Inuyasha heard the grind of the platform gears and found himself smiling when the sweet earthy scent hit him again. His new link to the outside world was back already meaning she'd kept her hastily made promise.
He was lounging on the couch reading a book, feet kicked up on his little table. He debated for a second whether he wanted to stay where he was or get up to let her in. His comment about her inability to knock popped into his head and he hopped up to open the door; he didn't want to tell her his name just yet.
He pulled the door open just as she was reaching it and was rewarded with her little squeak of surprise. "I honestly didn't expect you back so soon," he said and leaned against the door frame, then noticed she was carrying something. "Bringing me gifts already?"
She glared at him and let out a little growl that sounded more adorable than threatening. "It's not a gift, it's more a peace offering. Can I come in or are we just gonna chat in the hallway?"
He cocked an eyebrow and smirked, letting one of his fangs show. When all she did was continue to glare, he moved to the side and swept his arm towards the room. "Make yourself comfortable."
Kagome stalked past him and plopped down on the sofa. She set what she was carrying down on the table and he could see it was four small books. He closed the door and joined her, taking a seat in his desk chair again.
He studied the little stack of books and realized what they must be. "Are those the journals your grandfather was keeping?"
She nodded and looked at him guiltily. "Now that I know they're about you it kind of feels like I'm invading your privacy. I brought you the journals so I wouldn't be tempted to read any more."
He studied her for a second and figured she must have read something personal if she felt as guilty as she looked. "How much did you read already?" he asked gently, not wanting her to think he would be angry or add to her apparent guilt.
She took a deep breath and wouldn't look at him when she said, "Not much but there was one entry...I know you escaped from somewhere and," she hesitated, "and your mother-" she didn't need to finish.
He sucked in a breath and let his head fall forward so she couldn't see his face. "It was a long time ago," he said. His voice had more emotion than he'd like and he turned his face away from her. He'd been sealed within days of finding out about his mother's death so for him it was only a year since the incident. The pain was like a fresh wound sometimes since he never really let himself accept it and deal with losing her.
"Sorry, I didn't...I just thought-" she stammered.
"It's alright, really," he reassured her, not feeling alright at all. "You brought the journals, that's enough." It wasn't her fault he couldn't deal with his emotions, even after a year.
He could almost feel her nervousness so he raised his head to look at her. She glanced at him finally and he gave her a small smile meant to put her at ease. He could see her relax and he let out a little sigh of relief. His own emotions were too much for him most of the time, he didn't need to deal with hers too.
He got up and took the journals off the table to put them somewhere safe. There was a small locked trunk at the foot of his bed that held the few items he'd been able to take with him during his escape. He unlocked the chest with a key around his neck and laid the journals inside; he would look at them later.
Kagome looked more relaxed when he rejoined her, like having the journals out of sight was a relief. He wanted to lighten the mood some more so he pulled out the list he'd put together after her abrupt departure. "Here," he said, holding out his shopping list. "I'm pretty stocked so you've got a few days before you have to worry about shopping."
She took the list and looked it over. "I don't even know what half of this is," she said and looked at him expectantly.
"It's food. Don't you cook?" he asked, then mentally kicked himself for sounding like an asshole.
She blushed and he felt his heart speed up a little at how cute it was. Shit, he needed to knock that right the fuck off. As adorable as she was, he wasn't exactly dateable at the moment. Nor would he be any time soon, if ever. He was probably doomed to spend the rest of his long life alone.
"Mama does most of the cooking. She's tried to show me but I guess I just don't have the knack for it." She laughed lightly and there went his damn heart again. "I can do just about anything with an egg though."
He cocked an eyebrow suggestively and asked, "Anything, huh? Like what?" What the fuck did he even mean? Was he attempting to engage in egg-based flirting? Clearly, it had been way too long since he last interacted with a woman.
She gave him a very, very confused look. "Like...make an omelet?" she asked, clearly unsure of his intention.
He frantically searched his brain for a way to make this not the most awkward conversation he'd ever had. "Omelets...are good," was the best he could come up with. Yep, awkward; he sounded like an idiot. What the hell was she doing to him?
"Uh, anyway, I'm sure I'll figure this out." She held the list up. "I can always ask an employee if I can't find something."
He didn't respond, he just nodded. Nodding was safer than trying to speak at the moment. Why the hell was he so flustered all of the sudden?
She looked around, clearly trying to find an out for this conversation, and spotted the laptop on the desk. "Oh," she said, "did you want me to get you a cell phone? One of the entries said you broke yours. I can show you how to use it so you can communicate with me when I'm not here. You know, in case you need something," she finished quickly.
"Sure, I guess. I'm starting to figure out this stupid computer so a cell phone shouldn't be too hard." The cell phone the old man brought him had met its unfortunate end when he couldn't figure out how to turn the stupid alarm off. "Just make sure the thing doesn't make any noises that I can't turn off."
"Don't worry, I'll make it easy to use," she assured him. "Did you want me to show you anything on the laptop? I'm pretty good with computers."
He shrugged and turned in his seat to open the little computer. The screen came to life as she got up and moved to stand beside him.
"Here, I'll grab a stool," he said as he stood up. "You can have the chair."
She mumbled a quick thanks and sat in his desk chair. It squeaked a little as she got comfortable and adjusted the height. "Alright," she said as he settled onto the stool next to her, "what do you know about using this thing?"
"Nothing," he replied. "I know how to plug it in and turn it on and that's it."
"I thought you said you were figuring it out."
"Yeah. I figured out how to plug it in and turn it on." He smirked and she rolled her eyes.
"We'll start from the beginning then. First, let's see if you have wifi down here." She used the attached mouse and moved the little white arrow around the screen. A few clicks later and she nodded. "Yep, you've got wifi, though I'm not sure how you're getting a signal all the way down here. Oh well, one less thing to worry about."
They spent the next hour exploring all the ways he could get lost on what she called 'the internet'. It was amazing to him, there didn't seem to be any kind of information or entertainment he couldn't access. How did anyone get anything done? He could be on here all day, every day, for months and still not scratch the surface of what was available.
Tv shows, movies, music, books of all kinds, newspaper articles: it was all at his fingertips. It was overwhelming and a bit intimidating. She gave him warnings, places to stay away from. She told him to avoid something called 'social media', whatever that was. She told him while blushing madly, to watch out for porn sites. He noted that she told him to watch out for them, not to avoid them altogether.
It was an interesting hour, to say the least. Luckily for him, he was a quick learner. By the time she was done, they had switched places and he was clicking around the screen, following her brief instructions. Now he could turn the thing off and on, bring up the internet browser, navigate to a few useful sites, and google anything he didn't understand. He felt pretty confident.
"Try not to get into too much trouble while I'm gone," she laughed. "And no talking to strangers."
"You're a stranger, I'm talking to you," he pointed out.
"Hmm, you know my name so I'm technically not a stranger anymore. You, on the other hand, haven't told me yours." She tilted her head and looked at his ears. "I'm sure it's not actually Dog Boy."
He gave her a fanged smirk. "I told you, learn how to knock and I'll tell you my name."
She narrowed her eyes at him and said, "I can't knock if you open the door before I get to it. That's not my fault."
"You just have to be faster next time." He twitched his ears and wiggled his nose. "Good luck beating my senses though."
"You're a jerk," she said but he didn't miss her poorly-suppressed smile. She got up and moved to take the stool back to its spot by the counter.
He got up and grabbed it before she could. "I got it."
"I'm perfectly capable of moving a stool, you know?"
"Keh, is that a feminist thing, not letting a man move a stool for you?" He looked at her and she was giving him an odd look. Her look morphed into something like amusement and she gave him a smirk of her own.
"That's the 70s talking, old man. You better get with the times, feminism is a bit different now."
"Hey, you try being sealed for 40 something years and see how well you keep up with the times. Only having an old man to talk to for a year didn't help either," he grumbled then realized what he said. "Sorry, I didn't mean-"
She shook her head and smiled sadly. "It's alright. He was really old-fashioned so he probably didn't do much to acquaint you with this decade. At least he didn't try to purify you."
He laughed, remembering a story his father told him. "He tried to purify my dad when they first met. Not sure how they became such good friends after that but I guess it was good they did. Not sure where I would've ended up if they hadn't."
"That sounds like my grandfather, alright," she said and pulled her phone out of her pocket. "I really should head back up. I have some things to do tomorrow and I need to be well-rested."
He followed her over to the door and opened it for her. "You have my shopping list?"
"Right here." She held the list up then shoved it in her pocket. "Goodnight, Dog Boy."
"Goodnight, Higurashi."
He watched her walk up the hall and stand on the platform. She turned and gave him a little wave that he returned. He waited until her feet disappeared before shutting his door and heading for the laptop. He had some exploring to do.
Kagome sat at her desk, thinking about the strange man hiding in the well. He seemed pretty well-adjusted for someone who'd lived in isolation for the last year. She supposed having her grandfather to talk to probably helped, at least a little.
She suspected it was partially an act. There were a few times when his facade dropped and he let the sadness and loneliness show. It was most likely unintentional and he probably didn't even realize it happened, but she caught it. His eyes gave him away and she found herself wanting to know more about him, about what happened to him. Some of it was natural curiosity; who wouldn't be at least a little intrigued?
But mostly it was that sadness she saw in his beautiful gold eyes that drew her in. She shook her head and closed her eyes. She didn't even know his name and she was sitting here contemplating his life history. She needed to get a grip.
She sighed and opened her eyes. Her grandfather's puzzle box was sitting on her desk and she picked it up to examine it. She still hadn't figured out what to do with the little wooden stick so she started poking and prodding around the box. She eventually found something and managed to open a tiny hidden compartment but set the box back down when all it revealed was another little stick of wood. "That's enough of that for tonight," she mumbled.
It was getting late and she really did need her rest for the next day. She'd finally texted her best friend earlier, who immediately insisted they meet for girl time and one of Sango's self-defense lessons. Hopefully, Kagome wouldn't hurt herself this time; Sango did not go easy on her.
She climbed into bed and closed her eyes, trying very hard not to picture her new dog-eared acquaintance.
"C'mon Kagome, you can do better than that," Sango said as she watched her clumsy best friend stumble back to her feet. "You can't just throw yourself on the ground every time a move doesn't go right."
Kagome winced and glared at Sango. "I thought you were gonna rip my arm out of its socket. What was I supposed to do?"
"Break out of the hold like I showed you. You're really hopeless, you know that," she laughed and punched Kagome lightly in the shoulder. "Let's take a break, you look like you need it."
Kagome rubbed her shoulder, which now hurt in two places, and followed Sango out of the small dojo. "Is Miroku coming over today? Since he started his new fancy job, he should have Sundays off now, right?"
"He does but he promised the old drunk that he'd help him clean out one of the storerooms today. And you know doing anything with Mushin takes ten times longer than it needs to."
Sango led the way into the kitchen and grabbed two water bottles out of the fridge, tossing one to Kagome. Her family owned a large home connected to two dojos that they taught various fighting and defense classes out of. Kagome took regular lessons with Sango but her natural clumsiness led to her getting frequent bruises and making very little progress.
"How's your arm?" Sango asked. "Didn't break anything, did I?"
Kagome glared at her. "No, it's just sore." She moved her shoulder in a circle and winced. "Sometimes I feel like I'm not making any progress at all."
"You are, it's just slow progress so it's not as noticeable. You can break out of chokehold pretty effectively and you don't fall on your ass nearly as often as you used to." Sango tried to give her friend a reassuring smile but it looked more like pity.
Kagome scoffed, "I only break chokeholds because when I panic I fall and you drop me. I'm useless at everything else."
Sango patted her friend on the shoulder and Kagome flinched at the contact. "Sorry Kagome, I guess we're done for the day."
She rolled her shoulder again and immediately regretted it. "Well, since Miroku isn't coming over and we're done hurting me for the day, did you want to go to the grocery store with me?"
"Can't, I promised Miroku I would head over there once we were done."
"Hmm, alright then. I should probably wait until later in the week anyway," Kagome said, mostly to herself. "Maybe I'll stop and get a phone today."
"Are you buying a new phone?" Sango asked, one eyebrow raised. "Yours isn't that old."
"Ah...no, it's not-" shit, she hadn't meant to say that out loud. "It's for Mama. I want to surprise her." Hopefully that lie wouldn't come back to bite her in the ass.
"That's nice. I'm sure she'll appreciate it."
"Well, I should get out of here so you can get going. Just gotta go change," she said quickly and rushed away before Sango could ask anything else about the phone.
Once changed back into her regular clothes, she made her way through the house to let Sango know she was leaving. She found her exiting the bathroom wrapped in a towel.
"I bet if you sent Miroku a picture of you in nothing but a towel he'd ditch Mushin and be here before you could get clothes on."
Sango snorted, "That pervert has enough raunchy pictures of me. Maybe I should have him send me some of his nudes so we're closer to even."
"Mm, that sounds dangerous. He may never stop sending you pictures if you let him start now." Not that Kagome would know anything about that. Her one and only boyfriend, ex-boyfriend as of six months ago, was too scared to do much more than hold hands and occasionally kiss. Hojo was nice, caring, helpful, and a perfect gentleman. He was also boring, afraid to offend her with any advances, and obsessed with her health for some reason.
"Good point. As nice as his equipment is to look at, my phone can only handle so many dick pics."
"Sango," Kagome squeaked and blushed, "too much information, thanks."
That only caused her friend to laugh. "Don't worry, you'll find someone, someday, who will woo you with a collection of dick pics meant just for you."
Kagome hid her face in her hands and mumbled, "You're as bad as Miroku sometimes. He's such a bad influence." She looked back up to see Sango trying to hide a laugh behind her hand. "Yep, definitely a bad influence. I'm gonna go before my face catches on fire. I'll see you later, Sango."
"See ya, Kagome. Hope your mom likes her new phone. Oh, and let me know how your shoulder feels tomorrow," Sango added before ducking into her bedroom.
It was going to hurt, Kagome didn't need to wait until the next day to know that. She made her way to her car, thinking about the best place to get a phone and which one she should get. It didn't need to be anything fancy, just something he could text and make phone calls on. He wasn't going to care about how fast it was or about the quality of the camera.
Of course, thinking about the camera made Kagome think of her conversation with Sango which made her think about a certain attractive hanyo taking pictures of...Nope, she was not going there. He could be a serial killer for all she knew, she would not think of his parts, or pictures of his parts, or of him sending her pictures of his parts.
"That's enough, Higurashi," she said to herself once she was safely in her car. "I don't care how cute he is, I don't even know his damn name."
She fastened her seatbelt, checked all her mirrors, then tugged at her seatbelt to double-check it was secure. She started the car and the check engine light lit up, mocking her. She needed to get that checked out, eventually. She checked her mirrors one more time before starting her short trip to the electronics store.
Picking and purchasing a phone went better than she expected. She ended up just adding an extra line to her phone plan, under her own name, and getting a deal on one of the newer android phones. And, she noted, it had a decent camera.
It was early enough when she got back to the shrine for her to drop off her new purchase. Her mother would be busy making dinner and Sota would be engrossed in his video games so nobody would notice her sneaking into the well house. She'd be alright as long as Dog Boy wasn't doing anything important or inappropriate when she dropped in.
While she waited for the platform to complete its descent, she pulled out the new phone and started it up. It was ready to go, the sales associate set everything up before she left the store, but she wanted to get her contact info put in and send herself a text so she had the new number in her phone. She also figured she should connect it to the wifi knowing Dog Boy wouldn't be able to.
The platform stopped moving and she started down the hallway without looking up from the screen. She was so preoccupied with her task that she failed to notice the door at the end of the hall open, or the man who stepped out into the hall to stand directly in her path.
Had she looked up at any point, she could've avoided walking face-first into a very solid chest. She stumbled backward but was lucky her roadblock had good reflexes and caught her arms before she fell. At least she hadn't dropped the phone.
"Careful, Higurashi, you almost ended up on your ass. Is this some new form of flirting that I missed out on?" he asked. "Cause it's not very smooth, if you ask me."
She jerked her head up and glared at the owner of the voice. "What the hell? What are you doing just standing in the hallway?" she asked then realized he was still holding her arms. She blushed and took a step back, almost falling again in the process. She winced when her shoulder protested the motion, pain flaring in the joint.
"What's wrong with your shoulder?" Inuyasha asked, lifting a hand towards the source of her discomfort.
She pulled back a little and waved him off with her other hand. "Nothing, just slept on it funny. Don't worry about it. You still haven't told me why you were blocking the hallway," she said to try and change the subject.
He chuckled, a deep, slightly gravelly sound, and let his hand drop back to his side. "We've already established that I live here so I can hide, or stand, wherever I want; that includes the hallway."
"Well, you could've warned me you were there."
"And you could've just watched where you were going. What had you so distracted anyway?" He reached for the phone in her hand and she yanked it out of his reach.
"It's a phone and I'm not done adding my number to it so just hold on." She turned away from him so he couldn't reach for the phone again and finished adding her contact information. "There," she said, turning back around and holding it out to him, "all yours."
He took the phone and stared at it blankly. "You know I have no idea how this thing works, right?"
"I know. Do you want to stand out here while I show you how to use it or can we go in and sit for a minute?" She didn't wait for him to answer, opting to walk past him and head for the sofa.
"Keh, whatever," Inuyasha mumbled and followed after her.
They settled onto the sofa and Kagome pulled her phone out so they wouldn't have to keep passing his back and forth. She started going over the basics, like how to turn the phone on and off, adjust the ring volume, and set and silence alarms. "You probably don't need a password or anything since you won't be around anyone who's going to snoop through your stuff," she said. "That way you can just swipe the screen to unlock it."
"Maybe I don't want you snooping through my stuff, did you think about that?" he asked.
She huffed and gave him a flat look. "Don't be stupid. Why would I want to go through your phone? Anyway, I don't have all night so quit interrupting."
The next hour was a serious test of Kagome's patience. If she didn't know better, she'd think he was being dense on purpose to keep her there longer. Hell, maybe he was, the poor guy was probably more lonely than he let on. At the end of it though, he had a pretty good grasp of his new device. There definitely shouldn't be another broken cell phone in his future.
"Alright, now send me a text so I can add your number into my contacts."
He fiddled with his phone and a second later her phone chirped. She caught the shit-eating grin on his face before she read the message.
[I'm still not telling you my name]
"Whatever, I'll just put you in as Dog Boy," she said and went into her contacts to add his number. She could see him doing something on his phone out of the corner of her eye and decided to test his knowledge. She typed out a text to send to him to make sure he could open it and respond.
[Knock knock]
He laughed and her heart did a funny little skip at the sound; he had a deep, masculine laugh and she found herself wishing she could hear it again. Her face warmed and she turned her head to hide her blush.
"Doesn't count," he said. "Good try though."
She looked at his screen and saw she had a new name in his phone: Flower. "Why flower?" she asked.
It was his turn to blush when he realized what she was talking about. "Oh, you ah...your scent, it reminds me of a field of flowers."
Kagome's face warmed and the game of pass the blush continued. "That's nice...I guess. I should probably get going now. I'm pretty sure I missed dinner."
Inuyasha rubbed a hand on the back of his neck. "You could eat with me. I still have to make myself something so it wouldn't be much to make a little extra," he offered, his cheeks still slightly flushed.
"Maybe another time. I don't want mama to worry and start asking about where I was." She stood abruptly and started towards the door. She really didn't want him to see how red her face was getting.
"Right, you're right. Maybe another time." He got up and followed her, stepping around her so he could open the door for her.
She glanced at him and was caught off guard by his expression; he looked disappointed. "Lunch is easier," she blurted. "I mean, nobody would question me skipping lunch every once in a while, so if you wanted company..." she trailed off.
"Alright," he said softly, "I'll remember that. See ya later, Higurashi."
"Later, Dog Boy," she said and rushed away, heart beating a little too fast and face still flushed and warm.
It was a long time that night before she got his shy smile out of her head.
