The Auction

By: Jaylonni Love

Chapter Two

.i don't own inuyasha.

Sundays were always their lazy days. Mai would cook since she always made the best foods in her roommates' opinions, they would sit around the large living room of their condo and watch movies and various TV shows on the television and gossip about whatever was going on in their lives or the world these days. Kirara would whine about wanting to watch some sappy love story movie. The others would all agree with one another that no, they don't want to watch that crap because the romances in most movies are so unrealistic. And then they'd end up watching some action movie since Mai always won the rock, paper, scissors match when it came to that and got to pick the movie. This Sunday was no different.

Kirara was scrolling through her Twitter feed, seated on the floor by Mai's feet; a bowl of fresh cut fruit resting between her legs that she occasionally picked from. Rin had the remote in her hand, scrolling through the various movies that Netflix had to offer while Mai sat at the other end of the couch, reading something in her email. Sango and Kagome had spread out across the oversized love seat opposite the couch, each patiently waiting until Rin finally chose a movie for them to watch. There had been no rock, paper, scissors battle for the right to choose a movie thus far and they'd decided to let the youngest have a turning in picking for a change.

"What about this one," Rin asked, opening a movie she had stopped on. She squinted to read the synopsis for a moment. "'A woman's seemingly idyllic marriage takes a dark turn when her husband becomes violently abusive. Her only hope is to get out in time.' It sounds interesting, what do you guys think?"

"I've seen it before, don't watch it unless you want to get pissed off," Mai commented offhandedly as she continued to scroll through her email. She was typing a reply to one of the messages as she continued to speak, giving her roommates the rundown of the movie. "Her husband doesn't want kids, but she does. Something happened, I forgot what, and then she found out that she was pregnant. He starts beating the hell out of her without reason, not to mention rapes her a few times and she fakes her death to get away from him. She gets away for like three or four months and has the baby, only for the husband to find her and try to take her back. Her neighbour that she unexpectantly falls in love with saves her and they live happily ever after with her son that she coincidentally names Peace even though she had not one bit of it during her entire pregnancy and his daughter from a previous relationship."

"I don't know how I feel about watching a movie where a guy turns abusive towards his wife for absolutely no reason," Sango pointed out before popping a piece of pineapple into her mouth. She chewed and swallowed before continuing. "It'll just make me want to go out and kick the first guy who crosses my path's ass. Thank you. Next."

"Okay," Rin said before she continued scrolling. Several minutes of silence passed before she finally spoke again, opening another movie that looked interesting enough. "Here's one we might want to watch. 'With little oxygen left in their scuba tanks, two sisters are trapped in a shark cage at the bottom of the ocean while great whites circle nearby.' It's called 47 Meters Down."

"Now that's highly improbable," Kagome said, brows furrowed a she read over the synopsis again. "Sharks don't remain in one place for too long, they'll give up if they don't get what they want after a few minutes and swim away. Not to mention, from the way this preview is playing, if they were really to plummet to that depth at that speed, their damn eardrums would burst. Screw the sharks, they'd have a whole other problem concerning their ears."

"I say we watch it, see how entertaining it actually is before we pass judgement on it. Sure it doesn't follow the laws of science, but it's a movie. Who really cares," Kirara pointed out, looking up finally.

"I, for once, agree with Kirara," Mai said to which Kirara shot her a dirty look over her shoulder. Mai didn't even bother acknowledging it. "It's mindless entertainment, obviously it wasn't meant to follow the laws of science. Just like The Shallows that came out a couple years ago. One shark stays in the same area for two days just to eat one girl? I don't think so. Then kills itself because it's not smart enough to avoid the damn rods that are clearly visible at the bottom of the ocean? This can't be any worse than that."

"My point exactly," Kirara said before she popped a strawberry into her mouth.

Rin merely shook her head, pressing play on the movie. Sometimes her friends could be entirely too much to deal with. She settled into her seat, crossing her legs as she placed the bowl of fruit she'd been holding on to since breakfast between her legs as she watched the movie begin to play. The title credits rolled as everyone placed cellular devices down and paid attention to the television screen.

…

"Well… that's an hour and twenty-nine minutes of my life I will never get back," Mai said exasperatedly before she picked up the bottle of water she'd gone to get during the movie. She took a sip before continuing. "I mean, this was definitely worse than The Shallows. Way worse. That, I could at least get into. This was a total snooze fest and we really should have never watched it to begin with. Like come on, who really would believe that the sister is alive, bleeding at the bottom of the ocean with sharks swimming around her and not one has snatched her ass up by now?"

"I regret ever saying that this may be entertaining in the least bit," Kirara said as she picked up her phone again. She beamed when she saw a text that came from an unknown number. Perhaps it was Shippo, texting to confirm that they were still on for that coming Saturday. When she opened it, she deflated. It wasn't him, but her agent instead. Apparently she had changed her number without Kirara's knowledge. "Oh look at this. I got booked to do this cosmetics ad this Thursday. It's here, in town thankfully, so I won't have to book a flight. They're offering decent enough pay… ugh but I'll have costars in the ad. I was really hoping that it was going to be Shippo texting me, not Marissa for a job."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Sango pointed out, popping a grape from her refilled bowl of fruit into her mouth. "It's not like it's a competition for who will be the face of the cosmetics line or anything, right? It's just a quick photoshoot and boom you're done and paid." She pauses to laugh for a moment before asking, "Why do you always make everything a competition between you and someone else? I mean, you did it with us at the auction. And you've been doing it since we were kids about anything, now that I think about it."

"Not to mention the fact that you always find something to complain about every time you get booked for a job," Mai said picking up her own cellphone. Her brow shot up when she opened a text that had come in. "Oh, wow, I got a text from Kouga."

Kirara immediately pounced on the woman, her dismay about the ad long forgotten in favour of being nosy. She tried to snatch the phone from the other woman only to have Mai glare and push her away with the sole of her foot. "C'mon, gimme, let me see what he said Mai."

"All he did was ask for me to call him," Mai said holding the iPhone XS Max out of her reach as she moved to jump over the arm of the couch. "Which is what I'm about to go do, so if you ladies will excuse me. I'll be back in a bit."

The other four women watched her prance away until she disappeared into her bedroom, closing and locking the door behind her. She knew Kirara would come in if she didn't. Sango grinned as she leaned against her knuckles. "I take it that she did her research on him already? Otherwise she wouldn't be so gung-ho about calling him."

"She was researching him this morning while she was making breakfast," Rin giggled before her own phone vibrated against her thigh. She picked it up, noticing that it was an unknown number. It might have been Sesshomaru. She hadn't saved his phone number in her phone last night when he'd given it to her. She opened the message and immediately her suspicions were answered. It was him. "And there's Sesshomaru. Aw he's sweet. He asked me how my morning was… after formally introducing himself."

"At least he introduced himself since you obviously didn't save the number in your phone," Sango laughed. She was in the middle of sending a text from her own phone. "So, I have a date tomorrow night with Miroku. Thank goodness for vacations, makes it easy to have plans."

"Is that who you've been talking to this entire time," Rin inquired as she typed a reply to the message Sesshomaru had sent her. "You've been on your phone for over an hour now."

"That movie was boring as all hell, and he'd text me, so I figured I'd text him back," Sango said shrugging. "We've been having a great conversation this whole time. Real sweet guy, once you get past the perverted nature. I'll have to be aware of his hands while we're out."

Kagome laughed, her fingers brushing her long raven coloured hair from her face. "Inuyasha still hasn't called or text me yet. I know he's a busy guy so I'm not going to hold it against him. He may have had plans or possibly hasn't woken up yet…"

"You are psyching yourself out for nothing, Kagome, again," Kirara pointed out, crawling over to the other woman. She patted her leg affectionately. "Don't worry. I'm sure he'll text you before the day is over. Just be patient, you'll see."

Kagome smiled just as Mai returned to the living room, "You're right."

"Well, Kouga and I are on for this Friday evening," Mai said brushing her fingers through her long, unruly hair. "What'd I miss? Did you guys find another movie or something to watch yet?"

"Well, Sango has a date tomorrow night with Miroku," Kirara answered as she scrolled through her phone. She beamed at the message that came in. "And it looks like my date just got moved up to Tuesday this week instead of Saturday. Shippo's gonna be out of the country for a little while starting Wednesday. Inuyasha still hasn't called Kagome and it sounds like Rin might be confirming her date now with Sessh."

"Actually," Kagome chimed in as she picked up her phone, "Inuyasha just text me and asked if it was a good time to call right now. So, I'm going to be setting up a date as well in just a moment. Excuse me."

They watched her leave, giggling as she disappeared into her bedroom right as her cellphone rang.

"Well, she's chipper," Sango laughed. "Hey Rin, what'd Sesshomaru say?"

"We have a date tomorrow night," Rin answered, blushing.

"Aww… hey why don't we make it a double date," Sango asked excitedly, magenta eyes alight with glee. "That way I have an extra set of eyes on Miroku while we're out!"

"You'll have to take that up with them," Mai laughed, reaching for a grape from Rin's bowl of fruit. The raven hair absently moved it closer for her friend to grab from it as she answered another text. "If I remember correctly from my research, Sesshomaru isn't too fond of Miroku when he's in the presence of a beautiful woman, or any woman for that matter. But beautiful women especially. And Sango, you're a very beautiful woman. But then again… Sesshomaru is the more levelheaded brother of the two. Inuyasha would be the one that causes a huge stink about the whole thing."

"Mai, you looked Sesshomaru up too," Sango asked as she glanced over at her roommate. "I thought you were just going to look up Kouga."

"Honey, they all hang out together," Mai answered matter-of-factly. "Of course, I was going to look the other three up as well when I looked up Kouga. Have to make sure that they don't have any priors. The last thing we need is a bunch of crazies coming to our door at all hours of the night. I think the only one we'd really have to worry about doing something like that is Miroku. I also looked up Shippo."

"Not if he's dealing with Sango," Kirara laughed, flipping blonde hair back out of her face. "She'll beat him to a pulp if he gets too out of line and you know that."

"She's got a point there," Rin laughed, brushing a piece of dark hair behind her ear. "Remember what happened to the last guy that Sango dated after she broke up with him? He kept calling and coming by to talk to her until she literally threw him in the elevator, told him to go screw himself and slammed the door after her. He hasn't called back or come by since."

"That creep," Sango drawled. "You all know good and hell well why things ended like that. Don't try to make it seem like I'm just crazy."

"You are crazy," Mai pointed out, "But that guy had it coming. He was bordering stalker territory by the end of it all. And I was silently rooting for you to kick his ass the whole time. I almost fell off the couch laughing when I heard him hit the wall of the elevator."

"At least someone is on my side in this," Sango laughed, allowing her cheek to rest against her knuckles.