Disclaimer: If I owned Inuyasha, don't you think that my life would be a hell of a lot easier to live?
Yaay! Reviews! Thank you, Ile and 'KiTWorks'. You guys really do motivate me to keep on writing. I know I sound like I'm repeating myself, but really thanks. I'm really not that good of a writer; you know you think that too. I get good ideas but I'm not good when it actually gets to sharing the ideas. But my person quota, "Hey, (shrug) what the hell?" helps keep me writing as well. So, I hope ya'll like chapter fifteen. Damn, I just noticed- I wrote a lot.
Chapter 15: Pouring Rain Part II
He had to find her fast and he had to find her now. Even if it was still just seven in the morning, Blue City's known for its bad portion of town. In the past four months alone there had been two murder cases which all involved the gang activities in this region. Itachio swung his head, looking down both alleyways with his silver hair flying wildly in his face obscuring his view.
Flarenii tapped the top of Itachio's head to get his attention. The girl pointed towards the way that leads to a brick wall- a dead end. "They dragged her over there!"
The pitter patter of heavy rain hitting pavement climbing a crescendo with each passing second as Itachio's sleek, expensive shoes pounded the uneven ground. Nearly tripping over a crack in the ground, he quickly regained his footing. Unfortunately the foot that balanced his tipping form out splashed into a fairly large puddle wetting Flarenii who was sitting atop his shoulders, Kirara who had poked her wet, furry head out of Sango's dropped purse and himself.
Itachio gave his head a rough shake to get rid of the rain droplets that had collected in his bangs. I'm going to have to trim those at some point.
A man's gruff shout of pain broke through the rainfall.
"Stop standing there, and move it, Lame-ass!" Flarenii shouted.
Itachio didn't need to be told that by the one person that was dragging him down. Why did he have to carry her in the first place?
"Woah, woah, chica, calm down," The man that had first approached her sneered. His voice was a drawl and his Hispanic origin gave his words a roll of the tongue. Typical gangster voice.
An African American looked down at Sango was something along the lines of leer and started towards her crouched form on the ground against the brick wall. He was itching in his pants and wanting some fun. It's been days since this guy's gotten a proper laying and he wants one now.
Another hoodlum, with his hat pulled over his head making his hairy unibrow stand all the more out, stopped him. "What chu tink chu doing?"
The man growled at behind told what to do and put his face close to unibrows. "I tink I'm gonna be havin' some fun, punk. Don' yous be tellin' me what ta do."
The Hispanic annoyed at the bickering grabbed the Black gangster by the front of his large shirt and said in a low threatening voice. "Shut up, ya little puto. Now, you and yo white lil' chonis (underwear. I think…) go stan' watch or I'll bust yo white ass, comprendes amigo?"
(A/N: Do forgive me for my bad Spanish spelling. This guy speaks in broken Spanish. As a side note, I have nothing against any of the races noted above. It's just that most of the gangs in my city are of that origin.)
The man's anger only went up a notch and he brushed the Mexican man's gripping hand away roughly. "Yea, I git you all right." He spat near the opposing man's shoes before stalking off towards a garbage dump a good couple of feet away throwing unibrows a dirty look along the way.
The rest of the men that had stayed silent during the three other men's argument turned their attention back towards Sango who stood up and backed as far as she could into the wall without melting into it.
Her face was set in a determined glare as she assessed her situation. There were seven of them including the guy keeping guard and her current situation the only thing she had were her fists and teeth.
The closest one to her reached out a hand only to have it slapped away roughly.
Sango's eyes flashed warningly. "Don't touch me." It was a struggle to even suppress her shivers and keep a steady, calm voice.
The hoodlum that had his hand slapped away feigned a hurt expression and putted on a false sympathetic voice. His voice a disgusting crone, "Awww, is the little lost princess mad?"
The other men sniggered and laughed amongst themselves.
"Don' worry, princess, you'll be save wit' us," the man reached out a second time and Sango knew she timed it right when she threw a furious right hook at him. She knew she hurt him a whole lot when her knuckles cracked something in his mouth and when he flew, hit, and skidded a good five feet on the wet pavement.
The rain continued its onslaught. Overhead, lightning was beginning its flashing and thundered sounded. A little early in the morning for a thunderstorm.
The man groaned as he got up. No longer did he have the look of a predator playing with his prey in his eyes, the prey had pissed him off enough and the prey was going down. Down and hard.
The men smirked. "Tough one, aren't ya, princess?"
They advanced on her as a group. Sango's mind swam in panic. Sure she was the star pitcher on the baseball team, yes baseball team- she was totally man enough for that, in high school, but taking on a group of lusting gangsters weren't part of her 'easy to-do' list.
She tried to fend them off as best as she can but her wild punching and kicking could only do so much before she was pushed into the center of their sex-craved middle. Not exactly the best place to be for a girl like her.
Sango was getting desperate now, not even aiming for anything. Her hands swam wildly around her trying to stop the waves of hand grabbing her. She let out a cry, hoping that someone, anyone, would hear her. She shouted, "NO!", "Stop it!", put her calls went to waste.
There would be nobody coming for her. This was it for her.
"Yous gonna pay for sucker punchin' me like that, perra." He muttered his dirty breath too close and too warm next to her ear as his equally filthy hand grabbed a handful of her silky dark brown hair.
Her light brown eyes swam in a haze. She dropped down on her knees. She didn't know what was going on anymore. The only thing she could hear was her feeble attempts to tell them to stop and the loud pounding of rain. Their hands were all over her. Where was her jacket…?
A loud painful shout broke through the rainfall as the gruesome sound of something hard falling against someone's head got the attention of the gangsters. The Black sentry's unconscious form dropped to the wet cold ground with a thud as Flarenii lifted her right foot up. She wrinkled her nose, "Damn, just cleaned the shit of my shoes too."
"Doesn't matter- your shoes are always dirty," Itachio said, keeping a perfectly calm, robotic voice despite the situation before him.
Sango was kneeling on the ground, her arms hanging listlessly by her sides, her knuckles touching the cold ground. Her jacket was tossed off towards the side and the top of her shirt was hanging open, showing the tip of the bra she was wearing underneath. Her eyes were dull and her hair a mess from all the grabbing hands.
The head gangster followed Itachio's eyes towards Sango and smirked. "Pretty quiet for a chick about to be laid, eh? Think she'll be screaming or something."
That clicked the last anger level in Itachio's head as he took the hoodlums by surprise and suddenly rushed forward, dropping Flarenii on the ground as she slipped from his shoulders and hit the concrete hard.
Her loud irritable, "OW, DAMMIT!" went unheard as Itachio charged into the middle of the group. Assaulted with punches and kicks, the silver head wrapped his pale thin arms around Sango and pulled her up, hugging her loose form close to him.
Somebody pulled out a switch knife and Itachio hissed in pain as the cool sharp blade ripped the skin on his left forearm.
Flarenii was already running the other way by the time Itachio scooped Sango into his arms bridal style and ran as fast as he could before they pull out the guns.
Damn, not good.
Knowing it would only slow him down if he snuck a look, Itachio put forth an extra burst of speed and caught up to the huffing, puffing and already tired Flarenii easily.
"What… do we… do… now?" The girl asked in between pants.
God answered for Itachio as a dirty and familiar van hastily skidded to a stop ahead of them on the street. Itachio leaped over a fallen trash can as Flarenii tripped over it.
Taki threw the door open from the inside and Itachio climbed in still holding Sango close towards him. The rain pelted against the side of the van, but luckily the wind blew the rain drops at an angle away from the open door.
The Chinese girl picked herself up as fast as her bruising back would allow her to and spun around to point her Smith & Wesson at the gangster that had caught up who also happened to be the only one without a weapon of any sort. Stu-upid.
The girl couldn't resist sticking out her tongue when the hoodlum mistaken it as a real loaded gun and slid to a stop, losing his balance and falling on his ass on the puddle-filled concrete.
The van was already moving before Flarenii slammed the door shut.
From the rear view mirror, Hirunashi saw the hoodlums standing on the side of the street panting hard and looking at the back of the van in disbelief.
"Is she all right?" Taki asked, moving back to the passenger seat.
Itachio nodded silently, wrapping his black leather jacket around Sango.
Closing her eyes, her head bowed down and her chin dipped as she slipped into unconsciousness.
"Hey, she's getting a fever, "Flarenii said loudly, taking her wet dripping hand from Sango's forehead.
Hirunashi's dark eyes scanned the threesome from the driver's mirror. "Do you need a lift to the hospital?"
Itachio wrapped a pale and bleeding arm around Sango's shoulders, resting her head against his shoulder. "No. Just drop us off at my apartment."
Taki looked back, absolutely no emotion for display on his face. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, man, you're arms bleeding like crazy," Flarenii said, pointing a grimy finger at Itachio.
He turned and ran his silver eyes across the long but shallow cut that ran from the end of his wrist to nearly his elbow. The cut had mostly scabbed but there were still areas where the red life liquid was spilling out slowly. The red stain of his blood was already beginning to stain the car seat was well as trickling down his white t-shirt.
Itachio looked at the cut as if he had just noticed it. "…"
Taki handed him a clean (probably the only thing clean in the entire van) roll of bandages. "You should wrap it up before it gets infected."
Flarenii took the roll from his hand and pulled his arm away from Sango. The girl rolled the bandages on carefully but tightly.
Itachio flinched slightly.
Flarenii rolled her eyes when she noticed the eye movement. "Oh be a man, you pussy."
Hirunashi's smile could be seen from the rear view mirror. "You'd think it'd hurt too, ya know."
Flarenii huffed and disagreed. "Well I wouldn't be hurting that much."
Taki smirked. "Sure you will."
"Shut up, pussy cat."
The next fifteen minutes were spent in silence as Hirunashi navigated through the rain flooded streets of Blue City to Feudal Village Apartments.
Each of the four conscious occupants kept to themselves throughout the ride. Flarenii would occasionally ruffling through her junk filled bag and writing things in her notebook and mutter out random things. "Damn…lost …stupid…where is it?"
Itachio turned to the young girl sitting on his right. "What are you looking for."
"None of your bee's wax," came the curt reply.
Itachio shrugged. "Okay then."
Flarenii slapped her hands against her bag in frustration. "Damn it!" Looking past Itachio, she glared at the sleeping Sango and her lip curled back revealing bright shiny braces that seem to light up the dark van. "I just know she took it…"
"Typical of you to assume things," Taki said, a waning smirk playing on his lips as he kept his eyes locked on the road ahead of him as if imagining he were the one driving instead of Hirunashi. Yeah, keep on imagining, man.
"Shut up. You don't even know what I'm talking about."
"Then don't bother speaking aloud if nobody understands nor cares." Taki turned in his seat to give the young twelve-year-old an icy glare despite his fiery colored eyes.
Flarenii felt herself go small and shrink away at the look of his cold and angry eyes. "What?"
Hirunashi was silent as she looked at Flarenii's reflection in the rear view mirror. She frowned when Flarenii seemed to be intimidated by Taki's attitude. But, Flarenii wasn't all that innocent either. Hirunashi herself shouldn't be saying anything either because she and Hiroshi helped made the situation worse. Not one them had done anything to stop Hiroshi's little embarrassment charade, but Flarenii had admitted it was her idea even if she didn't openly say it. It's the context that counts, damn it!
"An eye for an eye. You found all the skeletons in my bag and it's payback. Square?"
Taki continued to stare Flarenii down to the point where the girl was shrinking back into her seat. "Do you intend to trample on everything and force your way on everyone your entire life?"
Flarenii was taken aback at the sudden question. I mean, what was all this about? "What are you talking about! Nobody complained or said anything when I told Hiroshi to snag her purse." She pouted and crossed her arms over in front of her.
She could feel Itachio's silver eyes staring in disbelief at her. She had agitated Sango to the point where she had to escape from the teasing and harassment. He had every right to be angry, but in the stubborn child's mind she kept repeating that it was Sango's own fault for deciding to bolt at the very worst place possible.
"Okay, this is it," Hirunashi said, stopping the car. "You guys need an umbrella or something? You'll be wet even before you reach the front door."
Itachio shook his head. "We'll be fine."
Taking anything from the car was a bad choice. Offer or not, he was not taking their shit- in a good way.
They were silent as they walked slowly in the rain and towards the apartment complex. Itachio carried Sango on his back and Flarenii held onto the other girl's purse under the watchful eye of Itachio. He didn't seem to trust her to not rifle through Sango's things again.
"Hey, we ain't going to your place?" Flarenii had walked herself up to Itachio's front door but Itachio was standing in front of Sango's door.
"No, it'll be weird if she woke up in my room," Itachio replied without turning around. "Get the keys."
Flarenii silently complied and reached into the purse and seconds and a click later they were in Sango's quiet, clean and cold apartment.
"Turn the heater on and get us something to eat," Itachio said heading over to Sango's room and closing the door slightly with his foot.
Flarenii jolted when the cat in the purse suddenly hissed and bounded into Sango's room after Itachio. No doubt it wanted to be with its master.
Such devotion was something to be admired.
Flarenii dumped Sango's purse on the sofa and immediately raided the fridge.
Meanwhile in Sango's room, Itachio carefully laid the unconscious Sango onto her bed. Just about to pull the covers on her, he realized the he should probably get her out of her wet clothes. Rain water and sweat both dripped down his nose as his hands twitched the closer they got towards Sango's sleeping form.
Reaching out with both hands, Itachio couldn't help but feel it was so fucking wrong doing this! He closed his fist and opened them again, leaning in on towards Sango.
Oh my God…
With a sudden hiss, Kirara leapt onto the bed, scratching Itachio's good arm in the process. Itachio quickly withdrew his hands, gods, if he had kept his hands hovering above Sango liked that it would look like he was going to take a groping advantage on her. He shivered; he needed to stop thinking dirty.
Kirara hissed and opened her mouth, swiping the air out in front of her. Itachio gulped; that was her warning for him to get the hell away from her master or she'll tear him to ribbons. And then tear those ribbons to even smaller ribbons.
Itachio hastily backed out of the room and into the kitchen only to bump into Flarenii who was still digging in the fridge.
"What the fuck, man?" Flarenii said over a tub of French vanilla flavored ice cream. "Watch where you're going."
Itachio stared at her in a dead panned expression. "You still haven't turned on the heater yet. And you're eating."
The girl shrugged. "Couldn't find the switch. And I'm hungry! I can't help it, I'm still a growing girl fresh into puberty, ya know."
"No, Flarenii, I didn't need to know that." Itachio walked himself around Sango's apartment. Checking the walls before going back to Sango's room…and found that the heater switch was right next to her room door on the inside.
He smacked his head with his palm in punishment for his own stupidity.
Flarenii looked up when Itachio slammed the door after him loudly and sunk down to his feet on the floor.
"Whatsa matter with you?" She asked, this time over a bag of chips.
Itachio shook his head and kneaded the bridge of his nose. He could feel a migraine coming on. "Her cat won't let me near her."
Flarenii was curious and drew out a chair. "Why the hell not?"
Itachio's pale skin turned a shade of purple, his version of a blush. "I dunno…maybe it thinks I'll…you know…Sango…"
Flarenii gave a sadistic grin. "She almost did get screwed. You'd think her cat would behave like that."
"Don't joke around about it," Itachio got back up on his feet and headed over to the kitchen counter and began messing around with the stove. Pulling open cabinets and slamming them closed again, Itachio scratched his head. Where the hell did she keep all her cooking pans and stuff?
"Um…what the hell are you doing?" Flarenii asked, finishing the crumbs of the bag of greasy potato chips in her hands.
Having finally found a pot, Itachio filled it with water. Turning a knob, he began to put the water to a boil. "Making something to eat." He mumbled quietly, digging for fresh vegetable for the stew he was cooking. "Do me a favor."
"What?" The girl asked, unceremoniously wiping her hands on a kitchen towel hanging on Sango's dishwasher.
Itachio stopped cutting his carrot slices in mid chop. His ears turned a little red before turning almost completely purple. "Could you…you know…" He began cutting again slowly…very…very…slowly…
Flarenii already knew what her friend meant, but she grinned like a shark behind his back. She just had to drag this on. "What?" She asked in a sing song voice.
"GET HER INTO SOME FRESH CLOTHES." Itachio said loudly as if to get it over with quickly.
Flarenii laughed, snorted, and giggled like a horse. "You could've just said so in the first place, Lame-ass." Still laughing she made her way into Sango's room, her laughter completely died in her throat the moment she closed the door behind her.
"Um…nice kitty?"
Itachio raised an eyebrow when he looked at the door to Sango's room.
What the heck was Flarenii screaming about?
He shrugged; if she wanted to be annoying let her be. The door muffled some the words she was yelling out but it sounded something like this: "AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Ten minutes later Flarenii stalked out, stomping heavily, and carrying about eighteen scratches on her face and hands. "That went well."
Itachio looked at her ruffled appearance over the stew pot as he stirred. "?"
Flarenii went over to the sink and began washing the scratches with a sponge and some dish detergent. The girl scrubbed furiously at the scratches on her fingers, palms and on her chin, getting soap suds just about everywhere. "I got her shirt offa her and was drying her with a towel when her stupid rabid pussy cat started clawing my face out." The girl dried herself with the same towel she had used before with just as much ferocity. "Ferget it, man. I'm sure as hell not going back in there. Fuck. I need some bandages- the big kind and I need 'em pronto." Flarenii declared, throwing the towel down.
"Wait, what about Sango?" Itachio asked, dreading what's about to come.
"Do it yourself."
He dropped his knife.
Okay, he can do this. If his bastard of an older brother Hiroshima is a total womanizer, then surely he who shares his blood should be able to change the clothes on a sleeping girl that he hadn't really gotten to know all that well without any problems. Right? Right? Right.
The lightning cackled loudly outside as Itachio turned the knob to Sango's room slowly, carefully, and quietly. He walked in carefully so nothing squeaked or creaked. Kirara was curled up tight right next to Sango and appeared to be asleep.
Itachio breathed a sigh of relief. Good.
Kirara's ear twitched a bit.
Oh shit.
She didn't stir and only tucked her head in tighter between her paws.
Itachio didn't even chance a sigh this time and moved further into her room. Sango was lying on her bed in the same position he left her in except that the covers have been thrown off carelessly, her shirt was lying off on the side, her pants were unbuckled and slightly open…and she most definitely had nothing but a bra on underneath the huge towel covering her upper body.
Itachio gulped. Well at least Flarenii had the decency to cover Sango up with something. Maybe that little girl was lesbian.
NO!
Don't think about that kind of stuff right now. Focus on the task at hand: change an unconscious, almost half naked girl into something else. Right, easy.
Deciding to have a look in her dresser, Itachio tip toed over to the closest on to her bed and immediately stopped short when his eyes fell on a couple of pictures that sat collecting dust atop the dresser.
A pale hand reached out and grasped the cold frame and held out in front of him to be examined with curious silver eyes.
He looked up from the frame he was holding to glance at the several other pictures. They were mostly of Sango with her friends and a couple of people that he didn't know. His eyes immediately stopped short when they reached the face of a certain young man with black hair pulled back into a tiny pony tail and dark charm-filled eyes.
Something inside Itachio's head snapped. That guy had the same eyes as his damned brother. The guy was posing next to a palm tree at a sunny beach with his arms wrapped around in an intimate position on an extremely red, embarrassed, and agitated…
Sango.
He steeled his eyes. So, this was his arch nemesis: Miroku. Itachio's eyes widened as he realized what he had just thought. Arch nemesis? What the hell was he thinking? He smiled and shook his head. He wasn't starting to fall in love with Sango. No, he was just doing the things a good neighbor should do.
Who are you trying to kid?
A small groan from the bed bought his attention from the picture over to Sango. He quickly placed the framed picture he was holding back onto the counter with it face down.
He made no move over towards the bed, but stood his ground when Sango's tired eyes turned to look at them. She laid with her head turned to his side for a few seconds- her brain had not registered anything for the time being before she suddenly sat back up with her eyes wide open, mouth slightly agape, and searched the room with her eyes frantically as she clutched the towel close to her.
Sango was even more shocked when she realized that the towel she was clutching towards her was the only thing covering her bra.
Itachio brought his hands up quickly in front of him and tried to explain as fast as he could. "It isn't what you think. Really, it isn't. I saw you running out of Sana's store looking upset and decided to follow you. You were surrounded by…"
Sango's eyes flashed the fist gripping the towel tightened to a frightening white.
Itachio continued after a beat. "Anyway, Hirunashi and Taki dropped us off at your place. Flarenii had your keys. I didn't want you to wake up at my place. It would've been…weird."
A loud crash outside was accompanied by a loud, "Fuck! God damn it! Where the fuck is a freakin' band aid when you actually need it?"
"Uh…and Flarenii's here too."
"…"
Itachio stood counting the ticks to the clock Sango hanged above her dresser with his back towards the bed. Sango had not said a word to him as he managed to convince her he wasn't about to attack her and that she should change into some dry clothes.
The soft brushing of cotton and silk material reached his ears from the bed. The thought of Sango undressing right behind him in the same room was turning his face a deep purple. Fuck it. He should have offered to go outside or into the adjoining bathroom or something when she was changing. She didn't say anything when he turned around and that was ten minutes ago.
Itachio rubbed his temples with his palms. Why the fuck was he getting all worked up for? After all, this wasn't his first experience with a girl…More like his third. He certainly didn't have a problem with the other two girls undressing in the same room as him before. (He probably wouldn't have a problem if they were changing right in front of him either.)
Itachio gave another four minutes before taking a peek. She was done changing and he bundled up the wet clothes.
Sango had her back towards him; probably fell asleep again. He couldn't blame her, after what she's been through and now a fever, any girl would have been beat by now. He absentmindedly pulled her covers up over her shoulders like a father checking on his daughter would before turning to leave.
A sudden small nasal voice stopped him. "Itachio? Could you stay here for a while?"
He answered quietly before closing the door behind him. "Yeah, sure."
After closing the door, Itachio leaned against the door and covered his eyes with his hand. He sighed, there was so little he could do for her now.
Flarenii eyed him over her box of outdated cereal. "Did you get her changed?"
Itachio gave no answer.
"What's she doing now?"
Itachio slumped down to the ground.
She's crying again.
End Chapter 15
Well, it looks like chapter fifteen came out a lot sooner than expected. Actually kinda good for something I wrote in about four days- if I do say so myself. I oughta give myself a pat on the back or something…If there are any mistakes anywhere in this chapter, please leave a note about it in your review so I'll go back and change it. Yes, I'm trying not to be lazy. Anyways, please review. (Flames welcome.)