Author's Note: Yay! A new update! Sorry that this one's a teensy bit short, but better to have a short update then no update at all, right?
Anyways, tomorrow I'm leaving with my family on a lovely trip, so unfortunately the next update might be a little slow.
But in the meantime, I bet we can reach 450 reviews! We're not that far off! We can do it!
I love you all for reviewing so much! . :D
Chapter 14: What dance?
For Kagome, Sunday had been a blur of phone calls from Sango and happy memories. Her best friend kept calling her, pressing her for more information about the kiss, wondering about how they should have their next party, and when. Kagome couldn't wait until Monday, when she would have school, and be able to see Inuyasha again. After the kiss, she had stopped deluding herself, finally being able to admit that she liked him, maybe just a little bit. All in all, Monday came very quickly.
"Have a good day at school, honey," her mother said, holding out her lunch. Kagome took it.
"Thanks, mum," she said, walking out of the car. She heard her mother wave at her and shout one final good-bye before turning back to the car and driving away. Kagome grinned, hearing Miroku and Sango argue in the distance. She walked towards the sound of their voices, and waved at them when they shouted their greetings.
"What are you two gibbering about?" she asked, when she got within speaking range. Miroku grumbled loudly.
"My lovely Sango, apparently, had no idea that there's a dance after school today," he explained. "And apparently, she refuses to go with me because her mother doesn't know she'll be late."
"Aw, Sango, can't you call her or something?" Kagome asked. "Don't you have a cell phone?"
"Yeah, but she won't like being informed at the last minute like that," Sango said, sadly. "I -do- want to go to the dance, though."
"What's her number?" Kagome asked, taking her own cell phone out of her pocket. Sango stared at her.
"You can't possibly think you'll call her and tell her I'll be late," she said, shocked.
"Why not?" Kagome replied, her left hand on her hip while her right hand held the phone, ready to dial Sango's number. "She can't get mad at me, and I honestly don't think she'll mind too much."
"Does -your- mum know there's a dance tonight?" Miroku asked. "You'll have to call her, too."
"Yeah, I will, but I'll do Sango first," Kagome said. "So, what's her number?"
"I don't like this," Sango admitted, but told Kagome the phone number anyways. She quickly keyed it in and held it against her ear. "Where's Inuyasha?" she asked, as she heard ringtones on the other end.
"Dunno," Miroku replied. "He hasn't shown up yet."
"That's odd," Kagome mused. A cheerful, feminine voice picked up on the other end of the phone call, greeting her. "Hello, is this Sango's mother?" Kagome asked. Hearing a response, she nodded, smiling. "Yes, I'm Kagome," she said. "Look, I was wondering if you would mind if Sango got home late tonight. No, no, you wouldn't have to pick her up, I'm sure my mother would be happy to drive us both home. Yes, that's right. A school dance. Oh, yes? Alright, then. Nice to talk with you. Yes, I'll tell her. Thanks! Bye."
Sango stared at Kagome when she flipped the phone closed. "She said -yes-?" she asked her voice dripping with disbelief.
"She tells you she loves you and not to get drunk. I don't understand what you're so shocked about," Kagome replied. "If she doesn't have to pick you up, wouldn't she be happy about not having to drive here and back?"
"That's true," Miroku agreed. "Hey, here comes Mr. Tutu."
Kagome whirled around. She heard Inuyasha shout at them.
"If one more tutu joke comes out of your pie hole, I'm going to sew it shut." His voice rang across the school grounds, causing many heads to turn in his direction. Miroku grinned widely.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Ballet, but you just looked too good in that outfit for me to get a mental image of you out of my mind," Miroku said. "I think I'm in love," he added, mockingly swooning. Kagome heard the sharp sound of Inuyasha's fist coming into contact with the side of Miroku's head, followed by the characteristic whimper. "It was worth it," Miroku muttered. "Ah, your face; so priceless."
"Oh, shut up," Inuyasha groaned, rolling his eyes. Kagome and Sango laughed.
"So, is Mr. Pretty coming to the dance after school?" Sango asked, flashing a look in Kagome's direction.
"Dance?" Inuyasha repeated, caught off guard. "There's a dance?"
"Yeah, and the three of us can all come," Kagome explained. "I just need to phone my mum, but she'll be fine with it. Come to think of it, I should do that now." She walked off, cell phone in hand, dialing her phone number.
"Since when is there a dance?" Inuyasha asked suspiciously, looking at Miroku. The other boy shrugged innocently.
"It was announced on Friday," he said. "You must have been too caught up in your dreams about Saturday to have been paying attention."
"You should go with Kagome," Sango added. "After the whole affair at the party."
Inuyasha gave her a blank stare. "How do you know?" he asked, sounding for all the world like a clueless boy.
"Kagome's my best friend, we don't keep secrets," Sango explained, sounding bored. "Jeez. Just because boys lack all communication skills doesn't mean that the superior gender must follow in their horrible footsteps."
Miroku scowled. "Aw, my dear Sango, that's like a dagger through my heart." He made a big show of dying dramatically, falling onto the grass. Kagome, walking back from her cell phone call, tripped over him and fell forwards. By reflex Inuyasha lunged forwards and caught her before she hit the ground; she smiled gratefully up at him, regained her balance and scowled at Miroku. She paused to collect her thoughts after coming so suddenly into close proximity to Inuyasha.
"What on earth are you doing on the ground?" she said, after a few moments of awkward silence passed. Sango laughed.
"He's just being an idiot," she said. "Come on, we should all be getting to class. Inuyasha, are you going to the dance or what?"
"Why not?" he replied, smiling. "I wouldn't want to miss out on such a potentially interesting evening."
And with that he took Kagome by the hand and led her towards the building, ready for yet another week of classes.
By lunchtime, the whole school was buzzing with rumours about the fast-approaching dance. Who was going with who? I heard that Arik is going to ask Kikyou. What would she say? Is she going to blow her top like at lunchtime? I think she's plotting something, I saw her make a few phone calls. I wonder if Arik'll get killed for what he did.
Various rumours like that.
When they had all been dismissed for lunch, "The Four" took their customary place beneath the large tree that sprouted, tall and proud, from the middle of the school grounds. Miroku had a large grin plastered over his face and was carrying something hidden behind his back. He came later then the rest of his friends, and turned to Sango immediately, after flashing a look at Inuyasha that said loud and clear 'watch and learn'.
"My dearest Sango," he said dramatically, bending down on one knee and sweeping a ruby-red rose from behind his back, holding it out to her as if he was proposing. "Would you give me the grand honour of accompanying me to the dance, as a date?"
Sango blushed furiously; Inuyasha quickly described what was going on to Kagome, who had to stifle a giggle.
"Um...uh...yes?" Sango replied, looking very out-of-sorts as she took the rose and batted Miroku on the head with it. He grinned with such enthusiasm that it bordered on hysterics, and jumped up and did a little celebratory dance before hugging Sango and sitting down to eat his lunch.
"Jeez, you're easy to please," Sango muttered as she took a seat beside him and opened up her own meal. "Yay, peanut butter," she exclaimed, holding the sandwich in front of her.
Inuyasha looked from Miroku to Kagome. "Do you expect me to ask you out like that?" he asked quickly. Kagome smiled.
"Well, if you were as romantic as Miroku then I would be a little worried," she said. "So you can just ask me and that'll be fine."
Inuyasha squirmed on the spot. He had never been good with talking about emotions, preferring to let actions take the place of words. "Can't I just kiss you or something?" he asked. That had always worked with Kikyou.
"No way," Kagome answered. Inuyasha grumbled, shifting his weight from foot to foot as he thought.
"What's so difficult about this?" Miroku asked. "Repeat after me. Kagome Higurashi..."
"Kagome Higurashi..." Inuyasha repeated.
"I was wondering if..."
"I was wondering if..."
"You would be so kind as to..."
"You would be so kind as to..."
"Scratch my ears."
"Scratch my ears - HEY!" Inyuasha said, rounding on a laughing Miroku and punching him for the second time that day. Miroku continued to laugh, as did Kagome, who had walked up behind Inuyasha and ran her fingers through his hair.
"Why yes, I'll be so kind as to scratch your ears," she said. Inuyasha turned away from Miroku and glared at her instead, but couldn't keep it up for very long because of the pleasure of having his ears rubbed.
"Stop it," he said, his voice thick with happiness as a low purring sound came from his chest. Kagome giggled.
"I'll tell you what," Kagome said, happily. "I'll stop scratching your ears when you ask me out to the dance."
"Why do I have to?" Inuyasha asked, being stubborn as always. "We all know what I'm thinking, can't we just go with that?"
"You need the practice," Kagome replied. "There are few other girls that are as understanding as me."
'But I don't want another girl,' Inuyasha thought to himself, before quickly shaking himself out of that particularly disturbing reverie. What was he thinking? He didn't -love- her.
"Well?" Kagome prompted. Inuyasha sighed.
"Kagomewillyougotothedancewithme?"
"Pardon me? Slow that down just a touch."
Inuyasha glared at her. She smiled.
"Kagome, will you go to the dance with me?" he asked, his voice dripping with resentment. Kagome beamed.
"Why, certainly," she answered, ceasing the scratching-of-the-ears and giving Inuyasha a hug instead. "See? That wasn't so difficult."
"Easy for you to say," he muttered, returning the hug. Sango rolled her eyes.
"As entertaining as that was, we need to talk about this," she said with a serious tone. "Kikyou hasn't taken any real revenge on the school yet and this dance is the perfect opportunity to get back at Arik, or worse, Inuyasha."
"Why would she get revenge on -me-?" Inuyasha asked. "Everybody thinks it was Arik's idea."
"She's not stupid, so she knows that Arik could never in a million years tink of something like that, and then successfully pull it off," Sango said. "Andif she didn'trealize that on her own, Arik could've told her."
"It's true," Miroku agreed. "Inuyasha, you should try and stay on your guard. Don't let anything upset you too much, okay?"
The half-demon cracked his knuckles threateningly. "Oh, there's no chance of that," he said maliciously. Miroku couldn't help but shiver. Kagome laughed.
"Come on, we're all friends here," she said, patting Inuyasha on the back. She looked up at the sky. "And there's always the chance that - AUGH!" she suddenly exclaimed, her hands flying to her eyes. Sango noticed that she had been looking directly at the sun. Kagome's knees buckled and she fell to the ground; or would have, if Inuyasha hadn't caught her for the second time that day.
"What's wrong?" he asked, concerned. Kagome frantically wiped away the tears that had formed at the edges of her eyes.
"Nothing...just...crap, that really hurt," she said, her hands still pressed against her eyes. Inuyasha took her palms in his and she leaned against him.
"Wow, bad timing," Sango muttered. "She was looking right at our very own star."
"That even hurts people that are -used- to seeing sunlight," Miroku mused. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah...I'll be fine," she said. All that she had seen was a blazing ball of white, with a little bit ofsapphire at the edges. "Was that...the sky? I saw a little bit of blue...the clearest blue I've ever seen."
Inuyasha looked up at the cloudless sky. "Yeah, that was it," he answered, holding her a little closer to him. "You sure you're okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'll be fine," she replied. "You guys all worry too much."
"Hey, you don't see me fussing," Sango said, grinning. "Ah, well, at least you got hurt now and not during the dance. That would've sucked."
"Yeah, nobody would want to get hurt during a dance," Miroku agreed. "I mean, where's the fun in that?"
Kagome finally pulled away from Inuyasha, her eyes open and sightless once more. "As much as I like the idea of being able to see again, pain is not a good part of it," she mumbled, rubbing her hands against her eyes. "Ouch."
"Ah, well, you have your date with the lovely Inuyasha to look forwards to!" Miroku declared, his voice happy and perky. "Think of it as a good way to end a painful day."
Kagome laughed. "Yeah, it'll be fun. Do they make the room all dark with funny lights and stuff?"
"Yeah," Inuyasha answered. "Depending on the theme they might have a disco ball, or Hallowe'en streamers, or bright flashy lights or whatever. It's kind of neat."
"That's fun," Sango said. "Is it crowded?"
"All dances are crowded," Miroku replied. "Haven't you ever been to one?"
"No," Sango answered simply. Miroku smiled.
"Then we'll have to make your first one memorable, now won't we?" he said suggestively. Sango slapped him. Inuyasha and Kagome laughed.
"What about you, Ms. Sunlight?" Inuyasha asked. "You ever been to a dance before?"
"Once, a long time ago," Kagome replied distantly, lost in some memory or another. "When I could still see. It was more of a kiddy dance then anything else, though; we were only ten, maybe eleven years old."
Inuyasha smiled. "Then I guess we'll have to make this one memorable for you, as well," he announced.
"That could be interesting," Kagome replied, smiling.
"Okay, okay, no icky mush," Miroku muttered. "Let's get ready for class. The time'll pass faster if we have something else to think about."
"Right," Inuyasha agreed, standing up and holding out a hand to Kagome, who took it. "See you guys after school!"
"See you then," Sango agreed, waving in their direction before she left with Miroku. Inuyasha and Kagome followed them, each of them smiling as their hands interlaced.
Author's Note: Like I said, it's a little bit short, but not too bad. :P
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