Innocent Kisses In The Rain
"He had also fallen in love with her. With his love, his true form emerged! In the lace of the formally hateful demon, an angel stood! Kagome told him his past, and was about to take him back to the heavens when… Inuyasha ran into the clearing and screamed at the she-angel… She hadn't kept her promise to help him complete his jewel! She smiled as she floated higher and higher, hand in hand with the other angel, and dropped the remaining piece of his possession to him. Then they disappeared. Both angels were accepted back into the heavens and treated with utmost respect. They are always now in Japanese mythology linked together, and they still live happily to this day, forever…"
Kagome looked across the classroom at Inuyasha.
His head was bowed but sometimes he would send her an unsure look through his bangs.
Kagome hissed silently every time she was able to spot pity flicker in his eyes.
Sesshoumaru had taken the 'news' much better.
Did the whole school have to know?
How would they react?
'My daddy is dead, I would say to them all, Do you pity me?' Kagome's eyes narrowed again.
Nobody though, knew how her father died. Or the episode as she found out…
Nobody knew that she still had vivid memories of her life before Daddy 'left'.
Nobody knew the paralyzed but painfully alive expression on her mother's face, or how it all changed after that…
She stopped the bout of memories before she began remembering the months after that happened.
Her mother collapsing before the sink on her knees, a sharp kitchen knife clutched in her hands, her knuckles visibly white, even from a distance, her sobs evident even outside the sealed back door… Her mother had been cutting carrots… Grandpa had stepped up beside her and automatically led her off, raising his voice to an almost deafening level as he told her yet another of the outrageous stories of her families history…
Or how Mama would get close to helping her with her homework, but halfway to the table would meet her daughter's bright eyes and turn away.
After her father's death, Mother would always make sure her bangs fell across her face, not brushed behind her ears.
Mama, back in the 'old life', when she had long pretty hair, would pull it back into a French braid or at least a rubber band, or while cooking would pretend to be frustrated beyond belief and threaten to chop off her hair with the knife she was holding… if the hair didn't automatically disappear… Kagome would laugh as she would dramatically push it behind her ear, then throw an exaggerated fit when it fell in her face again… After Daddy died, she kept it in her face.
Mama seemed a lot younger before Daddy died as well. Her hair almost extended to the curve of her hips, and her eyes were always bright with laughter and love. She wore denim shorts back then, and big t-shirts that she had hand painted to say silly things like "Don't Threaten Me… I Have Kids At Home That Are Still In Their 'Glittery Sharp Objects' Phase!" Just to make Kagome laugh, of course…
It was more like a teenage aunt-little niece relationship… Well, except when her mother grounded her or had that truly agitated look on her face… And she always had the experience and chef's hand of an old cook… And her smiles seemed practiced - but still sincere… As if she'd had many years to perfect it so that everyone who saw it would smile…
She acted like a kid sometimes, and like a jaded adult at others times…
When they moved to Tokyo, Mother's first change was to cut her hair very short. She filed down all her nails and sold all her clothes… She suddenly seemed to acquire wrinkles where her beautiful complexion once was… Her hair began to fade from silky black to intangible navy… Grayness camouflaged but still there. Her smiles became tired but loving. Her energy waned… Soon she was not a sinew and lean mother of twenty-eight, but a more… slightly pillow-y-like mother of thirty some odd… She didn't seem to want to look pretty anymore… But she was still kind.
Kagome was beginning to wonder if the version of Mother that screamed "I love life!" in a black swimsuit at the beach, posing for Dad… was an illusion or figment of the imagination…
Mom now looked like nothing mattered but the well being of her children… Her smiles became supportive, but not so wide as they used to be…
Her eyes were friendly and warm… but not happy-go-lucky or endlessly cheerful or hopelessly optimistic…
She was a beautiful woman, but did not want to be beautiful anymore…
She was the perfect mother… That was all that mattered.
Kagome forgot - was the former mother just a fantasy? Mom had come to hide the sadness so well… Had she ever fallen asleep sobbing? Had she ever whispered wonderings to the cat as if she were insane?
It was doubtful.
Kagome knew that, not even a year from now, her mother's tired smile would be more natural and familiar and right to her than the other one that seemed to shine with its own light.
Kagome already forgot - what had mother's apron read not even six years ago? Half her life ago? Vague memories…
What was the name of Mom's favorite cooking pan?
What was the nickname of the dysfunctional cooking glove?
What -
"Higurashi Kagome and Tsukino Inuyasha - do you have your project?" His voice rung out over the class.
Kagome glanced at Inuyasha.
He nodded and approached the teacher with their assignment.
"Good. Now -" He was about to call out another name when…
A sound like an insistent siren boomed out from the doorway.
Fire alarm.
'Or was Mama's hair always short?'
Kagome's eyes widened as the memories blanked out in her mind.
She had forgotten.
Her head bowed in pain.
"I've forgotten…" She whispered.
"Come on Kagome!" Inuyasha yelled, and she distantly felt an arm grabbing her elbow.
"What was the name of Mom's favorite restaurant?" Her hoarse question barely reached his ears.
He glanced wonderingly down at her before dragging her to the line of students.
"We went there all the time, and she always spent like… ten dollars on our favorite dessert every time… Even in the mornings when we went there… Or was it eight dollars? I think it opened at two in the afternoon… It was one of those places that are only open for lunch and dinner… Or maybe that was Dads…"
"Stop it Kagome! We have to move!"
Mom wasn't like that at all… She didn't believe in treadmills and she couldn't stand set-ups… or push-ups for that matter… She wasn't in any clubs in High School… Maybe she never looked athletic like that? Was I dreaming?"
"Kagome!"
The voices echoed into nothingness…
"Well, I wonder if that cook is going to be fired?" She giggled.
"I don't think I'll be eating in that cafeteria again, if that's the extent of their cooking abilities… Why are they even in a school if they act so stupid?"
"I probably would have set the oven on fire too…"
"You're twelve, not forty, and nobody expected you to be able to do anything right…"
"Well, at least that got me out of Math…"
"I was almost wondering if we'd ever have to come to this school again…"
"Nothing that wonderful would ever happen…"
…
"Kagome?" Inuyasha asked.
"Yes?" Kagome glanced wearily at him.
"Why were you so upset today?" He asked curiously, half afraid of the answer.
"Oh… I was just thinking Inuyasha!" Kagome tossed her hair as she swung her head to look at him, a falsely bright but still shining enough to be convincing smile on her face. Her eyes were closed in a supposedly cheerful manner. Inuyasha looked away with a blush, but Sesshoumaru stared hard at her from his position, and he knew she was lying.
They all lied, when something like that happened.
"Are you still ma-" Inuyasha began…
"I can't believe there was a fire alarm today! I wonder if the cook got fired? I've never burnt anything in my life!" Kagome rushed into idle chatter, trying to change the subject.
"What all have you cooked in your life?" Sesshoumaru contributed to the conversation only because he knew that if they did not get the conversation underway, Inuyasha would be able to turn back and keep asking her questions that would make her uncomfortable.
She looked at him gratefully.
'What are friends for?' She smiled as she thought this… She wondered if he thought that when he curtly nodded at her.
"I've cooked plenty!" She said, falling out of a sort of drama she had felt like she was playing in all day…
"Like?" Inuyasha joined with a grin.
Her smile became genuine as they had an animated argument about Kagome's cooking abilities…
The wind had already gusted her memories away…