known he was going to say the whole time: "Do you think we could stay with you for a while?"
Kagome stared blankly at him... In her mind she was screaming: 'NO! NO! NO! NO! NO YOU MAY NOT! EVER!' "Don't you have a hotel?" She asked weakly.
Miroku sighed tiredly, while Sango just stared at Kagome, unnerving her a little. The older, dark brown haired girl had yet to speak a full sentence to Kagome, other than "Oi", which didn't really count in Kagome's mind.
"Well yes we do," Miroku said, "But there's a bit of an…" he searched for the right word, his handsome face covered by a contemplative expression, "issue."
"An issue?" Kagome echoed with a touch of disbelief. "What's that?"
Miroku smiled sheepishly while he scratched the back of his head with his free hand. "The issue is: our manager is staying in the hotel with us."
'Oh, the manager…ok… umm… what?' Kagome tried to explain to herself why the manager would be any reason for BlackSun to need to stay with her, but soon realized that she could find none. "Um, I'm sorry, but that would be important because…?" She drifted, confused.
"Because our manager will be the reason for his hangover in the morning," Miroku said, jerking his thumb at Inuyasha's limp figure. "And when he wakes up, he won't be anymore happier than he was a few moments ago."
Kagome remembered with unwelcome vividness the way Inuyasha had violently smashed the beer bottle against the wall in a cruel shattering explosion of glass. She stared silently at BlackSun, unable to believe what was happening to her. The entire band wanted to barge into her home, impose themselves on her family and their hospitality, just because of a fight between Inuyasha and their manager?
Apparently Miroku could tell she was wavering. "It really is for Mr. Myoga's own safety," Miroku explained, referring, she supposed, to the manager himself. "You see he's not quite the young man he used to be, and if he's there when Inuyasha wakes up, it might be the last time we ever get to see the greedy old bastard."
Kagome eyed Miroku suspiciously before she once again remembered the way Inuyasha had acted in the ally before he had passed out. She replayed the scene in her mind, only instead of a beer bottle, Inuyasha was hurling his manager's head into the wall... it would shatter in a similar fashion. Kagome cringed, Miroku was probably right… maybe taking Inuyasha to her home would mean saving a life… but she was sure it was going to make hers hell.
She studied the unconscious man carefully for the first time as he hung limp between his two friends. She looked at him without the guitar, without the usual arrogant smirk, and without the lights and the smoke and the crowds and the music, and for the first time, caught a glimpse of something nice… something simple…something… peaceful. 'Whoa whoa whoa!' She mentally slapped herself. 'Get a hold of yourself! Where did that come from!' Still… there was something about him that led her to whisper a weak. "Ok."
Miroku somehow heard it anyway, smiling, he cast a glance at Sango, whose expression remained blank as she shifted Inuyasha's weight on her shoulder. The unconscious head lolled back and forth like a pendulum. It didn't seem like he would be awakening anytime soon.
"Let me help you get him to the bus stop," Kagome said tiredly, starting forwards without quite believing what she was getting herself into. It was probably about one in the morning, and it had been a very long day, no thanks to the three people in front of her and here she was in a back ally, bringing home a drunken rockstar home with her... what her mother say to that? She wondered with a weak smile. All she wanted was to go home and fall asleep in a steaming hot bubble bath… but that would have to wait.
"No." Miroku said, drawing back as she approached. He shook his head, his dark hair moving gracefully as he brushed it out of his eyes with a gloved hand that had no finger coverings. "We'll just walk."
Kagome's jaw practically hit the pavement as she gaped at the drummer. "W-walk?" She laughed in slight shock. "Mr. Miroku-"
"Just 'Miroku'." He interrupted her casually, giving her a charming smile that annoyed her.
"Miroku," She said, taking a breath, "My house must be at least five miles away. Are you sure you want to walk to it?"
Miroku looked at her for a while, and she was certain that he was going to say, "Oh, well then, sorry, I guess we'll be going back to the hotel after all" or "well, then, the bus it is." But he didn't. Instead he turned to Sango, and gave her a kind of crooked smile that Kagome had never seen before, and asked: "Sango? Up for it?" As if Kagome had just suggested they take a little stroll around the park.
To her slight shock and horror, Sango smiled back, nodding her dark hair. Kagome's knees weakened. 'These people…' She thought weakly to herself. 'They're all completely crazy!' She didn't even think she had the strength left to walk back to her house. It was all uphill, and then there were the stairs… But Kagome was too tired to argue, and it seemed, to her annoyance, that BlackSun was full of stubborn people who were used to getting their way. Even the girl, Sango, who hadn't said a single word to her so far, other than "Oi", seemed to have a strange, silent stubbornness about her. She definitely wasn't someone Kagome would want to mess with.
"Alright," She said weakly, "But if you change your minds we can always just use the nearest bust stop."
Miroku smiled. "I think we'll be fine."
"Ok. Ummm, do you need help with… him." She nodded down to the unconscious man, between them.
"No, we should be fine." Miroku said again. "Sango may look like a girl, but she can bench press more weight than half the men in Japan."
"Including you, you letch." The keyboardist replied tartly, though Kagome thought she saw a little smile tucked into the corner of Sango's mouth as she lightly punched Miroku's arm. Once again Kagome noticed the thick Australian accent.
Miroku only shrugged and smiled, rubbing his shoulder where he had been hit. "Ah, what can I say? I don't have the focus to train like you do."
"You have plenty of focus," Sango countered, looking disgusted, "until the instructor comes…"
"Hm, yes, Ms. Kimiko…" Miroku said, a dreamy far-off look clouding over his violet eyes. He smiled slightly. "Indeed she is has a very nice-"
He was interrupted by a sharp smack across the head, and Sango lowered her hand as quickly as she had raised it. "Save it," She said, seeming bored. "I'm not in the mood."
"Well…" Kagome said, a little uncomfortably, choosing to ignore the conversation she couldn't understand, "I hope you know what you're in for…it's a really long walk."
Miroku smiled that overpoweringly charming smile at her again. "We'll be fine."
Three hours later, Miroku was far from fine. Kagome could tell from his labored breathing and slow, staggering steps. She imagined that both of the musicians must have been exhausted. She had known it was going to be hard on them, and that they should have taken the bus, but for some reason, they seemed to refuse to admit it.
"Are you sure you don't want any help with him?" Kagome asked, turning around, tired and irritated. She wished they would just admit that it would be easier to take the bus. Her own feet were sore, her thighs and calves were aching beneath her black jeans from walking slightly uphill for three hours straight.
"We're (gasp) fine." Was the ragged reply.
"We're passing a bus stop…" Kagome said, trying her best to tempt the stubborn drummer, but only doing a good job in tempting herself. She found she was looking at bench inside the Plexiglas box with a horrible longing. The bust stop seemed to call to her, willing her to rest her aching body down and wait for the bus. But Miroku wouldn't hear of it.
"We're fine."
Kagome forced down her annoyance as best she could, but apparently wasn't doing such a great job because when Miroku saw her face he burst out into laughter. It was deep and sudden, like a thunderclap. It reminded Kagome a little of her fathers…
"Annoyed?" Miroku laughed. "You look it. But I guess I understand why you are. But you see," he said, his breathing slightly heavily, a bead of sweat starting to form on his forehead. "If we use public transportation," he stopped to gasp and cough haggardly. "It won't be long until somebody recognizes us, and then", he gasped again, "before you know it, we're surrounded by our own ocean of fans…" He shifted Inuyasha who grunted slightly but showed no signs of waking. "Trust me," Miroku continued, still breathing heavily, "This walk is much better."
Kagome stared, puzzled, at Miroku. From what she had been able to tell, he, Inuyasha and Sango had eaten up all attention that they had received when they were on stage at the concert. She never realized that it was something they tried to avoid. Miroku smirked, it seemed he could read her mind like an open book. "He's different," he explianed, nodding his head at Inuyasha, whose shoes were badly scuffed from being dragged against the concrete. "He loves the attention. Goes straight to his head actually, that being the reason for the ego and the attitude. He suffers from a severe case of megalomania you know." He said with a wink.
Kagome smirked before she could stop herself. Go figure…
"So that's why we prefer walking, thank you very much." Miroku said as if he were finishing a lecture or something. "Now if you don't mind," he said, straightening a bit and putting on a new look of determination that made Kagome want to slap him. "Do we just continue straight to get to your house?"
"Yeah, keep going straight." Kagome said, turning slowly around and leading them towards Higurashi shrine, forcing her tired muscles to hold out just a little longer. The night was warm, her face was soothed by a cool, softening breeze that would brush across her face like a hand. Usually she would have loved to be out in this type of night, but at the moment, she was too tired and too annoyed to enjoy it. She could have gone to sleep right on the street at that very moment. But she doubted that Sango and Miroku would have appreciated that very much…
When they reached the white stairs it was almost four fifteen in the morning and Kagome was ready to sleep… anywhere. "My house is just up these stairs…" She said, watching with a bit of satisfaction as a look of exhausted shock spread over both Sango and Miroku's faces. 'I told you so…' She sung tauntingly in her head, trying to hide her smirk. There were thousands of stairs.
Miroku and Sango were stunned. So stunned, that they let Inuyasha's limp figure slide off their shoulders and crumple on the ground like a wet rag.
"Oh to the Gods…" Miroku breathed.
"Let's rest for a bit." Kagome said, sitting down on the foot of the alabaster staircase and leaning her head on the fifth step. It was far from comfortable, but she was too tired to care. She could barely keep her eyes open as it was. Miroku and Sango were soon laying back beside her, their chests rising up and down steadily in the moonlight like strange machines. The three of them lay together and in silence until Miroku finally spoke up. He sat, rubbing his eye with the heel of his palm, while staring tiredly at Inuyasha. "Do you really think he deserves to be hauled up these stairs…?" He asked, a look of pain spreading across his face as he regarded his blonde-haired friend. "The temptation to just leave him here is growing stronger by the second."
Kagome was so tired, that she found Miroku's suggestion strangely hysterical. She could just imagine the three of them, leaving Inuyasha knocked out on the pavement and dragging themselves up the white stairs to soft, clean beds while the famous rock star slept on in the filthy streets of Tokyo. Maybe he would wake up in the morning with a pidgeon or two nesting in his hair… or some gum wrappers… of course he would be furious… Miroku was right; the temptation was growing stronger by the second.
She sat up to study Inuyasha. As soon as her tired, red-rimmed eyes fell on his face, she was strangely captivated by the way the moonlight washed over him like liquid silver. She saw that gentleness in him again… whoops. That strange feeling of attachment suddenly overwhelmed her, and she couldn't bring herself to leave him.
"No," She said, laying back down on the steps, trying in vain to find a non-existent comfortable spot on the steps. "I'll help you take him up." After a few moments she sighed and pushed herself up. Her body begging her for just two more minutes. It took every bit of her willpower to stand. "Alright, let's go. I'll help this time."
Miroku shook his head with a tired sigh. "No… we got him this far, we might as well haul him up these… these…" his voice drifted off as his weary gaze fell again on the enormous white staircase, the fact that their beautiful, dream-like glow was intensified by the moonlight didn't seem to make up for the fact that they would still be hell to climb. "Well I suppose it's more like a mountain isn't it?" He said, resignedly.
Kagome smiled before starting up the stairs. After the first five, she was sure she was going to collapse. She could hear Miroku and Sango struggling behind her. Finally Sango spoke up, Kagome was too tired to care that she was actually talking to her.
"How can you live up here?" Sango panted breathlessly.
"I told you," Kagome said, breathing hard as she focused on the steps beneath her. "My house was far away."
"Yes." Sango breathed heavily, hauling Inuyasha up the stairs. "But I didn't realize when you said that that you meant half of the distance would be these bloody stairs."
Kagome tried to smile and laugh, but was too tired to physically do so. She was busy trying to distract herself from the way the top of the stairs seemed to steadily grow farther away from her the more she climbed. The enormous staircase seemed to have grown by fifty or so more steps since she had run down them earlier that night to meet her friends at the concert… 'If Gramps added more of these on…' she thought wearily as her lungs ached for breath, 'I'm gonna kill 'em!'
By the time they had reached the top, it was half an hour later, and Miroku and Sango had resigned to each grabbing one of Inuyasha's feet and dragging him up the stairs, despite his occasional grunts and groans of unconscious pain. They both dropped him simultaneously as they hauled him over the last step.
"Oh, a shrine." Miroku said somewhat irritably, "With stairs like those I should have known."
"Yes," Kagome said, with a breathless smile that wasn't quite sincere. "Welcome to Sunset Shrine, home of the Godfather Tree, The Shikon-No-Tama, the Bone Eater's Well… and my house."
A/N: Sorry this chapter was so boring. It was just a set up for the next chapter which will be much more interesting, because of course, Inuyasha is awake. Kagome is annoyed. Sango and Miroku meet the family… Inuyasha meets the family… the family is not very happy… yeah, it will be funnier and more interesting. That is if I can get past this damn writer's block. And sorry for the delay. I've been without online connection sine like, June 10th. Hehheh. Next chapter coming up soon! And thank you to all my reviewers. I luv u all so much!