Hey, readers, chappie three is in the building! This is turning out to be so much fun to write, and longer, too! I had only intended two parts but...the sky's the limit, I guess!
Deds: To all the peeps who've reviewed so far, and especially Kitsune's Lover, who has been a faithful reviewer since the beginning of my time on this site! Go, Kitsune, we love you!
Disclaimer: Get off my ass, I'm not open today, goddamn lawyers!
Revenge Isn't Always Sweet
Part Three: Making Plans
Sango followed Kagome back to Kaede's, where she sat in a corner and refused to come out. She sat behind her and laid a hand on her shoulder in sympathy.
'That plan was perfect,' Kagome fumed, 'how the hell did it go so wrong? Ugh! Count on Miroku to mess everything up!'
Suddenly she turned around, and sighed. "Ok, that was a bust…no pun intended."
Sango giggled.
"But we can't let them get away with that! We must do something so totally evil that they will be scared to slight us ever again!"
Sango nodded. "Yes, I totally agree. That was such a good plan, and for it to go so wrong so fast…something has to be done to make things right."
Both were quiet for a moment. Finally, Sango spoke.
"Let's take a few days, make them think we've given up. If they do something, brush it off and take it in stride. If they think we're tired of this, they'll let their guard down. On the other hand, we will have had plenty of time to think up something really rotten to do to them."
Kagome smiled. "Sango, you're totally evil."
Sango smiled back. "I know!"
The next day, Sango and Kagome woke up in the hut, to discover that the ass had been cut from all their clothing. They exchanged a glance, but said nothing.
Inuyasha and Miroku had been leaning forward in anticipation outside the hut, waiting for the ladies to emerge without knowing everyone could see their asses, but it never happened.
Apparently they were going to have to be less subtle.
Shippo entered and exited the hut without being accused, so the boys decided to take their chances when Kaede went in and a delicious smell came wafting out of the hut.
They were cooking in there…Miroku's gut roared, reminding him loudly to feed it.
"Uh, Inuyasha," he hedged, clutching his gut.
"What?" He responded angrily, irate that his first idea hadn't panned out.
"I think we should admit defeat for now and apologize. That really smells good, whatever they're cooking in there."
Inuyasha rolled his eyes. If Miroku wasn't thinking about women, or how to get women, or how to bed women, he was thinking about food.
'Pig,' he thought.
Although he had to admit, Miroku had a point; he, too was hungry enough to eat the ass out of a skunk demon, and that was the smelliest ass you could get!
Inuyasha sighed. "Fine," he relented, "but don't go prostrating yourself before them or anything, try to maintain a little dignity, ok?"
Miroku glared at his friend. "Excuse me, those are some pretty harsh words for an idiot such as yourself. May I remind you of whose plan backfired today? Hmm? Wasn't mine!"
Inuyasha growled, and lashed out at Miroku, who ducked, and Inuyasha embedded his claws into the tree behind him, stuck fast.
"Hey, Miroku! Don't leave me here!" he wailed as Miroku walked away laughing, muttering something about borrowing Kagome's Polaroid camera to take pictures of certain idiots…
Miroku approached the hut cautiously, and pulled back the flap. All three women and Shippo sat around the fire, calmly eating soup and roast chicken, talking quietly. Kirara meowed when she saw him, and everyone looked up. Kaede smiled, and so did Sango and Kagome. Shippo appeared on his shoulder and asked, "Where you been, Miroku?"
He laughed, embarrassed, and pulled nervously at his collar. "Oh, around," he hinted, before the girls seemed to lose interest and resumed eating.
Sango made room for him and he sat down, within the circle but as far from all the women as he could politely get.
Kagome looked at Sango, then Kaede, as if expecting some sort of comment, then looked directly at Miroku, who immediately averted his eyes.
She narrowed her eyes, and when he looked back at her she raised her brows in question: Do you have something you want to say, Miroku? she seemed to ask.
He noticed none of them offered him any of the food. He sighed; defeated. Damn his treacherous gut, for it chose that very moment to make its displeasure public.
Shippo giggled, but Sango shot him a look, and he quieted, chastised. Miroku cleared his throat, about to speak, when Inuyasha barged in, and plunked himself on the floor next to him, ground out, "We're sorry, may we have something to eat?", and then proceeded to help himself.
"Certainly, help yourself," Kagome graciously responded, winking to Sango, and catching Kaede's eye, who smiled to herself.
She thought back to that morning, when they had cleaned the chicken, spitted it, and begun roasting the veggies for soup, she had guaranteed both Kaede and Sango that Inuyasha and Miroku would apologise before the day was out, because hunger would drive them to it.
She had been right. Not that they had ever doubted her.
Kagome smiled to herself. 'Just you wait, boys,' she thought, helping herself to some more soup. 'Just you wait.'
Inuyasha had watched Miroku go in, and was astonished to not see him come flying out seconds after entering. Extracting himself from the tree, he'd waited and listened under the hut's window, but Miroku was taking too long to say anything; he was hungry now!
So he had run in and gotten it over with admirably, he thought. The girls seemed to have forgotten what they'd done to them that morning, though Miroku was quick to relay their coolness to him when he'd entered to Inuyasha after dinner, when they sat out on the porch watching the sun set while the girls sat not too far away, mending their clothes and watching Shippo and Kirara play in the waning sunlight.
Inuyasha said to Miroku, "Maybe they decided to give up. I mean, I cut the ass out of Kagome's stuff, and she didn't even sit me for it. If I didn't know any better, I might think they've called a silent truce."
Miroku pondered this bit of information, rubbing his chin while he did so. He was thinking that that wasn't the case; he was willing to bet all his money that those two had something up their sleeve, and were just waiting for the right moment to spring it on them…
He shook his head. He just didn't know. Looking at them, they appeared as peaceful and mild as they normally were; these last few days had been an insight into their darker sense of humour, which he was positive was more Kagome's doing than Sango's. She just didn't seem the type…but then again, neither did Kagome, really. The things they had thought up weren't too nasty, nor were they harsh. They were just embarrassing, nothing too bad. He'd pulled more malevolent pranks on Mushin as a child.
Still, he couldn't shake the foreboding feeling that the girls' current serenity was but a pretence for something bigger and more evil to come.
The following day, Kagome was digging through her bag, looking for her discman. She searched and searched, but couldn't find it anywhere.
Inuyasha stroked the smooth top with his thumb as he covertly watched her from a tree branch, the other members of their group still asleep.
"Inuyasha," she asked without looking up, knowing full well he had it, "have you seen my discman?"
He made a great show of yawning and, deciding he wanted a little more of that sugar she'd given so freely back at the Well a few days earlier, he held it up and said, "You mean this thing?"
"Yes, may I have it back please?" she still had her head in the bag, and he was becoming annoyed.
What the hell was so important and that colossal bag that she couldn't look at him when he was speaking to her?
He jumped down from the branch and landed so close to her that her hair flounced away at the breeze he created. Yet she still dug around, not looking at him.
He growled in irritation; finally she looked up, and yanked out a cup of Ramen. He felt his mouth water. He was no good at negotiation…damn.
She stared at him.
He stared at her.
When she felt she'd stared long enough, her hand struck out quicker than he'd ever believed her capable, and snatched the discman back from him.
"Thanks," she grinned, "I think I'll go enjoy my Ramen, my music, and a good book under the tree. You've been so helpful." Her tone was honey-sweet, too sweet, he realised too late as she leaned toward him, and he toward her, looking for the sweetness only she could tempt him with.
When their lips met, he eagerly nibbled her bottom lip, asking entrance. She stubbornly refused it.
He tried again.
This time she opened up - and chomped down on his tongue!
"Ow!" he yelled from between her teeth, as she doggedly held on, her grip tightening the more he struggled. He quickly ceased, and she eased up - not much - but some.
"Inuyasha," she tsked, shaking her head, making his head sway, too.
"That was not very gentlemanly of you to steal my discman." Her words were lispy, his lip blocking the use of her tongue in her speech, but he understood well enough.
"You won't do that again, now will you?" she asked, narrowing one eye at him, and he had to cross his eyes to focus on her face, they were so close. His brain began to hurt from the strain.
"No, I'll never do it again," he said as he tasted blood. She tasted it too, and felt bad, so she released him.
"I'm sorry," she said shortly, as she got up to boil water.
"Me too," he grumbled, sticking his lip out, trying to see the damage, found it was impossible, and curled his lip back in, looking sulky.
'Damn!' he thought. 'Plan Number Two backfired! Am I doomed to fail in all attempts?'
He glanced at Miroku, who shut his eye as soon as Inuyasha looked his way. He'd barely been able to contain his laughter when he'd seen the two in a liplock that, in his opinion, looked pretty painful for Inuyasha. He was sure Inuyasha was feeling the effects of love denied, for Kagome had been standoffish and non-responsive to his attempts at intimacy with her.
He giggled in his head. Now Inuyasha knew how it felt!
Sango approached Kagome and plopped down next her, but Kagome didn't hear her. She had her music so loud, Inuyasha could hear it from the fire, twenty feet away.
She tapped Kagome's shoulder, and Kagome looked up and yelled, "What is it?"
Sango yanked out her earbud and said, "I can hear you, you don't have to yell!"
Kagome laughed and apologized.
Inuyasha noted with resentment how easily Sango was forgiven her transgressions.
Miroku just sipped his tea and thought of pranks to pull.
Shippo went to sit with the girls, but was soon sent back to sit with the boys, Kirara in tow. Since Miroku and Inuyasha were silent and contemplative, he decided to say nothing also, and see how long it took for the silence to get to Inuyasha, someone who never sat long and thrived on action.
It took two minutes.
"Ok, let's blow this popsickle stand, we got shards to find!" he yelled, and the girls stopped talking and looked at him.
He expected to be rebutted, but was kinda awed when they simply got up and did as he asked, without complaint. Kagome even smiled at him. He raised a brow at her, still miffed about his botched kiss.
She half-shut her eyes and amped up her smile a little, to show sympathy - sympathy she didn't feel.
She had something in mind for her dog-boy, something he'd never forget as long as he lived.
Heeheehee, what could Kagome have planned for Inuyasha? Her history in pranking is better, will she succeed? Or will it blow up in her face? Guess you'll just have to review, then wait and see, muahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!