Chapter Thirty Two
On the Way
Inu Yasha tottered to school on Friday. He sat through five classes, eagerly awaiting sixth period because, to his advantage, that class was art, and he would need to steal oil pastels from the art room, which was easy since the teacher just sat at the computer all period long anyways. He had borrowed the animal book from Kagome, and using a picture of a white tiger he referenced for colors he would need, he made two trips to the art supplies cabinet and took six or seven different shades he would be using to color his present. This weekend he would make a trip to the cluster of shops nearest to his home and steal chocolate for Sango. He had planned everything, which was semi-miraculous, as he usually got stressed over things like this and procrastinated to avoid them.
Friday had come and passed and Inu Yasha was sitting in his tree, alone. Despite the egotistical satisfaction of having friends, he lately seemed quite content enjoying being by himself which was strange, so he thought, since he could vividly remember pining for the attention and company of his unaccepting peers. But now that he knew he had that, seeing them constantly made him less attentive to seeing to it that he spent time with them outside of school. He hated this fact because it gave him the feeling that he was starting to take for granted all the people (yes, all three of them) that made his life so comfortable. But then, maybe ge gad just grown too used to being alone.
Most of the the life that he could remember was spent in isolation. And disturbingly enough, he had grown so used to the feeling that had caused him so much pain that it almost made him feel comfortable. He could still remember the time when he had spent every other minute thinking about when he would see her again and then, spent every minute with her, worrying about what he would do without her. He almost missed the obsessive mindset that had possessed him. But now, he felt strangely. Somehow, a certain degree of innocence had been scraped off his relationship to reveal underlying plaque, like a disease that didn't actually even affect him until, by some circumstances, he realized he had it. Why did things change so suddenly?
He yawned into his hand and stretched. He was feeling tired, despite the sleep he had been getting. He wanted to nap in the tree he sat in, but feared he would fall off. Instead, he climbed down and propped himself against the trunk. His eyes shut and he drifted off into a comfortable sleep.
"Mommy!" Inu Yasha could see himself running to his mother. His body was small and light. He felt like he had trouble sticking to the ground, like at any moment he would float away and fall backwards, into the sky above him. He flung himself around her and the two of them held each other in a tight warm hug for a long time. She was so warm and soft that it made him feel drowsy and high. He felt her arms disappear and his body couldn't even feel andy residing warmth from the embrace. And all of a sudden, the floor, as if it had existed solely because of his mother, was gone, and he fell: down, down, down. At first he felt nauseous, and then, the nausea faded slowly, by degrees until he had become so accustomed to the feeling that when he felt the ground beneath him again, he was almost surprised.
Kagome was there and she smiled and talked in dream speak to him and he understood what she was saying. Then, he got off the ground and started to walk with her down a path lined with trees. As they walked, the trees grew rapidly and beautiful, pink blossoms filled in the green and flooded his senses, overwhelming him with the beauty and fascination he had with the things. Concurrently, something strange began to happen to Kagome and Inu Yasha watched with particular curiosity as her clothing began to wither away. The trees' pink flowers were gone now and they were filling in quite nicely with apples. The red fruits glittered with unearthly shine and fullness. He reached out to touch Kagome but didn't feel human skin. Instead, rough brown bark rubbed against his fingers, splintering them. He felt overwhelmed and heavy, like his body was pulling him downwards. He collapsed onto the ground and closed his eyes and saw nothing.
Inu Yasha's eyes lifted slowly as the sounds of wind, cars, and people filled his ears. He was surprised to find himself wrapped around the tree he slept against. Almost as to be expected, his fingers were splintered with tree bark and he colorfully remembered the section in his dream where this had happened. The splinters did sting a little when he pulled them out, but they were really nothing more than a minor inconvenience. He stood up and gathered his things near the base of the tree and noticed a folded piece of paper laying near where he had been sleeping. He figured it was one of his own so he picked it up and looked at it. It had his name printed on it so he opened it.
Hi Inu Yasha!
I came by to see you and you were sleeping, so, yeaaa, I didn't want to wake you up. You've been tired lately, I think you might be getting sick. Hope you feel better over the weekend. Excited about Sango's birthday?
-Kagome
She drew a little picture above the words of herself sitting against a tree alone, resting her oversized head on her hands. She looked at him boredly and the speech bubble next to her head said "Maybe on monday?" He laughed at the note and the crudely drawn mini Kagome. After re reading it, he pushed it into his coat pocket and turned towards home.
When he got home, he was not surprised to find his house empty. He didn't know where his father was, but he was pretty sure he knew what he was doing. As he walked into the kitchen he noticed yet another note taped to the fridge.
Went out. Be back around tuesday.
Clean the house while I'm gone.
There's twenty dollars on the counter.
It was an unsigned note, although Inu Yasha didn't really see the
purpose of a signature. Who else would be writing the note to
him? To his pleasure, he found ten dollars on the kitchen
counter. One may think that he would spend the money on chocolate
for Sango, and then, not have to worry about getting caught, but then
he would have to steal food from the grocery store, which would be
harder, since he would have to steal more. He left the money on the
counter, and walked to his bedroom, where Shippou was sleeping under
his bed sheets. The boy had grown accustomed to this, since, in
the occasion that Inu Yasha's father would go into his bedroom (Inu
Yasha didn't think he normally did this) he might not easily see
Shippou. And that was good, as he shuddered to think of what
would happen if
Shippou was discovered in the house. He felt his stomach turn as the thought lit up in the back of his mind.
He sat on the bed and Shippou made a soft greeting sound like a purr. Inu Yasha smiled at the sound and stroked the kitten's head with three of his fingers. Shippou stretched out in his place and then rose to his feet, stretching again. He padded over to Inu Yasha and collapsed onto his legs, soft warm fluff heating Inu Yasha's legs. Until he felt the warmth of the boy's body, he didn't realize how chilly he had been. It was starting to get pretty cold outside since winter was just kicking in. He placed a warm hand on Shippou and the kitten purred loudly. Shippou opened his eyes and then, too Inu Yasha's discomfort, the cat transformed into a boy on his lap. The cracking and twisting and turning of bones made him feel queasy. Shippou however, seemed nonplused. He looked over to Inu Yasha and, after having fully wakened from his cat nap, said to him, "Some one came over here."
"To the house?" Inu Yasha sounded surpried.
"Yes."
"Was it a man or woman."
"A man." he replied.
"What did they do?" he asked.
"Um, well the man talked to him for a little bit. I'm not sure what they were talking about though. They were making plans I think. They only stayed for a while, and then they left together in their cars." he reported.
"That's weird. I always imagine my father as staying home all day drinking and doing nothing." he said thoughtfully. "I wonder how he makes money."
"Well, he does go out sometimes." Shippou said. "And once in a whle, he has people over here."
"Who?"
"Well, sometimes some men will be here and-"
"Do women come over?" he asked tenatively.
"Yeah, sometimes they do. Although they dont really talk much so it's hard to tell, really." Inu Yasha felt his spine tingle. "But mostly men. They talk a little more, but they usually dont stay that long. They go places a lot."
"Oh ..." he said and tried not to think about the things that his father and the man were doing. He sat in silence for a small while until he turned to Shippou and spoke. "You want to buy groceries with me?" he asked.
"Sure!"
He strolled down the aisles of wrapped and canned edibles and Shippou commented hungrily on the items, usually to be turned down by Inu Yasha, who wanted only to get the most food out of his twenty dollars as he could. He bought two six packs of instant ramen. Technically, he could have bought twnety dollars worth of instant ramen and would have enough food to eat for the next three months, but decided he needed food with nuttritional value. So he just bought two different flavors. He picked out a half gallon of the cheapest milk he could find and placed it into the basket. He also picked out some chicken and beef and some frozen food. Out of pure indulgence, he even picked out vanilla frozen sweet cream treats for him and Shippou. (As it turned out, the chocolate milk he had at Kagome's made him feel a little queasy.) He checked out and was left with only a dollar and seventy three cents worth of change, which he would end up shoving underneath his matress with his other saved money.
Shopping took about an hour or so. He used half the beef and cooked it for food for both of them and then cooked up a packet of chicken ramen and shared it with Shippou. The boy loved the broth but didnt much care for the noodles, so Inu Yasha ended up eating most of them, and in turn, gave Shippou most of the beef, which he held a strong preference for. After dinner he retired to his room and drew there. He could have sat on the sofa or anywhere else in the house, but felt most comfortable in the cramped room he slept in. He had come to know the place as a safe haven. He had never been beaten there.
He took out the paper on which he had begun to sketch out the tiger from his book. He didn't plan on making a body, only a head and shoulders. The basic outline was finished, he just needed to mark out the areas in which he would put each color he had taken from the art class. Shippou crawled next to him and curled up against his leg and slept there as Inu Yashas drew and colored. He drew late into the night, and by the time he was tired enough to sleep, he had finished nearly half of the coloring. Some trouble with the eyes held him up, but he felt he had done satisfactory enough work within the time he used.
He woke up the next morning at around eight thirty. He wanted to try to fall back asleep, but found he couldn't, which irritated him since he still felt tired. After lying in bed for about an hour, he began to feel restless and got up to start back at drawing his present for Sango. He still planned on getting her chocolate since just making something made him feel like he was 'cheap'.
Shippou wanted to go catch himself some breakfast, although he did have a couple sips of the ramen Inu Yasha ate. He had grown so used to not eating that he didn't really even feel that hungry, but was so comforted to know that he could eat breakfast that he did so anyway. He felt so secure having food in the house that was just for him. He found himself making frequent visits to the fridge and pantry, not to eat, but just to look at the food.
At around eleven, he planned to walk over to the shops. The walk would take an hour, more or less, and by that time, he figured they would be overflowing with people eating lunch at the nearby resturaunts. He figured the trip would take, in all, around three hours.
As he was about fifteen minutees into his walk, the realization struck him that Kagome's house (well, shrine, technically) was on the way to the shop. Feelling a strong obligation to visit her, he decided to stop by her house and say hi. He walked up the stone steps leading to the entrance and through the beautiful black iron gates. Peace overwhelmed him. Kagome's mother answered the door.
The woman smiled softly at him and the resemblance she had to her daughter made his hairs rise on his arm. "Hello honey." she said with a smile, and wrapped her arms around him in a wamr hug. She pulled away and smiled some more. "I suppose you're looking for Kagome?"
"Huh. um, yeah." he said as he turned a soft shade of pink and looked downwards submissively.
"Aw, I'm sorry dear, she's at Sango's." the woman said and looked at him sadly. "But you just must join me for tea!" she took his arm softly. "What do you say?" she said cheerfully.
Inu Yasha's eyes darted around and away from Ms. Higurashi and he 'um'ed softly. "Come on, it'll be fun!" He looked up at the adult and smiled. He'd only stay a little while, he decided. Ms Higurashi led him to the section of the shrine where she lived with Kagome. He followed her and stuck close. The hallways in the shrine were a work of art, interweaved so intricately, and he wondered who could have designed such a complex masterpiece.
He stepped insided the classically decorated living area after the woman in front of him. She pulled a hot pot off of the stove and placed it on a circular wooden block, then slipped an oven mitt like slip over the pot handle. The two sat down and stirred their drinks for a while before Inu Yasha commented. "Your house is really nice. All this furniture looks really old."
"Hm, I just love the old fashioned Japanese style things in here. I feel so at home with them, you know. I like to think about the memories that are contained inside this furniture. It's old, this table, maybe a hundred and fifty years. I like to imagine the woodworker crafting it, planning it, carving out each intricate detail. I imagine he must have been so proud of his work." she said.
"It's a really nice table." he remarked and noticed for the first time the flowers that the craftsman had carved into its side so many years ago.
"Yes, it is. There is so many beautiful things in the world, but it feels like we are all too busy to notice them sometimes." she said sadly. "Sometimes we take for granted the ability to see such beautiful things. It's unfortunate, but at least you can see it."
"Uh." he hummed. "I guess I never really thought about it that way."
"Oh, of course not! Everything now is made by machines and then copied hundreds and thousands of times! Nothing has originality anymore. That's why I take pictures." she said. "Because you can make with a machine, the same chair or picture again and again, but with photography, you capture the essence of time; the moment." she said. "And as you click the button and the light flashes, you've just captured and frozen time. And the next time you take a picture, it wont be the same moment." she said.
"I draw pictures." Inu Yasha said softly.
"Yes, Kagome once told me that you made beautiful things. Do you have with you any pictures?" she asked him, curiously.
"No, I'm working on one right now though." he looked to his tea and took interest in the way that the light on the surface changed as he moved his head from side to side.
"What medium?" she asked.
"Oil pastel sticks." he said.
"Oh, I've not worked much with those." she commented.
"You draw too?"
"Oh no, not draw, but I once did something where I would take black and white photos and use watercolors to make them look colorful." I liked it, but it felt like I was changing the moment, so I stopped. Not to mention it took way too long to color the photos and I would often mess up and then have to waste paper to print out more copies and recolor them."
"Oh." he said. "Sounds difficult."
"And it was! Being an artist is not easy. Is that what you want to do, Inu Yasha, draw?" she asked.
"Um, I don't know, I mean, I wanna go to college and ... um, I guess it would be nice but ... I still have a while to go before high school is over and ... um ... I guess what I'm trying to say is I have no idea." He blurted out messily. His inability to speak to people older and bigger than him became even more blatantly obvious as their conversation progressed.
The woman laughed and patted his back softly. "Don't worry, Inu Yasha, you have your whole life ahead of you. You're a good boy, you'll do well. I'm sure." she said assuringly.
"I hope so." he grunted out. The woman smiled at him.
"I remember when I was young I wanted to be a doctor." She laughed hard. "I was wrong about that! Turns out, I did horribly in science and held no interest in any of it. I guess it just seemed so easy." she said. "But, getting married ended up being a fine replacement for a long term job. My photography money did help though." she added.
"Hm." he took another sip of his tea.
"I bet you wish you could just stay a teenager forever. It would be so easy to have everything always taken care of for you, hm?" she said and Inu Yasha laughed inside at the irony of the statement.
"It would be nice for everything to always be taken care of for you." he said matter of factlly.
"Being a teenager was so fun; for me anyways. It was when I met my husband." she said.
"Oh, yes." he said and felt uncomfortable as the knowledge of his death lingered thick in the air. "Kagome ... she says that you were very close." he said.
"Ah, yes. We were close, so close, and you should have seen, Inu Yasha, what a happy family we made." He looked over to her and was surprised to see her smiling so happily. He looked away and wanted to leave the room; the envy was driving him insane. Only the thought that her husband was no longer here reminded him of the mortality of the happiness of what sounded like such a family. "Do you believe in fate?" she asked.
"No. I mean ... I don't think that there's like ... some god up there who rewards you for doing good things and stuff, or punishes you for being bad." he said tenatively, trying to avoid possibly insulting her.
"Yes. I agree with you. Although, if you don't mind me asking, why do you think so?" she asked.
"Because ... the bad people always get away with everything and all the good stuff people do goes ... unnoticed. And besides, its not like everything we do is because he have to do it. People who blame things they do 'supernatural' things ... I guess they seem like cowards to me is all. It just upsets me that they don't feel guilty about doing bad things because they think its something else's fault." he said, and noticed that he hadn't spoken that much the entire time he was at her home.
"You're smart." she said and smiled. "People don't usually think about things like that until they're older. But then, you're not like most people." she said and smiled softly.
"You and Kagome have the exact same smile, you know?" he said. The woman looked at him strangely and then laughed a little.
"I guess after you spend enough time with someone, you start acting like them, hm?" she said.
"Hm." Inu Yasha finished the last of his tea and licked the wetness away from his lips.
"You're finished?" she asked. "Would you like some more?"
"Oh, um, no thanks, but do you have the time?" he asked.
"Ah, yes, it''s eleven forty eight." she said as she checked her wristwatch. Inu Yasha felt his hairs stand on end.
"Oh, um, I'm sorry, but I've kind of got to go now." he said and stood, taking his cup from the table.
"You're sure you wouldn't like something else; tea, food? I really don't mind having you here." she said, trying to sound as welcome as she could. He smiled and sunk into his shoulders.
"I'm sorry ... I'm kind of busy ... But it was fun coming over." he said softly.
"Oh, okay then, I'll escort you to the door then." she said, perfectly aware he couldn't find his way to it by himself.
The two stood by the door, and she shared a few last words with him before she said goodbye. She gave him a hug and a few words of encouragement and he was on his way. "I'll tell Kagome you came by. I'm sure she'll be upset she missed you."
He didn't get to the chocolate shop until around what was actually around twelve forty five. The shops were less crowded than he had hoped for, which, he knew, would make it harder to steal the chocolates. He made sure to wear a basebal cap to hide his ears and carried a bag with him to place the chocolates in. The candy store was not crowded, almost at all. He was upset, but he was a good thief, he was sure he could do it.
He strolled around the aisles casually, examining the candy for a box, or something that would be easy to take. He finally set his sights on something that looked good because, for one, it was in a place where the cashier could not see, and two, it was thin , so it would not bulk in his bag when he put it in there. He exited the store, because he knew if he stayed too long, the cashier would realize he was not going to buy anything. He walked around the area the store was on, but avoided being seen from the glass windows that allowed customers to see in. Five to ten minutes later, he came back and walked to the box of chocolates he wasnted. His face was stiff and feigned curiousity in all the edibles the store contained.
He picked up the box and put it in his bag, which was already open, with unusual swiftness. He then looked around casually and walked to the door like nothing had happened. He held his breath as he walked out of the store and a wave of relief struck him as he placed his foot on the sidewalked where the store opened up to.
And then, he cringed as a hand grabbed his arm tightly and he turned to face a tall man in his forties, looking down on him. It was the owner.
"Excuse me sir," he said coldly, "but you are going to have to return the item you just stole."
Author's Notes
Ooh! Suspense! Gasp! Will he run away? get arrested? Will the man feel bad for him and let him go? Will Shippou ever do anything but look really cute? And a long chapter too! I hope you enjoyed the newest installment of AFILAW. This one was really fun to write. Its like 4500 words long, but it went by so fast. Now that I have the plot on a roll, I am having a lot more fun writing than I was having just bitching about how Inu Yasha feels. Now, I am attempting to show how he feels by describing his actions and using dialogue instead of just coming out and saying "he was scared/happy/angry".
Anyways, it was fun writing on Kagome's mom. She acts kind of ... immature sometimes, but really, she's a very intelligent lady, and not to mention, she ADORES Inu yasha. If she didn't know how shy and timid he is, I bet she'd be of those moms who talks to boys about how happy they'll be when they marry their daughter. No, wait, she's not retarded. Never mind.
Well, this was really fun. I can't wait to write the part when he finally goes to Sango's birthday. OOOH, I'M EXCITED! Yummy stuff is gonna happen! Woo! I'm happy.
Until next time lovies.