Le Livre d'Amour

Chapter 6- The Surprise

By Miyu6

Kagome ran to her car and jumped in, slamming the door and then putting her arms on the top of her steering wheel and resting her head on top of them.

'Why? Why do I care so much about you Inuyasha?'

"Can't you just understand? Why won't you let me get close to you?"

After allowing herself the time to cry, Kagome wiped her eyes on her sleeve and put the keys into the ignition, pulling out of the parking lot shortly after that. On the way home, she thought about everything that had happened. She began to worry if Inuyasha would be okay.

'What if he's just lying at the top of the stairs? What if he needs my help?'

Then she thought about what Inuyasha would say.

"I don't need your help, wench." She mimicked after contemplating it for a while, seeming to confirm that she was being silly.

"He doesn't need me. He already made that clear as crystal. He'll be fine by himself." she said to herself.

'And yet…I find myself still worrying constantly. How do you do this to me Inuyasha? What kind of power do you have over me?'


Inuyasha felt horrible. Not only were both of his knees bleeding freely now but he felt bad for hurting Kagome's feelings. No, he wasn't as blind to the way she felt as she might have thought. He just didn't know how to act when around her.

"And now I don't have to worry about it, do I?" he berated himself.

"Kagome's gone and I'll probably never see her again. But that's how I wanted it, isn't it?"

He managed to finally make it to the top of the stairs, his knees now feeling very stiff, and make it to his room which was only two doors down from the door to the winding stairway. As he made it to the doorknob and unlocked it (Kagome had, kindly, left his keys in his pocket) he relished the feel of being home at last. The apartment was nothing special and nothing short of a bachelor pad. It wasn't dirty but there wasn't much to the room. A used couch, used chairs, and a very used coffee table sat in the middle of the living room in front of a very nice television. The bed was in a room off to the left and it was made quite nicely and looked unslept in. Inuyasha found his way to the kitchen to grab a washcloth and clean himself off. After hobbling towards the couch, his legs seemed to buckle and he fell right onto it, sinking in slightly.

It just wasn't the same as being at Kagome's; but still…it was home.

After flipping the television on, Inuyasha found that he wasn't the least bit interested in anything that he saw. His mind just wouldn't stay focused on the screen and instead had drifted off to thinking of something else; someone else.

"Dammit. Leave me alone." He whisperedto himselfand grabbed the phone to order a pizza.


Two weeks later, Kagome had seen neither hide nor beautiful silver hair of Inuyasha. She had set her mind to doing other things such as cleaning the house fruitlessly or reading books that she never liked before but that were just sitting on her shelves waiting for someone to pick them up. Inuyasha, she decided, was to be the last thing on her mind.

Around noon the phone rang and Kagome picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Hello. This is Kamiya Kasuki. And this is Ms. Higurashi I presume?"

"Oh yes. Good afternoon Mrs. Kasuki." Kagome said politely.

"Yes. Good indeed. I was wondering if you might do me the honor of stopping by my office today. Say…around 5:00 tonight?"

"Of course. But may I ask what the occasion is?"

"Well I believe you just did. But I'm afraid I can't tell you. It's a…surprise."

Kagome cocked an eyebrow.

"A surprise you tell me? All right then. I'll be there."

"How wonderful. I'll see you then. Good bye Kagome."

"Good bye."

After hanging up the phone, Kagome's mind flooded with all sorts of questions. What kind of surprise could her editor have for her? She decided that she'd better not press on the matter and just wait to find out. It had to be something good, right?

After eating an early dinner, Kagome made her way to the bathroom to put on her face and do her hair. Making a fuss before going in public was something that Kagome had become rather accustomed to. Her skin was pale and flawless and her hair had been put up into a tight bun on the back of her head and now had two light pink hair chopsticks sticking out of the top. To go along with the rest of her ensemble, she wore a brocade blouse with short sleeves and faux butterfly clasps leading up the middle. The white skirt that she wore was modest and fell to just past her knees.

"I think I'm ready." she said, smiling at herself in the mirror and then vacating the bathroom to grab her purse.

By the time she reached the office, it was almost 5:00 on the dot. The sights that she took in as she parked her car were so familiar by now. She had commuted there constantly while her book was waiting to be published so long ago. Now she only made trips there every once in a while but the area never seemed to change.

Making her way inside, Kagome weaved through the familiar hallways. She remembered getting lost there numerous times during her first visits. Finally she stopped and turned to a door on the left that had a sign on the front.

'Kamiya Kasuki: Chief Editor'

Kagome knocked lightly on the door frame and waited for an answer.

From inside came a very soft, womanly voice. "Is that you Kagome?"

"Hai."

"Oh, very good. Come in please."

Kagome complied and opened the door, shutting it behind her. Kamiya motioned to a seat that was in front of her and Kagome sat down in it, leaning slightly on the desk after setting her purse down at her feet.

"I had some very good news for you Kagome and it just didn't seem right for me to share it with you over the phone."

"What is it?" Kagome asked, curiosity creeping out of every syllable.

Another knock came at the door.

"Is that my coffee?" Kamiya asked loud enough for the person on the other side to hear.

"Yeah."

"Alright. You may bring it in."

Kagome was reading a newspaper article that was posted on the wall to the left. It was an article about her book when it first hit the bookshelves in stores. Its popularity had been amazing and had continued to grow since then. If only Kagome had known how she would be thrown into the mix as a celebrity. How did one book cause so much popularity for a single person?

The man slipped into the room and put Mrs. Kasuki's coffee mug on the desk next to her. He didn't seem to be paying attention to anything except what he was doing.

"Why, thank you very much." Mrs. Kasuki said with a smile.

He had almost reached the door when Mrs. Kasuki stopped him.

"What is your name again? I don't believe I've seen you before."

"I just started working here this morning."

"Ah, I see. Well in any case, I have someone I would like you to meet. Please come over here."

His expression seemed to droop slightly as he obeyed and moved over to her side.

"This is Kagome Higurashi." she announced, her tone slightly more demanding and proud now.

Kagome turned away from the article to see who was being addressed and nearly fell out of her seat in shock.

Staring down at the floor and seeming suddenly very interested in the pattern of the carpet in front of her, was none other than Inuyasha. His wounds had healed quite nicely, she noticed.

"I bet when you came in to work today Mr.--"

"It's…Inuyasha."

"—Inuyasha…you never thought you'd be meeting the famous Kagome Higurashi face to face, did you?"

"I had…no idea."

"Well you should feel very fortunate." she pressed on.

Inuyasha's gaze moved up to Kagome's face and he met her eyes. He instantly wished he hadn't. Her gaze reflected the hurt that she felt after he hadn't bothered to contact her for those two weeks. He thought he might have seen anger somewhere in her eyes too. Of course, it was her right to be mad at him. But what did he care? It wasn't like they were going out or anything right?

It seemed like forever that they stared at each other. It felt like a year had passed before Kamiya finally granted Inuyasha leave of the office so that she could discuss with Kagome the important surprise she had wanted to share. Kagome watched him leave the room and shut the door. Her heart didn't seem to beat any slower even with him gone. She hoped that it wasn't making too much noise.

"Now Kagome, back to what we were talking about?"

"Yes…of course."

"I'm not sure if you are aware, but your book has sold well over a million copies by now."

"A… million?"

Surely there had been a miscalculation of some sort? A million was just not possible. How could her book have become THAT popular in only months?

"Well yes, of course. But that's not the big news."

"T-there's more?"

Kamiya leaned on the desk so that she was even closer to Kagome.

"They want us to go International."

"You're joking."

It was almost too much now. First the book had become so popular in just Japan and now they wanted to sell it in other countries?

"No, I'm not joking. It's already being translated into 6 different languages including English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, and Swedish."

Kagome was now at a loss for words.

"I knew you would be pleased." Kamiya stated, misinterpreting Kagome's expression and leaning back in her chair smiling.

"I'm just so glad that an author as influential as you could share her thoughts with the world."

Kagome still hadn't said anything.

"Are you alright Kagome?" Kamiya asked.

"I…I'm fine. Really."

But her thoughts had strayed from the book yet again and she was now wondering what the silver-haired man, who was standing just on the other side of the office door, would think.


Okay…so I think I'm on a roll now. Ijust uploadedthe very last chapter (chapter 70)ofLMAIA (which I started writing back in 2003!) and now I'm updating this one! I'm feeling very proud of myself. Very proud indeed.

Anyway, I never did find the notebook that went along with this story but amazingly enough when I went to go rewrite the chapter everything came flooding back to memory! All of a sudden I remembered where I was going and everything! I'm so happy to be back and alive.

Besides going through a lot with my dad being gone and everything, I've been obsessed for the past year with Gaia Online. If you've never been there, you should look it up on Google and sign up. I joined February of last year and I'm still obsessed with it. For those of you that have Gaia accounts, my username is Mirialiah so feel free to drop me a PM or something sometime. If you have any feedback or ideas for this story you can let me know that way too. Or you can just say Hi. I love random PMs.

Oh yeah, and if there are typos in this one (ie. Words squished together) then please ignore them. The editor seems to be doing that to me a lot.


Miyu