A/N: Yeah, so I definitely missed the Columbus' Day mark. The truth is, homecomings and angst and switching-out-of-AP-History ordeals and a lot of crying and AP Bio happened. So by the time I actually had time to write and everything, I wanted to sleep. A lot. And I was trying to figure out a way to write Chapter 11, too, except I had this written out for two months, but I didn't like it, and I kept trying to rewrite it before realizing that it couldn't go any other way. Yeah.

In conclusion? I have time now, and I'll try to get back into some semblance of a writing schedule, OK?

Disclaimer: (incessant sobbing in the background)


Chapter 11: Second Base

Nghi


There were moments in life that hit a rough patch, but Kagome had always prided herself in facing them with a calm air of resonance. To be clear, she wasn't a mat anyone could step all over on; she was certainly rowdy and adventurous and fire spitting... to a degree. People's feelings mattered, and she made sure to check herself before crossing the line.

The way Kagome had always approached emotions gave her the opinion that she herself was mature, and she really was- there were so many examples that demonstrated her willingness to compromise and listen even when things had turned for the worse. When Eri had accidentally dropped her paper into a puddle of orange juice that one time in tenth grade, she hadn't exploded and yelled at her friend for being so incredibly clumsy. On the contrary, Kagome had waved it off with a gentle smile to the flustered girl, promising her it would be OK and that she could deal with one zero in math class. Yes, it had been an apparent lie, since they both knew her grade for algebra II at that time had been bordering on a D, and yes, she had been very disheartened that all her hard work had ended up in a dripping wad of paper, but accidents will happen, and she had always had an inclination of holding ill feelings towards a subject rather than towards a person.

Or the other time at the beginning of the year, when Yuka had gotten word that some girl had spread rumors involving her and a nose job within the same context. She had raved on and on for two, grueling periods, and by the end of lunch, she had been ready to knock out a few teeth and break a nose. But Kagome had managed to wheedle her friend out of the bad idea with her usual level-headedness, reminding Yuka to save her fist as a last resort, and in the end, rational won over irrational. It had been the first time her friends had praised her ability to be calm and decisive, and she had grinned embarrassingly, looking somewhat flattered. Maybe they were right- her strength lay in her warm-hearted nature (Inuyasha not included.) and her analysis of the situation before starting anything.

And in retrospect, as Kagome ran through the tall, whispering grass fields with nothing for a destination and her thoughts slowly unraveling, she realized dimly that thinking and then acting wasn't always as good as it sounded- the more she tried to focus on Ayumi and the man, the more disoriented her feelings became, shifting constantly between varying degrees of hurt. What would happen if she had stayed there to completely analyze the entire thing? What would happen if she hadn't followed her first instinct and bolted from the two? What if--

Her foot hit against a rock, and her thoughts scattered everywhere as she rocketed forward, her skirt flying and her arms flailing to brace the impact. A few seconds later, her breath was stolen away for the second time that day, but for a completely different reason; her lower arms were the first to reach the ground, followed by her body, and at first there was only white numbness and spots before her eyes and nothing else- everything had stopped for a breathtaking second. But a moment later the familiar, physical pain shot through her ribs before moving to the end of her elbows, and her knees began to sting from the raw, sliding contact with the ground.

It hurt.

At least it was simple, and Kagome would much rather welcome the habitual feeling of a twisted ankle than the foreign confusion and chaos blowing and screaming inside her head. It made her feel strange and so unlike herself, and she didn't like it. At all.

It wasn't the first time the commotion was inside her head, and it wasn't the first time she felt helpless and useless, the situation out of her hands. Kagome remembered how she had felt when her first cat had died; Buyo had been a bit on the fat side, and he had liked to waddle around sluggishly. As if it wasn't bad enough, the cat had a tendency to roam around the streets, and his fate was sealed one night at three in the morning.

She remembered opening the door and seeing a police officer, his face puckered and grim. She remembered hiding in between the shadows of the staircase while he told her mother what had happened. She remembered crying herself to sleep that night, and the next night, and the next night. Although Buyo didn't do anything for the family, he was her fat cat, her company and pet, and Kagome couldn't deal with the fact that a family member was ripped apart from her so suddenly and without any warning. It was a knife jammed and twisted in her stomach and heart, and she cried so hard for the next two weeks, refusing to eat anything.

But this… this was a lot more difficult and complex. Her mother, her flesh and blood, was involved directly, and in a sense, she had been taken away from Kagome without so much as a notice. Granted, their relationship had deteriorated since Grandpa had died, and the two had grown apart, each shuttling Souta back and forth for alternative, mandatory babysitting; that was what they had become, and in her mind, she knew that Ayumi had every right to find a new love interest. Theoretically, if she had put herself in her mother's shoes, she would have done the same.

But she just couldn't accept it. (Or was it wouldn't?)

Her temples began to thrum in that dull, painful way, and she shook her head, trying to shake off an oncoming headache- too much had happened in so little time, and Kagome couldn't process it all. There was no point in running away from her problems for a little while if she was only going to end up thinking about it all at once. Another thought hit her, and she realized that she had been wallowing on the dirt for at least a good five minutes, and she made an effort to stand up, brushing off the accumulated grass blades and clumps of dirt stuck to her skirt.

Might as well see where I am now, Kagome thought, looking around. Maybe she could hide there for a while, trying to put everything back in place... like her life, maybe.

Her eyes settled on the baseball field.

One of the few places she hadn't visited in a long time. After all, there was the school field already, and she found there wasn't any use for here anymore. But 'anymore' was a very big term, and as Kagome trotted forward, she thought maybe she had been wrong in deeming the place worthless and unnecessary in tenth grade.

In no time, her scraped legs carried her across the field, over the pitcher's mound, and past the fence behind the umpire. The bleachers were terribly run-down, the rust already visible and taking over the seats, but she hardly minded and climbed onto the middle bench. It had always been a sort of haven for her when she was younger, a sedative to calm her angry moods and her frazzled nerves. Or it would have been, but Inuyasha had to make his presence loudly known, and that often interrupted the serenity the place brought her. Nevertheless, there was something about the field that drew her in, and after almost two years, its lure was still strong.

Kagome leaned back, closing her eyes, and she tried to reason with herself again. Maybe a change of surroundings would change her opinions and her thoughts- she hated knowing her mind was rational, but her heart wasn't, and she concentrated on her relationship with her mother, trying to sort it out psychologically. Perhaps it was she who hadn't given the woman the attention? Maybe the man was just a cry for a bond? And it went on for some time like that, her trying to question where the mother-daughter relationship had turned so terribly wrong to the point where Ayumi had to look for a new man for comfort. It was like an invasion of privacy, introducing him into their home of six years, and Kagome felt unusually violated, like he had decided to snatch some part of her territory away. And there it was again, her irrational feelings speaking up and declaring Ayumi had to remain a widow for the rest of her life- when did they become so muddled and so... so not like her? When did--

"Long time no see," a voice interrupted her, and she knew who it was before she had opened her eyes to look at him. "The team kick you out for being annoying?" Inuyasha threw his duffel nearby the fence, just like the past six years and squatted down to retrieve a bat.

Kagome averted her gaze from him and kept quiet- she didn't need to remark, and nor was she in the mood for it. For his part, he didn't care much either way, knowing fully well that his jabs were pretty much half-hearted. "What're you doing here?" he asked instead, throwing a few baseballs near the mound. They fell with dull thuds and rolled a few feet away from the plate. "I didn't think you'd skip a baseball practice in your life just to spend it here with me."

"I didn't," she couldn't help but answer. It consoled her a little to know the tone was downright flat and devoid of any wants of conversation at all, much less with Inuyasha of all people. Then she remembered that he was more persistent than he really let on and quickly added, "And my coming here is none of your business, either." Just in case he decided to prod any further, which she hoped he didn't. He wasn't caring or sensitive like that to give a damn about her problems, and she didn't want him to start caring, either.

Inuyasha didn't fail to prove her wrong as he sauntered over to the mound and turned around, casting a slanted look towards her. "Technically, you forfeited this field when you joined the school's baseball team."

"You joined the boy's team, you know."

"But I still come here, don't I?" he commented before throwing one of the balls into the air and swinging the bat several seconds afterwards- the baseball flew towards her face and careened against the fence, jangling it forcefully before dropping onto the sand. Kagome wasn't one to lie to herself, and as she watched Inuyasha go through the pile, him watching with slight satisfaction as the balls shook the fence violently each time, she admitted grudgingly that he had some formidable skills. It would be a surprise if he didn't enter the major leagues at all; he was a good player, despite the I-am-alone attitude. She thought he needed to work on his people skills, though. A lot.

For a while she observed him hit each baseball successively, retrieve them into a bundle, and start over again- it wasn't because she was so amazed by his abilities or capabilities or whatever. It was because he provided a sort of stable cycle that repeated over and over again, and it was somewhat of a comfort to her, just watching him redo and recollect, redo and recollect... Her thoughts began to stray, and she found herself thinking about Souta and the effect of the affair on him. How would he deal with it? Could he deal with it? He was only seven years old, after all... that's a pretty impressionable age; what if it was too big for him to cope, and he reverted to drugs? What if he could never see his family as his family again and become isolated? God, he would be sulky and angsty and going through--

"Oi, you're ruining the atmosphere," Inuyasha interrupted again, effectively cutting off her train of thought. "Can you go away and leave me alone?"

"What?" Kagome, for a lack of better expression, looked incredulous, as if he had just asked her to calmly walk off a building. He rolled his eyes- God, what a drama whore.

"You know, move your ass out of the field so I can concentrate?" He made a jerking motion with his hand, very much annoyed at her presence. She was absolutely ruining his qualm by boring holes into his head- it was unnerving and slightly nerve-wrecking, to say the least.

But as he anticipated, she shook her head, hard stubbornness already crossing her features. "I got here first," she protested.

"It doesn't matter- your sulking is distracting. Take it somewhere else." Inuyasha waited for the mandatory 'Shut up' or the 'You sulk more than me' or even the 'Maybe if you had said it nicely...'. But it never came, and he was thrown for a loop when she turned her head away, mumbling an answer. That was surprising in itself, and he couldn't help but furrow his eyebrows in confusion at her lack of counters. Yeah, back when the two were arguing over possession of the field, sometimes she appeared looking all melancholy and sad, but nothing a few insults couldn't turn the depression into anger. And here he was, practically slashing at her dignity tire with a knife, and she was doing nothing but sitting there and taking it!

...Well, he wasn't complaining, now was he?

The only problem was that her sulking really was distracting, and his accuracy wasn't as well as yesterday. And if there's one thing that Inuyasha couldn't stand, it was not being able to beat his own record. So it was either she left, or he left... and there was no way he was giving up a fine day and a free afternoon just so Kagome could brood in peace. "Listen, I'm serious, you're gonna have to leave. Now." He made sure to give her a demeaning glare just for fun. After all, she was too far deep in her state of agony to really yell or fight back.

"I'm not leaving, and besides, I'm not bothering you, anyways." OK... maybe she wasn't completely submissive. He watched as she still avoided his stare and scratched her kneecap absently. This girl was seriously giving him doubts about her sanity- the last time he had seen her (which was a little over an hour ago), she was walking happily with one of her friends home. Then the girl had pointed at him, said something, and Kagome got all pissed off about it. And now here she was, moping on the benches in his baseball field, totally taking away any concentration he had left. Baseball was like the Bible to him- he studied it, he practiced it, and he devoted time to it, and if she thought she could invade his religious time like this, she was wrong.

But Kagome was hardheaded, and there was no way in hell he could coerce her to go away- besides, he was bad at persuasive communication, anyways. And he knew enough from past experience that trying to physically remove her would result in some ugly bruises and a big earful of Kaoru's hand and lectures. Inuyasha was verging on manhood and adulthood and age legality, but his aging mother could still whoop his ass if she wanted to. (But that was a secret!) (That his mom was aging, that is.) After a few, painful lessons in the past, he had learned the hard way not to lay a hand on any girl. Or at the very least, he had grown out of stage; all in all, Inuyasha was helpless when it came to removing Kagome and her decaying shell of an existence from his benches. But at the same time, he couldn't give up his practice time, either...

"Fine," Inuyasha ground out, looking very much irritated, "just stop moping."

"I'm not," she said, her eyes beginning to glint. Dammit, she was getting some of that spunk back. And just when he was enjoying the floor mat so much, too! There was only one thing to do to stop the 'hell hath no fury on a woman scorned'... unfortunately, he didn't know and opened his mouth anyways.

"For fuck's sakes, I know what moping is- I do it on a daily basis," he said in an obvious tone.

The reaction was half-expected, half-unexpected. "Shut up," Kagome snapped, and he had a mental image of a cow having a hissy fit. It was usual in the fact that he remembered her throwing these all the time when they were younger, not in the fact that they barely even talk anymore nowadays. Now that he thought about it, though, they didn't really talk on account that almost all their conversations lasting longer than two minutes degenerated into abusive language and petty arguments every, single time. So it was surprising to realize that this was the first one to last three minutes. And continuing!

Inuyasha's small observation was quickly overridden by her sudden mood change, as the blazing in her eyes quickly died down into a slightly hurt look. Interesting... she must have received some new medication this morning. Then- "You wouldn't understand." It was softly spoken, but the resentment did not go unnoticed by him, and he felt compelled to say something, anything.

"What? That you're having a tough time trying to decide on an emotion?"

Kagome threw him a scathing look and shifted her body away. You didn't live next to her for six years and not learn the basics, and for him, she was clearly using her most overused body language that practically emitted the phrase, You jackass. Well, it was fine and dandy with him, because he sure as hell didn't care for her personal opinion anyways. Inuyasha could just turn around and deftly avoid her bitchy attitude; for once in his life, he was in the right, and she was in the wrong, and he would be very much entitled to screaming profanities and telling her to beat it and get lost and go back to her house. It was his baseball field, and it had been for the past two years or so, and there was no fuckin' way his happy-turned-emo neighbor was going to ruin his Baseball-Bible days. So there, he thought smugly.

Except, Inuyasha remembered how she had treated him in the last year or so, despite them hardly acknowledging the other's presence in school, and despite them bickering constantly as little kids, and despite her mother strictly forbidding any boys inside her room. She had gone out of her way to help him, although her disdain for him was about equivalent to her disdain for hippo turd. As of late, there hadn't been any arguing, and hence why he hadn't come lately, but the peace wasn't predictable, and it was always laced with tension and malice.

Then Inuyasha looked at her now, with her more than just put out and her lack of enthusiasm when it came to snappy, witty remarks (He wished she wasn't so witty, though.), and then he was suddenly very, very angry because he didn't have the heart to tell her to piss off (again) when she was acting like that.

Damn him and his weakness for sympathy!

"Forget it," Inuyasha muttered, picking up two baseballs. "Just don't burst into random tears or anything." He hadn't told her about his discomfort with females crying, and it didn't look like he would tell her any time soon.

Kagome turned her head, slightly offended. "I won't," she said more as a challenge than as a statement. "If I wanted to sob, I would've done it somewhere else and not in front of you."

He rolled his eyes- the girl was a damn bomb waiting to explode any moment. How the hell was it possible to make an answer sound so insulting? Any form of empathy or understanding he had briefly felt back then had dissipated completely, and he was left with a feeling that the girl had somehow gypped him by means of pity. Or manipulated him, anyways. Now why couldn't he do the same thing a few minutes ago?

But it didn't matter, because he was giving her a freebie today, letting her stay and cry and absolutely ruin his concentration- he was nice like that. But next time… oh, if there was a next time, he'd kick her sorry, little ass back to her house. First off, he wasn't that nice, and secondly, he couldn't really afford to sacrifice any practice for more than a period of two days, unless he planned on becoming rusty. So just today... just today.

With a determined nod, Inuyasha sealed his deal with a crack of a bat.

-

By the time Kagome crawled back into her room, it was dark, the moon hidden on the other side of the house. She had waited until Inuyasha had disappeared over the curve of the hill before sliding off the benches and starting for her own home at a much slower pace. It hadn't worked, much to her despair- granted, the field had given her a calmer mind, but her thoughts were just as jumbled and confused as before, and as she slipped underneath her covers, not bothering to change out of her dirty uniform, she realized that nothing had been sorted out at all. The feelings were still coarse and painful, and she still felt so juvenile for acting this way. But what else could she do? Let her mother go on with the affair? Let her mother go tromping around with some-some other guy? Let her mother bring home a man while the day of Grandpa's funeral came up?

Kagome would have continued on, but the collisions and thinking had worn her out, and the last thing she thought before falling asleep was how hard it had been to balance on top of the drain pipe.

-