A/N: So. Stressed. So. Many. Powerpoints! I want to write more original story, but I think I can only write during the weekends for that.
Spots. Before. My. Eyes!
Disclaimer: A;SLDFKAJSFDASFL;.
Chapter 18: Second Base
Nghi
Inuyasha skulked all the way home, slouching and shuffling from intersection to intersection until he was walking down the nice, quiet neighborhood that was oh-so familiar again. Both the girl's and boy's baseball teams ended around the same time, and he thought he heard Kagome being dismissed early. He could therefore safely conclude that she would be home already. It generally was a good thing, because then he didn't have to see her face… or her boyfriend's face, either.
The damn kid was glowing throughout all of practice, and although it annoyed the fuck out of him, he was curious. What had Kagome said to Hojo exactly? She wasn't the type of person who went out and promised kinky stuff with boys, and Inuyasha could definitely bet darling Kaoru for that. Kagome just wasn't like that—too focused, too driven, too annoying, and most of all, too—too tough to crack underneath peer pressure.
Not that Hojo was a dirty, little pervert in training, either. Inuyasha kicked at a rock and watched it skid across the black pavement. The loser was like a little boy; give him a lollipop, and he'd be on cloud fucking nine for the rest of the day, which goes to show how easily pleased he was. So was that it? Inuyasha arched an eyebrow, trying to think of other things that would make a spineless wimp happy. Maybe an autographed baseball like Sesshoumaru had gotten all those years ago? Or how about… a new shirt or something? Did Hojo even like that kind of stuff?
Sure he does. He still remembered the boy bragging about the sweater his grandmother had knitted for him. Inuyasha didn't know about other people, but he wouldn't be caught wearing family-made shit like that. Maybe a much-loved heirloom or something, like a jacket, but a knitted sweater? Way too much to ask right there.
"Guess the world will never know," he said with a light shrug, and he rounded up the driveway. A silver van was parked there, a sign that Kaoru was home. Inuyasha didn't know why she still kept that thing around when she could have just traded it in for the latest model. Why keep a battered thing of a car when you could get the latest import from some distant European country? The faster, the better, in his opinion, and he had said that to her once, a few years ago. She had laughed and patted his head affectionately, like he was some small child.
Not a child. Note the adult face.
Inuyasha fumbled around the keys for a bit before successfully unlocking the front door and letting himself in. It wasn't a bad day, so he had no reason to slam the door. "Kaoru?" he called, although he didn't really mean it to anyone in particular. Sure, it was his mother's name, but it's not like he wanted her to materialize beside him with a caring demeanor or anything. It had been quite a while since she had done that, actually, and starting it up again would only be uncomfortable as well as slightly humiliating. He was eighteen, and he did not need to be babied by anyone.
Inuyasha didn't expect anyone to answer him back, and he was right. No "welcome home" or "hello" or "Inuyasha". The other time when she had appeared by the steps was weird. She never came out of her bedroom for any reason, so he had no idea why she would suddenly fancy welcoming her son home. Not like she had been doing it for the past few years, anyways.
He kicked his shoes into a messy pile by the door and shrugged his bag onto the floor. It was time to get to the baseball field again, to work on batting again. He had come a long way from his "spaghetti arms" days, and it was a rather good grip on the metal, too, with the correct hand position this time. But still… there was always room for improvement.
Inuyasha was halfway up the stairs when Kaoru's voice floated down from—somewhere. He guessed it was outside on the patio or something. "Inuyasha?" she called, and he froze mid-step. "Inuyasha? Is that you?" There was noise now, and she had definitely been on the back porch, because there was the annoying whine of the back door scraping, and then she flounced in, looking perky in her yellow sundress and black sunglasses.
He wasn't fashion conscious, but someone needed to tell the woman that no sane being on earth with working color vision would even think about choosing that neon-looking outfit. It was blinding him, actually, but he didn't say that, of course, because he wasn't rude or anything.
"How was school?" she asked airily, with a smile, and Inuyasha knew something had gone down. No way, no way could his mother just suddenly pick up a book on family rearing, or one of those healthy living magazines, either. "Well?" she prodded, arching a thin eyebrow, and he snapped out of it long enough to shrug his shoulders. Kaoru sighed; there was no getting to her son. "Is that the only thing you can say now?"
He shrugged and started trotting up the stairs, but she stopped him again. "Wait, aren't you going to ask me how my day was?"
Oh, so it's the emotional support. It wasn't an uncommon thing, and it was all the more reason why InuTaisho should drop whatever project he was working on and come back home to give a little TLC to the clingy wife of his. By the time Inuyasha was emotionally mature enough, he had apparently started to give free "therapeutic" sessions to his mother, which often came in the form of sharing emotions. He had thought he had known all there was to female emotion depth; after all, the crying when Kagome's appendix had exploded seven years ago was one of the foremost examples that stood out in his mind. He had thought that his childhood had explored the caverns of feelings, and although he couldn't handle crying, he could certainly tolerate a few hours' worth of, quite frankly, verbal diarrhea. Besides, he was one of the leading players on the baseball team, and he was in quite the shape of his life—how hard was it to handle a few moments of female blubbering? He remembered thinking, internally boasting that there was nothing he couldn't manage the first time Kaoru had come running to him with all her troubles and insecurities. Tch. I can handle this, I can handle this. It's like learning how to run—you learn once, and you do the same thing all over again every time. He was ready, he was prepared, he was a man willing to take his absent father's place. Nothing in the world could scare him off.
Two hours later, a fourteen-year-old Inuyasha had stumbled out of his bedroom, looking very much frazzled and nervous. The crying! The tears! The snot running everywhere! It was a messy experience, not to mention Kaoru had a nasty habit of twisting things with her hands whenever she expelled huge amounts of emotions.
He had learned very quickly after that dealing with female emotions was not like jogging in the park, where the path was set and definitive. For some strange reasons, females failed to comprehend the logical solution and always ended up on someone's shoulders with chips the size of a block on their shoulders. Or all the females that he had met, anyways; this included Kaoru and Kagome, and sometimes Ayumi, although he admired the last one more for her ability to at least try and not dump a truckload of feelings and mushiness everywhere all the time.
If anything, sentiment was like a curveball: unpredictable and crazy, and sometimes it'll knock you right out of the field. Right now was one of them, and he blinked at Kaoru, as if she was crazy. Was this about her feeling inadequate as a parent again? "You look fine," Inuyasha finally settled on, and he managed to get in a wonderful two more steps before a different voice echoed from outside.
"Mrs. Furiko, is everything all right?"
Kaoru didn't snap her attention away from him for a moment, but she somehow managed to change the pitch of her voice so that it would sound perky and cute and nice and… everything she really wasn't. Fake, he thought, a dark cloud beginning to form over his head. Why couldn't she be a little more real about how she was feeling? Oh well, it didn't matter; he had to go practice some more in his baseball field. "Oh, I'm fine. I'm just getting some more tea. I'll be out in a moment."
"Who's that?" Inuyasha couldn't help but ask.
"Oh, that's—"
"Do you want me to help?" Even though it was a question, the door slid open, and there were a few, dainty clacks on the floor before the person reached the doorway. "I thought the kit—" Her eyes widened marginally as she took in the boy.
Well, it wasn't like he could have told her off for being so rude, because Inuyasha's expression was no better. In contrast to her small, slightly bemused expression, his eyes had widened comically, almost in an exaggerated fashion, and his mouth dropped open to say something. How was it that the Kikyo bitch was in his house right now? "What are you doing here?" he demanded, and his eye twitched ever so slightly. Apple skins. Garbage hell. Smelled like a fucking pig afterwards. I ruined my shirt for that bitch!
Kikyo leveled him with a cool gaze, and when she spoke, it was even cooler. "I could say the same for you, but you then again, you probably live here, right?" He fumed, not knowing what to say. Three seconds, and the bitch had already knocked him down. It was like an ultimate nightmare—someone who was better at being Kagome than Kagome herself had finally existed.
Kaoru, for the most part, was clueless. "You two know each other?" she asked with a note of interest, and her eyes ping-ponged between the two like some sort of tennis match. He guessed she wanted an answer, because all three stood there for some time before Kikyo opened her mouth.
Correction: she started talking before he could, and thus resulting a smoother result. "We've met once or twice before," she replied, a small smirk lifting at the corners of her mouth. Kikyo had been staring at him the entire time, and God was she good at it. The back of his neck pricked uncomfortably, but he held his stare anyways; he was not, not, not going to let this sophisticated dog get the best of him!
"Oh really? Where?"
"For Chrissakes, does it matter?" Inuyasha suddenly snapped, and Kaoru leaned back, stricken for a moment before she regained her senses just as quickly. Her son… was yelling at her? In her own house? While there were guests?
"I'm sorry I hurt your feelings, darling," she bit sarcastically, and he had the decency to avert his eyes from her scolding. At least he was graceful enough to look humiliated by his own rudeness… or by the fact that he was still whipped by his own mother. Either one worked, and she didn't care which one it was at the moment—just like old times, sort of, before InuTaisho had to go on business trips all the time and she had to stay home all the time and Inuyasha had to stay away all the time.
"Why is she here?" Inuyasha asked pointedly, resuming his go-away-Kikyo stare and ignoring his mother's comment. She must have been impervious or really, really thick-skinned, because she was still standing there, absorbing in all the death rays like some kind of sun-tanning freak. Sure, it may have been a little hostile of him to feel such intense dislike for someone he barely knew, but it was well worth it. Besides forcing him to pick up her trash, there was just this thing about her that drove him up the side of the wall. It was a first impression kind of thing, and he did not get a good impression of that sophisticated bitch. Sophisticated—ha! More like-like—unsophisticated bitch.
She wasn't willing to back down like all the other people. Kikyo held her chin high, and her mouth pulled into a distasteful frown, like she was belittling him or something. Was his stare working? Why wasn't it working? Why wasn't she running out of the house and declaring war on his property? Why was she crossing her arms? Why was she opening her mouth? Why was—
"I'm here because your mother hired me," Kikyo answered, blinking in a nonplussed fashion, and Inuyasha was taken aback. That was it? That was all she had to say, after he just melted two holes in the middle of her forehead? That was it? "Your mother hired me"?
In all honesty, Inuyasha was rightly justified in saying aloud, "What the fuck?"
Kaoru slapped him on the shoulders playfully—very playfully—, her annoyed demeanor replaced by forced joviality. "Oh, you have to ignore him sometimes," she said with the fakest smile he had ever seen, "My son just can't control himself sometimes. It's college and everything, if you must know. Gaining entrance and everything."
Kikyo nodded with the worst case of apathy he had ever seen. She was like a carbon copy of Sesshoumaru, with her poker face and everything. Besides his family and Miroku, the only person who could ever hold up to him was—
And then it hit him, why the girl was like a gum to his shoe, and why he always felt like she was a nuisance, a clichéd pain in the ass. Because the only person who could equally match him in terms of stubbornness was Kagome. Except for that last time at the baseball field, which didn't count. But other than that, she was a pretty strong-headed person, and Kikyo was eerily similar to her in that aspect, except in a more sophisticated (He needed a new word.) and less hissy-fit kind of way.
But that was it, of course. The hair, the clothes, the rest of her personality—complete contrast, which didn't necessarily make it any better, because she was still the one who made him pick up stinking trash in the middle of the night.
Apparently, this was a much bigger discovery than he thought, and not mention absolutely mind-blowing because by the time he had finished absorbing the fact that Kikyo had only irked him because of her quiet stubbornness, he could only catch the last of her sentences. "—good in college."
Um, what? Inuyasha blinked slowly but not deliberately, because he really didn't know what was going on, so poor Kaoru jumped in.
"Come on, then, we'll leave you to your work." She waved cheerfully at him and turned around, tugging Kikyo's wrist. "Let's go into the dining room, and you tell me more about your experiences at Todai University, because at least I'm interested." Oh, so she was a college girl. Whoop dee-fucking-doo. If that was what he had missed, Inuyasha wasn't sure if he wanted to hear what she had said those other sentences preceding that detail.
But still, there was something about her that made him curious. Namely, why the fuck was she still in his house exactly? "Oi, why are you here?" he called out, trailing after them.
The two women stopped, and Kikyo opened her mouth. Duh, she was always the first to open it. "Excuse me?"
He ignored Kaoru's cutthroat glower and repeated himself. "Why are you here?"
"Because I was hired?"
His own mother burst out laughing, her giggling tinkling merrily. "You're very witty, you know that?" Kikyo nodded sharply, gracefully, and the stupid smirk was on her face again, like some dirt stain on his shirt. When had the two become such good buddies? And when had they decided that making his life hell was a fun bonding experience?
Inuyasha clenched his fist and willed himself not to pick up the nearest vase and wedge it into the girl's skull. How—infuriating! Forget Kagome; when was the last time he had felt such violent inclinations toward a single, human being? Oh yeah, only seven years ago, with the whole hospital and kidney fiasco. It was the closest he had come to choking an invalid, and truthfully, she had been his enemy/acquaintance/enequaintance for so long that Kagome sort of became a friend. In a twisted way, of course. But an enemy wouldn't let someone else sleep in her room, or somewhat respect him enough to not ask questions about his family, or let him pilfer her refrigerator when dinner was too horrible to handle at his home.
If Kagome wasn't a friend, and she wasn't an enemy, then what was she? Wait… he didn't know for sure if she was a friend or not, but Inuyasha definitely knew that he didn't view her as someone who could potentially knock him off his throne anymore. Or his baseball field, anyways. Because the position of adversary went to the girl in front of him, the girl whom his mother hired for-for something.
"Get the fuck out," Inuyasha growled more out of frustration than anything, and Kaoru gasped in offense. He was expecting Kikyo to do the same and then stomp away. Or twist her face into the ugly sneer that most girls, like Kagome, did and then shoot back something nasty. Or just give him a cool, calculated look like what she usually does half the time.
It turns out that Kaoru was offended for the both of them, because Kikyo was still smiling and shaking her head. "I can't," she answered softly, "I'm supposed to redecorate your home." Knowing look. "Unless you want blank spots across your walls."
"You're a construction worker?" OK, he was confused now. A house toucher-upper? In those clothes? No way.
"You stupid boy," Kaoru muttered, and he involuntarily twitched; it was the remnant from his childhood, the leftover from his trademark wince whenever he landed himself into too much trouble. "Kikyo helps her grandfather run his business. She sells antiques and interesting artifacts. And don't give me that look, like I'm wasting money or something." She sniffed. "It's to help replace the ones I dropped by accident on Saturday, if you must know."
Inuyasha sobered quickly. It hadn't been an "accident", but whatever floats her boat. He just went along for the ride, willingly or not. Kikyo looked at him curiously, and he ignored her. What a fly. "Oh, that's it?"
"Yes, that's it. Now do go practice your baseball or something, because we girls have a lot to talk about." Inuyasha wanted so badly to point out that Kaoru was approaching closer to old-fart age than anything, but he wisely shut his trap and just shrugged, pivoting on his heel and stalking off.
Hey, if she wanted him out of here and hitting home runs, who was to complain?
"I'm so sorry you had to see that," Kaoru apologized sincerely, and Kikyo shrugged, already forgetting about it. Boys would be boys, after all. "Inuyasha has just been really stressed lately, but he has no right to talk to anyone like, especially to a darling like you."
"It's all right, Mrs. Furiko. I would be wary, too, if a stranger had appeared in my house for no reason." She glanced lightly at her fingernails. They were a bit too long, and she didn't like that very much; it often stopped her from handling delicate objects carefully. Even though the color was absolutely adorable, Kikyo just couldn't afford dropping vase and losing business prospects.
The lady shook her head fiercely, her light brown hair whipping about. She must have been very pretty when she was young. "I don't want you to feel bad about him. He's been feeling under the weather lately, and I honestly don't know what is the matter with him. He was always enthusiastic as a kid, but now…." Kaoru trailed off, sighing tiredly, and Kikyo felt a small pang of sympathy.
"I think boys go through this stage at one point or another," she said with a reassuring nod. "Don't worry about it. I'm sure he will come around sooner or later. Patience is a key virtue, after all." It had been rather fun watching him splutter over her clever remarks, hadn't it? It was almost endearing, just like the night when he had been so wrapped up in his thoughts that he had ended up tripping over her trashcan. It wasn't even hidden in the shadows, either-!
And not to mention no one had ever responded to her in such a snappish way, either. It was kind of entertaining, and she always appreciated any form of amusement that came her way. Her life was just one cycle of cycles. That was all it was, constant repetition. The boys were no fun, the schoolwork was no fun, and the business was no fun.
But he was.
"Oh, I wish Inuyasha was as charismatic as you," Kaoru said, already a smile lighting up her features again, and Kikyo nodded amiably. But she disagreed—really disagreed.
What was the point if no one had an opinion?
-
