Tatsuya and Moeko
&Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha&
"No, mom, you don't know him. He's Inuyasha's older half brother." She managed somehow to fold the soba (japanese buckwheat noodle) dough and started to cut it into small noodle stripes while talking with her mother on the phone.
"Is everything fine there? How's the baby?" She asked as she tucked the receiver firmer between her ear and shoulder.
Kagome's mother remarried three years ago. She, Souta and Jii-chan moved to Brisbane not long after that because Yusuke-san, Kagome's new father, had a new job stationed there. They asked her to come along too, but she was out of no particular reason reluctant to leave. Actually she was even glad that her family moved out, she didn't want to infect them with her grief, and her mother was so happy in love that Kagome almost hated her.
And the family really deserved their happiness after she had ditched them for one and a half year to spend most of her time in Sengoku Jidai. She had felt as if she really didn't belong to them now; she had after all estranged herself, and it wouldn't be fair if she sought her content now in them.
And six months ago her mother had sent her a beautiful baby picture of her new little brother, Yousui. It was the sweetest baby she had ever seen, and she had ached, feeling the emptiness in her womb.
"Okay, Mom, take care, okay. Bye."
Kagome set water to boil the noodle and prepared the ingredients to eat with the noodle. As the noodle cooked, she prepared iced water to cool it down, arranged it on the plate and sprinkled some nori seaweed on the top.
"Tadaima." It seemed that Shippou and Sesshoumaru were just coming home from work. She sighed as she answered, "Okaeri." Everything was so cozy and somehow familiar, the clicked sound of the closed door, the greetings, and the smell of the streets from their business suits.
It had been three weeks after she moved in. Shippou, as sweet as he was, was doing his best to act like an adolescent, sometimes a very tiring one, but most of the time affectionate. Sesshoumaru, on the other hand, acted very careful around her; at least that was what she guessed he was trying to pull. He spoke curt words of answer when asked, never say anything unnecessary except normal casual greetings (actually she thought that greetings might even be frivolous to him), so everything and everyone went along well.
"Take your seat in the breakfast room, please. The dinner will be ready in a minute; today we're having zarusoba." She wiped her hands on her apron.
"No, thanks, it's too hot to eat, and I already had a bite on the way here anyway." Shippou shrugged away and walked towards his room.
"Thank you, but I already had an early dinner today," Sesshoumaru muttered; he didn't even bothered to look at her as he continued to walk towards his library.
"Oh," Kagome nodded, and then she grabbed the chalkboard she had bought used for writing messages. She inspected her nails and scratched the surface of the chalkboard leisurely, drawing out a loud ear-piercing sound.
"Aaaaaaargh!" Both males screeched at her, hands covering their ears, eyes looking accusingly, disbelieving.
"Sorry about that, my hand slipped. Now, I want you guys to march straight into the breakfast room, and we're going to have a nice dinner together even if it kills you. Do you need an invitation?" She looked at them and threw a threatening glance towards the board as she added. "Hop, hop."
Sesshoumaru looked at Shippou accusingly, mentally said, 'she's crazy, and it's your fault we're stuck with her.' But Shippou simply smiled at him, mentally answered, "nuh, she's sweet, but oppose her if you feel like it," and he grinned while Sesshoumaru ignored him and took his seat.
She expertly served them, passing each of the dinner participants their portion of soba and tsuyu (soya based dipping sauce).
As they began to eat, she stood up and brought three cans of beers from the kitchen. "Sesshoumaru-sama, would you have some?" He nodded, and she poured the beer into the glass and handed it to him. She started to perform the same ritual for Shippou, but she stopped suddenly and eyed him taxingly.
"Sesshoumaru-sama, in demon age, is it okay for Shippou to drink alcohol?" Sesshoumaru grinned as he nodded. Shippou started to protest. "Kaa-san, I'm already over 500 years old!" And then he muttered under his breath, "In any way I'm more experienced than you."
"What was that?" Kagome asked him sharply. Shippou quickly appeased her. "Nothing, nothing at all." He answered in placating mode, eyeing the chalkboard in the kitchen.
"So, tell me, how was your day?" Kagome poured some beer into a glass and gave it to Shippou, still eyeing him suspiciously.
"Well-" They started to speak in unison. Sesshoumaru clammed up abruptly, embarrassed beyond measure, while Shippou snickered.
"Sesshoumaru-sama, I hope Shippou wasn't a bother to you. Thank you for taking care of him all these years. And to let him work for you, I couldn't express how great my gratitude to you." Kagome quickly acted in response, saving the conversation. Sesshoumaru nodded haughtily and waved his hand dismissingly.
"Mom-" Shippou gasped. "Do you know how many times in these past 500 years he had tried to knock me out? And not to mention- Ouch!"
"Believe me, Mi-, Kagome; I was only trying to discipline him. I'm afraid the education that I could only give might seem a little atrocious-" Shippou started to protest, but Sesshoumaru gave him something to rub on again and continued his sentence. "But I would never harm his existence."
"I'm glad, I guess." Kagome answered tentatively, and Sesshoumaru gave her a threatening 'you should' look. And then she gave off a small laugh, tilted her head a bit to the side and gave both males a sweet smile. "You guys really get along well, don't you?"
To her surprise, Sesshoumaru nodded. And in effect Shippou looked touched. All these years Sesshoumaru never showed to him openly that he was actually glad to have him around, and now that little nod was like a true evidence of his paternal affection.
They finished their dinner, and Kagome disappeared into the kitchen to do the wash-ups with Shippou helping her while Sesshoumaru proceeded to his library straight after dinner.
They were feeling a little bit lightheaded and giddy after dinner, but couldn't explain themselves why; maybe it was the alcohol or maybe it was the way happiness should feel, or at least the way home should feel.
After doing the chores, Kagome and Shippou moved to the living room to watch an old drama series on TV. She sat down on the couch, and Shippou contented himself by sitting on the floor near her, laying his head on her lap as she stroked his hair absently.
The drama was quite famous seven years ago. Kagome had watched it twice already. The story was simple and tears-wrenching. Tatsuya, a young player, had a very devoted girlfriend, Moeko, whom he loved. When he was about to propose to her on her birthday, she was nowhere to be found. She was somewhat suspicious that he was becoming close to a woman who was working with them, and out of jealousy she refused to meet him on her birthday, until the woman explained to her that she only spent times with Tatsuya to help him pick an engagement ring for her. So Moeko and Tatsuya went on looking for each other on that day until later that night they finally found each other, but when he was about to cross the street to get to her, a car hit him, resulted his immediate death from the impact. But in his spectral state Tatsuya found that he didn't want to leave the world yet. He had to help his girlfriend, who, caused by his tragic death, was trying to kill herself, blaming herself for his death. So he materialized his soul into the body of a coma patient, who happened to be the one who drove the car that killed him. And so the story goes… (AN: a bit complicated? But I didn't make this up; this is the story of a Japanese drama series titled 'Anything for you')
Sesshoumaru was on his way to his room, passing the living room, when he exited the library holding a staple of books under his arm, and that was when he saw them, Shippou on the floor, she stroking his hair. And he couldn't fight the sudden urge to join them, so, as if in trance, he sat himself next to her.
She was momentarily frozen in shock. At the moment his body settled down next to her she stiffened. Shippou looked up, suddenly feeling her change, and then he saw his guardian sitting next to his Okaa-san. Sesshoumaru himself was trying to feign his unnatural behavior by looking straight ahead of him as if he too was quite taken by the drama.
She relaxed a bit and continued to stroke Shippou's hair; her other hand rested at her side.
Sesshoumaru was not feeling like himself. The moment he had met her in the restaurant, he had been behaving so unlike himself even after nine hundred years of practiced disinterest. He was starting to feel something that he guarded against, the intensity of an emotion.
And the feeling was good; he didn't want to push it away for fear he might never experienced something like this ever again, not with anyone else, ever.
So he breathed her scent in. Something in his inside urged him to touch her, not to haul her against him in passion but to attempt a gentle and light contact. He observed absently her hand lying at her side as he moved his hand surreptitiously so that his little finger touched hers.
Tingles of electricity crept up to their arms and all the way to their center parts. He was, to his surprise, breathing hard. Kagome held her breath, and then she hastily stood up, startling both males.
She dashed to the fridge, rummaging its content shakily, and asked in troubled, but in cheeriness feigning, voice. "Would you guys like some ice cream? I bought strawberry and cheesecake flavor, hazelnut, kiwi sorbet, and baileys flavor."
"Strawberry and cheesecake!" Shippou answered giddily.
"I pass; I don't really like sweets." Sesshoumaru answered in dejected voice, feeling like a kicked pup.
Kagome disregarded his tone of voice, and continued cheerily. "I thought you might not like sweet things much, that's why," she paused. "Ta-daah… I bought you a chicken broth flavored ice cream."
Sesshoumaru eyes almost bulged as Shippou clamped his hand against his mouth, turning green (AN: Kagome, you silly twit, even though he doesn't like sweets, it's really too inhuman to offer him something like that)
Sesshoumaru sweatdropped and managed a weak croaked answer. "I take baileys flavour, thank you."
"Mom, come on and hurry up; you missed the spot where Moeko tried to jump off from the hospital building, and now the ghost Tatsuya is looking for the nurse, the one, who can see him."
"Coming… here's yours, Sippou. Sesshoumaru-sama, the baileys flavor, right?" He nodded and accepted the handed ice, and then she did the cruelest thing she could do to him, she changed her seat.
"Kaa-san?" Shippou asked tentatively. She gave him a tiny nervous smile and patted her lap, indicating him to draw closer.
It hurt. Her act of insensitivity resembled a cold slap to his face. Sesshoumaru's eyes started to waver, but he kept his gaze straight to the screen.
The drama was in the part where the nurse caught up with Moeko. They were standing on the rooftop of the hospital, and then the nurse turned her head to look deeply into the young woman's eyes. Moeko choked a sob, and yet the nurse continued to look at her with an understanding gaze, until her eyes started to glaze over and both females hugged each other, crying soundly.
"Waste," Sesshoumaru spat; he gritted his teeth and continued in a strangled voice. "She didn't want to be saved in the first place. Nobody can save a zombie."
With that he stood up and left the room.
+end of chapter+
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Glossary:
Tadaima: "I'm back"
Okaeri: "Welcome home"
Zaru soba: a Japanese noodle dish, buckwheat noodle, usually self-made but they are also available in dried form in supermarkets, served cold with tsuyu (soya based dipping sauce), wasabi (japanese horseradish), nori seaweed, and negi (japanese leeks). Zaru soba is usually served in summer.
Chicken broth flavored ice cream: this flavor does actually exist(or did, I don't know if they still have it). I read it in the newspaper last year or so; it said that the Japanese was much addicted to the flavor of poultry that a certain ice cream manufacturer invented this special sort. (If you asked me, he had to be high on crack -and was hugging a big bucket of fried chickens- when he did that)
Please R&R