Colorful Emotions
Chapter 5: New Moon Surprise
Inuyasha blinked, confused. What was so funny? Here he was, being a genius and covering his ears, and Kagome was laughing at him!
He scratched his head, making the bell at the tip of his hat jingle, and making Kagome laugh even harder. Soon she was rolling on the floor and howling like a wounded dog.
Of course, our dear little hanyou dislikes being laughed at and dislikes it even more when he doesn't know why he's being laughed at.
"Would someone please tell me what in the world is so funny?" he muttered with a scowl, irritated beyond reason.
"Well, you do look a bit funny," Miroku ventured, wondering how far he could insult Inuyasha without being clawed to death. Sango looked like she agreed but was smart enough not to say a word.
"Yeah," Shippou piped up, apparently not afraid at all. "You look stupid." He grinned as Inuyasha snarled.
Kagome managed to recollect herself ("About time," Inuyasha muttered to himself) and with a sort of noise that sounded like a strangled meow, she took a deep breath and told Inuyasha what exactly was funny.
Inuyasha however did not understand a single word and only heard the laughter between the words and something about a fat old man called Santa Claus...
Feh. Now she was comparing him to some fat old dude?
Hoping that if he changed the subject they would forget about it, he bonked Shippou on the head when he failed to think of a topic more natural than "so how's the weather today?".
Kagome glared sharply at him, momentarily forgetting about the Santa hat, which had been Inuyasha's goal in the first place. She hadn't seen Inuyasha hitting Shippou, but heard Shippou's agitated cry and immediately (and correctly) assumed it was Inuyasha's fault.
Yet before anyone could utter or even think of anything else, a sudden shadow fell over them. Something loomed above them, and Inuyasha instinctively looked up, ignoring the snickers he received because of the stupid jingling of the stupid bell on his stupid hat.
"Sesshoumaru," he murmured to the others, who immediately became attentive and careful, losing their smirks. Sango fingered her boomerang reflexively and Shippou hid under Kagome's hair.
As soon as Sesshoumaru landed, staring at them with a cold expression that made Inuyasha burn with anger (he could feel his ears turning red), Sesshoumaru opened his mouth to speak, but then stopped and stared at Inuyasha.
"What is that outlandish object you are wearing?" Sesshoumaru asked instead.
"It's a hat," Inuyasha snapped defensively, feeling completely stupid, having no other clever comeback.
"And since when do you wear hats?" Jaken blurted, appearing from his hiding place behind a tree and not bothering to conceal himself.
"To cover his ears!" Shippou explained, not able to contain himself, and Inuyasha mentally reminded himself to smack Shippou extremely hard after this was finished.
Jaken looked curiously up at Inuyasha's hat, clearly wondering what he was hiding. "If the mighty Sesshoumaru allows me to, I order you to take off your hat!"
Kagome rolled her eyes. Everything Jaken did had to be approved by Sesshoumaru. Jaken worshipped the very ground Sesshoumaru walked on and followed him obediently and obsequiously.
Sesshoumaru nodded, trying to appear as though he didn't care but failing. "Take off your hat," he ordered.
Inuyasha, realizing he would have to do so anyway, didn't bother to protest; just scowled and ripped off the hat, throwing it to the floor and revealing his scarlet ears.
"Temper," Sango said, clucking her tongue but looking amused.
Jaken burst into laughter, which sounded more like amused croaking; nonetheless, it further annoyed Inuyasha, and it took all his willpower to stop himself from strangling Jaken.
Sesshoumaru's eyes widened—almost the most emotion he had ever shown. Probably in his whole entire life.
And Kagome could swear she just saw him smile.
...Now that was creepy.
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Inuyasha skulked off into a corner as soon as Sesshoumaru and the rest of the group were done jeering at him. No one had to heart (or the courage) to bring him back and they just decided it would be better and easier to let him cool off.
They'd gotten much better at that, seeing as how they could read Inuyasha's emotions with just one glance.
Kagome felt a strange sense of foreboding...she felt as though she'd forgotten something... something rather important too... It was at the tip of her tongue but she couldn't exactly place it...
What was it? she thouight, annoyed.
Kagome looked up to the sky as if it had answers, a habit of hers when she needed to remember something.
But today, it actually did have the answer.
Then it hit her: tonight was a new moon.
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Just then, a surprised yelp broke through Kagome's thoughts and before she could process what she had heard, strange images flashed through her mind. Inuyasha? Was it him? Had he found something important?
Kagome motioned to Sango, Miroku, and Shippou, who immediately got up.
Was Inuyasha hurt...?
Her feet pounded on the floor the way her heart pounded in her chest as she reached the tree that Inuyasha has been sulking on. She pushed random thoughts from her head, which were like horror movies playing in her head, starring Inuyasha as the horror victim.
She was a bit afraid at what she was going to find, but the truth was better than the imagination, as the mind's eye tends to be extremely creative and go crazy—
However, what Kagome found was even worse than what she'd expected. Well, worse in a different way.
Let's just say...apparently, when Inuyasha's ears disappear due to the new moon, his hair color replaces his ears as an emotion detector.
Miroku howled like an excited dog as he guffawed at Inuyasha's now red hair, while Sango looked on in amazement, and Kagome blinked and rubbed her eyes. Shippou jumped up and down; clearly this was too much excitement for him for just one day.
"This is gonna be fun," Miroku grinned happily, immediately launching his form of an attack—figuratively speaking.
"Kagome said she's in love with Kouga," Miroku singsonged, picking something random that Inuyasha would hate. Sango did warn him not to, but that only made him want to do it even more.
Kagome gaped in shock. "You—I—what? I did not!"
Sango shook her head and rolled her eyes, as if wondering why she had ever befriended Miroku in the first place.
Miroku smirked in satisfaction as he watched Inuyasha's face turn scarlet and his hair matching it. "You what?" Inuyasha yelled, his hair turning a sort of green that was almost neon.
"Kagome says she loves you," Shippou cried out, joining Miroku.
"Kouga's stronger than you!"
"We found all the Shikon shards!" Now to make him happy...
"Naraku's dead!" Happiness's color is yellow then...
On and on it went (Miroku and Shippou kept trying out different emotions) until Inuyasha's hair had turned all sorts of colors, among them red, blue, yellow, and green. Poor guy; he could never control his emotions much.
In fact, Kagome and Sango decided it was better to drag Miroku away so he wouldn't die of lack of air, as he was gasping for breath and weak with laughter.
Inuyasha, brimming with uncontrollable anger, made a mental note to get rid of all his feelings and never trust Miroku again.
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Kaede watched glumly; so far, her matchmaking plan was getting nowhere...
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