Author's note: This chapter is based off of an experience that I've had quite a lot, and I'm sure there's at least one of you who've had this problem at one point, too. It's rather common… or it is in this part of Texas, anyway… It sure isn't funny when you're sick, and it's happening to you, but it's kind of humorous when I look back on it.

No real other explanations for this chapter, with the exception that our favorite 'ice block' has been decidedly added, from both the suggestions, and I mean the dude's got to get mad and make light-hearted humor at someone, right? And who do you think it's gonna be? Wolfie can't be here the whole time!

Reviews:

THANK YOU VERY MUCH, I AM SO TERRIBLY SORRY THAT IT TOOK ME THIS LONG TO UPDATE, A LOT'S COME UP LATELY, AND I'VE HAD VERY LITTLE TIME TO MYSELF FOR UPDATING ANYTHING. THINGS SHOULD SLOW BACK DOWN AFTER THE THIRD WEEK IN JANUARY, SO UPDATES WILL BE MORE REGULAR AGAIN. I HOPE YOU ENJOY THIS CHAPTER AND THOSE FOLLOWING AS MUCH AS YOU HAVE THE PRIOR, AND THE VERY BEST WISHES FOR THE HOLIDAYS AND NEW YEAR. Be well.

Forcing open one eyelid cautiously, Kagura greeted the morning world with a pounding headache and a hot, musty air that was enough to smother her. She put a sore hand to her forehead, pressing hard between her eyebrows with only one thought ringing throughout her mind. Damn that asshole…

Blinking away the coloured spots that set themselves before her eyes, she attempted warily to take in her surroundings. Unable to think correctly with most of her mind plagued with the torrent of heat, she turned to the thermostat only to find it useless; after a few moments, she came to find that everything else that ran on electricity was just as well. Damn you, too.

Knowing that it would be futile to check the clock, the disheveled young woman made her way into her and her sister's room to try to remedy the situation.

She found the girl squirming restlessly in her sleep, gripping the edge of her old mattress as tightly as she probably could. Tiny beads of sweat had claimed her face, pressing themselves to her frown.

Kanna's still asleep… so it can't be that late…

Feeling some sense of relief that she (most likely) wasn't going to be late for work, Kagura set about digging through the drawers of their dresser to find something suitable to wear for the weather. She finally settled on a navy t-shirt that had it's right sleeve cut off to the shoulder, and a worn out pair of denim shorts.

Having stepped out in the hallway with out a sudden outburst from either side of her, she took it that her father was still asleep as well. Which was a good thing. Deciding to leave both his room and his 'favorite' window alone, she opened every other door and window with hopes to catch any breeze that drifted in or out. Sneering at the caked on tobacco stains and dust that had accumulated on everything she looked at, she felt an incredible urge to grab hold of a wet rag and wipe everything clean.

The smell was intoxicating, the sight of it was painfully nauseating; it was viler than the grime she'd discovered in the sink drain when she was a little girl. For some strange and alien reason, however, Naraku couldn't stand to have the nasty substances washed away. The moment, she had thought, that she was able to understand his twisted way of thinking was the very same moment that she'd rip her own head off.

Soft footsteps trailed in her direction from further down the hallway. Jerking her head around, Kagura was amply gratified to find that it was only her tired younger sister walking in a daze towards the sofa in the 'living' room.

Appearing much like a wilting flower that had its colour drained out of it, Kanna plopped herself onto the cushions, or rather fell onto them, almost dramatically. She let out a light sigh, and closed her eyes as though they'd had rocks that were pushing down upon their lids.

And then, much to her greatest irritations, Kagura heard the one thing she had been hoping above all else that she wouldn't.

"BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITCH!"

Well if it isn't fucking Mary Sunshine himself…

Groaning inwardly, she left her hold on the carpet and walked slowly to where her father was.

His bedroom was even filthier than the other parts of the apartment, and creepier than she remembered from the last time she had been in there. Voodoo dolls, dead plants with thorns that had crumbled and turned a disgusting shade of black and brown, broken knick knacks, pictures with people or faces scribbled out, and countless other defective possessions had been crammed into an enormous mess. The stench of chemicals and cigarettes clung to everything, and mildew was present on what could be seen of the carpet and walls. She'd long since made it a point to stay away from the room as much as possible, and was exceedingly thankful that he was hidden in the shadows.

SO nasty. "What?"

"The power's out!"

Why yes, it is, how observant of you! "And?"

"And you're going to get your ass to work fixing it."

How the hell am I supposed to fix it? "How the hell am I supposed to do that?" Oops…

He seemed to be in a lack of energy, for he didn't lash out any more than he had been. "That isn't my problem."

Like hell it's not. She watched him walk out of the room, wishing she hadn't had to see his overly greasy hair matted thickly to the back of his head. Actually, she wished she just flat out hadn't seen him period.

She raced out of the room and slammed the door shut behind her, glad to be able to leave it. When she reached the living room, Kagura saw that 'it' was standing at 'its' usual vantage point in front of the window, and that Kanna had disappeared from the ancient looking couch and had gone off somewhere else.

"You're not doing anything."

Mentally rolling her eyes, she turned around and headed back to her room and pulled out her cell phone from her purse. Observing the miniature watch blinking on the screen, she cursed herself for not thinking to use it to check the time earlier.

After she had made her fill of sparing the main office's assistant a number of choice words about the predicament the entire complex had found themselves in, she glanced briefly at the time on her cell. Time to go.

Before she could finish walking down the hallway, Naraku caught up to her and demanded to know if she had seen about fixing the power yet.

"I called the main office; there's not much else that I can do."

"I don't give a flying rat's ass what you can do, but when I get back, it damn well better have been fixed. Or we're going to have some serious issues."

As if you don't already. "And when exactly do you plan to get back?"

"Later."

Oh, thanks. "When is 'later?'" A fist came soaring into the wall, mere centimeters from her head, but she kept glowering straight ahead.

"WHENEVER THE HELL I WANT GOD DAMNED 'LATER' TO BE!"

Ass. She let out a great sigh, and groaned in frustration as she walked away and returned once again to the living room. Kagura slipped into a pair of black sandals and retrieved her work uniform from the shoe closet, not noticing the child splayed out in front of the door until her feet had almost crushed her.

Raising an eyebrow, she dared to inquire. "Dead, huh?"

Silence followed, and the girl truly did look half-dead, her dark eyes vacant and her expression vague. Even though she had simply been in that position to catch a better breeze, the way Kanna had strewn herself across the floor and managed to keep so still made her older sister nearly shiver or want to burst out laughing, she wasn't quite sure which.

"Are you coming?"

Eyes widening a bit, she seemed happy to climb up off the floor and vanish into the shadows, to come back in moments with her torn bag and slide into a pair of sandals.

Not a word was exchanged between the two when they strolled out the door and down the stairs, it would be a longer walk than usual, but when they would get to their destination, they'd be all too pleased to be rid of the Sun's harsh rays.

When they'd gotten to the McDonald's, both of them felt and looked as though they had been thrown into a furnace, taken out, and tossed randomly in the ocean. Such a feeling of relief and rejuvenation was true bliss.

Kanna took her usual spot at the back corner and began passing the time however she could, just as Kagura took hers manning the cash register.

Her break came and went, seeming as short as ever, and another hour passed without problem. But it seemed that Kagura couldn't catch a break at all that day.

Her 'favorite' customer absolutely had to come waltzing in, grinning in his normal, wolfish manner. Suddenly the line to the counter seemed far too short, and she found herself wishing that he could at least try to be civil.

It figures. I don't know how, but please make him behave; PLEASE.

Things had gone smoothly enough, she tried excruciatingly hard to catch everything he ordered the first time he said it, even though he spoke as if his mouth had by some means caught fire. He seemed pleased sufficiently until the total cost of the meal came up.

"Are you kidding me?"

I try so inhumanely to get him out of here quickly, put up with his rate of speech (I mean does the guy even breathe?), act decent, even smile the whole time… but no. You jerk-offs up there hate me. I ask you, is it MY fault that he can't count?

The same, phony smile plastered on her face, she clenched her teeth to keep from biting his head off. "No, sir, this is the total cost of the meal."

"This is unbelievable! How can you people charge this much for some third-rate garbage?"

You know something… whatever-your-name-is? I've half a mind to ask you why the hell you come here so damned much if we serve garbage. Of course she knew better than to tell him to give his services elsewhere; no matter how much she'd be thrilled to never see his face again. But that didn't stop her before, she'd brawl all she wanted. "Don't ask me, sir, but if you would be so kind as to either pay for your order or order something less costly." Or leave…

"If I wanted something else, I would have told you."

"Then please pay for your order, sir." Her smile had since faded, teeth still clenched, she was quite ready to yell at him.

"I'm not paying so much all because you don't have the math skills to ring something up the right way."

Oh that does it, pal. "I'm the one that can't add? Maybe your mind is lost to you, but if you'd taken the time to think about everything you ordered, you wouldn't be questioning my mathematical abilities."

He looked stricken with something for a second, but finally conjured up some conclusion. "Are you calling me stupid?"

And those weren't even difficult words…"I'm saying that this is the total cost of your meal, whether you think it is or not."

Kagura and her frequent customer went on and broke out into a long battle of words for several minutes, as they had the day before, and many days before that. The line had grown from two people to three people, and then from three to four, and so on. Two of those waiting in line had begun to converse amongst each other, behind them a toddler started whining and crying to his aggravated father, and behind them and elderly woman tapped her cane repeatedly on the tiled floor. Eventually the manager settled things between the two of them, as he always did, and sent the cocky young man on his way.

Finding Kagome immediately behind her hotheaded client was a pleasant change. Kagome was much more agreeable than many of the customers, and several employees including Kagura herself had taken up chatting with her on some of their breaks.

After her, was a strange looking young man that she found, for some reason, familiar. It wasn't until after he'd gone over to where he was going to sit that it struck her that he was the same youth she'd seen outside the window the night before. The new guy. Tending to the man and his complaining son (the 'brat,' as she knew him), she wished some bad luck his way for karmatic reasons. It was, after all, his fault that she had to wake up in so much pain this morning… well mostly it was, anyway.

At the dead hour, around three and four in the afternoon, Kagura realized that he was still sitting at the same booth as he had been around noon. What the hell's he waiting for?

He threw his trash away and strode back up to the counter and ordered another cheeseburger and fries. Oh well, at least he's civil and making me more money for my paycheck.

Kanna slumped down in her chair, bored with her writing and finished with her French fries. Resorting to drawing imaginary pictures and patterns on the tabletop with her finger, she held a conversation within her head… with herself.

There weren't a lot of people in the restaurant at that time of the day, so therefore nothing to watch or listen to.

It would have been a major understatement to say that she was surprised when the odd young man she had remembered as the one that had moved in across from them yesterday came to sit down at her table and attempt a conversation with her. She wasn't at all what you'd call a people person, not to mention that she had never carried on a good chat with more than a few people. She stayed silent mostly, but answered one or two of his questions.

When he stood and left to go back and sit at the booth he'd been occupying for the past few hours, she had to wonder if he was there, also, because of the power outage.

She looked to the wall clock in hopes that either it was close to eight o' clock or far from it. She couldn't honestly decide, but either way, it was only an hour and a half until they'd be leaving to go back to the apartment.

Notes: Two-parter! The other half of this chapter will be coming soon, when I get things settled down at home and am able to get back to updating regularly. Shimai's new chapter (to those of you that read it) will be uploaded around then; I'm not quite finished with that one yet.

I'm very tired at the moment, and that's why it's a little short, as it is currently one thirty in the morning (not as early/late as when I updated RFAWF yesterday, but...).

Reviews are appreciated, and be well!