Chapter 5:

Behind me stands Bankotsu, smile wide, and eyes wandering. I whirl around and he catches me by the waist.

"You're not supposed to be in here!" I gasp.

"I do a lot of things I'm not supposed to," he chuckles.

"Get off me!"

"Actually I was thinkin of getting on you."

I try to push him away but he pushes me harder against the counter.

"Maybe I'll wait a little longer…" he says, "But for now I need something to tide me over." He quickly slips his hand down the front of my pants and rubs his hand against my crotch. "That's nice baby," he says.

Feeling the hot tears of fear and anger streaming down my face, my self-defense finally kicks in. I bring my knee up sharply and hit him in the groin. Keeling over in pain, he takes his hand back and I run for Naraku.

When I reach the classroom the teacher is gone and Naraku is still working. I quietly, but quickly, run to him, push his arm out of my way, climb into his lap and cry. He's startled at first then wraps his arms around me tight.

"Alicia? What's wrong? What happened?"

Burying my face in his neck, I sob, "He was there! He was waiting for me!"

"Who? Bankotsu?"

"Yes!"

"Fuck! What happened? What did he do?"

I keep crying into his neck.

"Did he touch you?"

I nod my head. Naraku holds onto me tighter.

"Dammit! DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT! Baby, I'm so sorry! I didn't think he would be here still! Shit! I'm so sorry! I wasn't supposed to let that happen!"

I'm still crying, but not as hard as I was. Now it's just tears running down my cheeks.

"I'm so sorry! This is all my fault. I-"

"It's not your fault."

"What?"

"I said it's not your fault. You couldn't have known that he was gonna be here."

"Listen…I know we already discussed this and you said no but I'm gonna try gain-" I cut him off, I already know what he's going to say.

"Yes."

"Yes what? I haven't even asked the question."

"I know what you're talking about. I want to stay with you. I understand why you asked the first time now. I didn't before but I do now…and I agree with you."

"So…you're gonna come stay with me?"

"Yes," I say lifting my head to look him in the eye, "Thank you."

"Of course." He half smiles at me. "Come on. Let's go home and figure out what we're gonna do."

"What about your work?"

"It doesn't matter right now. I'm more concerned about you," he says in a way that lets me know it won't do any good to argue with him at this point.

He picks me up off his lap and gently sets me on my feet. I notice now that there are no tears in my eyes and all that's left on my cheeks are stains from earlier. Gathering up his books, he stuffs them into his bag, takes my hand in his and leads me away. We meet Mr. Castle in the hallway on our way out.

"All finished?" he says to Naraku.

"Not quite, Sir, but it will be down by class tomorrow morning."

"That's good enough for me," Mr. Castle says and keeps on going.

Naraku looks at me, tightens his grip on my hand and continues. He walks out to the parking lot and unlocks a blue, Saturn. "Get in," he says.

"This is yours?"

"Would I have the keys if it wasn't?"

"But I didn't see it at your house yesterday or Saturday night."

"It was at the shop. Miroku just took me to pick it up this morning."

"Oh…that makes sense."

"Yes…it does," he smiles at me. I stare out the window the whole way to Naraku's house but take no notice of what I'm looking at or the streets he's driving down. I don't even realize that we've reached his house and parked until he opens my door , unbuckles my seatbelt and lifts me out of the car.

"What are you doing?" I ask in a daze.

"Taking you inside. We've been here almost five minutes and you hadn't moved so I thought I'd do it for you."

"Oh. I didn't notice. I was kinda spaced out."

"Yeah, I figured. I don't expect you to be as…happy…as you were before for some time. I imagine you'll be spacing out a lot. I think it's supposed to be one of the side effects of…you know."

"Yeah. When did we get inside?" I ask as he sets me on the couch.

Frowning, he reaches down and feels my forehead. "You're a little warm," he says. "I want you to take a nap. I'll finish up my work and wake you when supper's ready."

"Yeah. Okay."

"Okay. Come on. I'll make the other bed."

"Other bed?"

"In the spare room. There's another bed, you can have that one."

"Okay."

I follow him to another bedroom upstairs. He opens the closet and pulls out some sheets, pillows and a large blanket. I watch him as he puts on the sheets and lays down the pillows. He looks over at me, then reaches out and takes my wrist. I look at him, stunned. He pulls me over to him and motions for me to lay down. I obey and he covers me with the blanket. I lay on my back staring at the ceiling while Naraku sits on the edge of the bed. He brushes some stray locks out of my face and gives me a quick kiss on the forehead. "Get some sleep. I'll come check on you in a bit."

"Okay."

Not much sooner than I get the word out I fall asleep.

I wake up to find Naraku wiping my cheeks with a damp cloth. Lying still, I open my eyes and look at him. He looks back at me.

"You had tear stains," he says. I nod. "Anyway, I made some spaghetti. If you're still feeling a bit sick I can make you some chicken soup."

"Thanks," I say, "but I'm not really hungry. I'm just tired right now."

"I know but I'd rather you ate something."

"You're not gonna take no for an answer are you?"

"No, I'm not," he smiles. I sigh. "I'll be back shortly with some soup for you."

"Okay." I lay in bed and stare at the ceiling trying hard not to let myself drift off. I just lay there with not a thought in my head. Suddenly I'm shaken a little. My eyes snap open. Naraku is sitting on the edge of the bed with a cup in his hand.

"Sorry to wake you Sleeping Beauty, but it's time for you to eat something."

"I wasn't sleeping," I scowl at him.

"Okay, then," he laughs. "Here, sit up and eat this."

"Naraku, I'm really not hungry."

"Well at least drink the broth."

"Oh, alright," I sigh.

"Thank you," he says and leaves. I drink my broth and plan on going back to sleep. It's no use. I'm never going to get back to sleep now. I wander down stairs to the kitchen. Naraku's not there. I listen carefully until I here the faint sounds of the TV. In the living room, Naraku is sitting on the couch with a plate of spaghetti.

"You know that'll stain if you drop any," I say.

"I'm not worried about it. I thought you were in bed."

"I was. I couldn't sleep."

"No? What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just couldn't get back to sleep…Thanks to you," I say sarcastically. He smiles and pats the couch beside him.

"Come sit down with me then."

"Okay." Just as I reach the couch there's a knock at the door. I look over my shoulder and back at Naraku, "You expecting someone?"

"Yes. That should be Miroku or Sesshomaru."

"'Kay. I'll go answer it."

"Thanks."

I open the door and call over my shoulder, "You were wrong Naraku."

"Huh? It's not Miroku or Sesshomaru?"

"Nope, it's both," I say and the two guys walk in, each greeting me with a smile and a nod.

"Hey! Spaghetti!" Miroku shouts, "Got any more?"

"In the kitchen," Naraku laughs.

"Oh, hell yeah!" he shouts and runs into the kitchen.

"You want some?" he asks Sesshomaru.

"No, I just ate before I came over," Sesshomaru says.

"What about you Alicia? Did you decide to have some?"

"No."

"Okay suit yourself."

"I will."

Sesshomaru sits down on a chair next to the sofa and pulls a bunch of movies out of his knapsack.

"What's all that?" I ask as I sit next to Naraku.

"Movies," Sesshomaru answers.

"Well duh."

"It's movie night," Miroku says through a mouth full of spaghetti as he reenters the living room. "We do this about every week or every other week. We usually do it on Mondays 'cause we almost never have homework then."

"Oh…cool."

"Yeah."

"Which ones do you guys got tonight?" Naraku asks.

"A bunch of comedies and a little bit of action." Sesshomaru says.

"We figured Alicia might be here…we didn't know if she'd wanna watch a bunch of violent movies so we got comedy. Everyone likes comedy."

"I'll watch just about anything…except romance and drama…I hate romance movies…never have figured out why though." I say. Naraku laughs.

"We got munchies too," Miroku says as Sesshomaru starts pulling chips and stuff out of his bag. That's a pretty big bag.

"Munchies are good," Naraku says. "Munchies are always good."

I look at him and smile. He winks at me.

"You wanna start right away?" Sesshomaru says.

"Yeah, might as well," Naraku says.

"Put in The Forty-year-Old Virgin first," Miroku says as he sits on the other side of me on the sofa. "I've been dying to see that one!"

We watched The Forty-Year-Old Virgin, The Man, and Waiting before taking a break from staring at the screen. While the guys sat around eating and talking, I find myself drifting off to sleep. I'm snapped out of my daze by Sesshomaru.

"Are we really that boring, Alicia?" He asks with an amused grin.

"Huh? Oh. No I just had a long day."

"Yeah. No kidding," Naraku says.

"Whaddaya mean?" Miroku asks.

"I'll tell you later," Naraku says. "I don't wanna spoil the moment."

"Thanks," I say quietly. Naraku smiles.

"Oh…," Miroku says. "Is this about Bankotsu?"

"Yeah! Way to go Shit-For-Brains! I said I didn't wanna spoil the moment!" Naraku shouts.

"Naraku…it's okay, really," I say, desperate to calm him down.

"No it's not! Here we were havin a good time and this asshole has to spoil it! And I was kinda hopin to get it off YOUR mind for awhile, but noooooooooo, Miroku's always gotta do somethin. You just do-,"

"Enough!" I scream. "I said it was fine! No moments were spoiled until you started yelling!"

"Who's side are you on!" Naraku turns on me.

"…What the hell kinda question is that?"

"You should be backing me up not standing up to me!"

"I know that!"

"Then why aren't you!"

"'Cuz I'm sick of people yelling! All I ever hear anyone do is yell! I'm so sick of it! If I wanted to hear that then I'd go home!"

"Then go! Get out!" I see regret in Naraku's eyes the second he finishes the sentence. But what am I going to do? How can we be friends if we fight so much?

"Fine! I don't wanna be here anyway!" That was a lie if I've ever heard one. I storm out of his house, tears streaming down my face. Why do people always get mad at me so easily?

I walk up the steps to my own house only to find a locked door. I don't have keys. Great. I'll just spend my night outside. Yup. That's what I'll do. I sit on the stairs, leaning up against the door. With a frown on my face, tear stains on my cheeks and Naraku on my mind, I fall asleep.