The It Couple
Chapter Twenty-Three
"I wouldn't bother buckling up just yet," Miroku said as soon as they were in the car and starting down the long gravel driveway, "In fact, you might want to duck down."
"Huh?" Kagome said, then her eyes followed down to the gate at the bottom of the hill.
Paparazzi everywhere, clamoring around each other to try to get a shot of the inside of the car when it drove up, cameras and microphones held aloft.
Her heart fell to her stomach and she immediately let herself slide onto the floor of the car, wedged between the seat and the dashboard, keeping her eyes down and covering the sides of her face.
There was a sound like the whipping of fabric through the air, and she suddenly felt it around her shoulders - Miroku's leather jacket.
"Put it over your head," he said, "We don't need them getting shots of you leaving this house. What will your sister think if she sees?"
Suddenly her stomach ached even more. She nodded mutely and from her precarious seat on the floor pulled the leather up over her ears.
There was a buzzing sound of shouts and flashbulbs for a few moments, and Kagome didn't dare look up until the car had started accelerating properly.
"We're clear," Miroku said, "Keep the jacket on though, just put your seatbelt on. I'm taking some detours; we're probably being followed."
"Ugh," was all Kagome could manage in reply. She felt a little nauseous.
"You realize," Miroku said casually, turning onto a side street, "that there's no way Kikyou can know about this. About the two of you, I mean."
Kagome turned to him sharply, but he just looked straight ahead, expressionless.
"I have to tell her," Kagome said, the collar of the jacket up to her ears, "Otherwise, with her being broken up with Naraku, she'll think that maybe she and Inuyasha are going to-"
"Kagome," Miroku said sharply, "Exactly what do you think just happened between you and Inuyasha? Do you think you're getting married now, because of one night? Did you think maybe his ongoing, undefinable relationship with your sister might just disappear because you managed to fuck him into submission? Do you honestly think he's going to drop everything, drop his career for you?"
She tried not to visibly wince. "N-no," she struggled to get the words out, "That wasn't what I expected...I just-"
"Kid, you're in over your head here," he said, "And that's my fault. It was an impulsive thing, sending you after him last night. You were both super vulnerable and obviously sought comfort in each other. That's not a bad thing. Except you both forgot just who he is and who you are."
The tears were coming. She could feel them. She willed herself not to sob. "Why are you being like this?" she murmured, not looking up.
He pulled back onto the main highway, toward the gated neighborhood and toward home. "I'm being honest, Kagome. I never said I was a nice guy. I'm not. I'm here to make sure my client wins an Oscar."
"And I'm a complication," she finished for him bitterly, "I get it."
"I'm not good at putting things nicely," Miroku said, and his voice was now a bit gentler, "But you need to step back and let Inuyasha and Kikyou figure this whole thing out on their own. They were together for eight years, Kagome, and the feelings are at least somewhat still there. Respect that, at least."
Kagome wanted to protest that Kikyou hadn't been all that great at respecting that relationship when she and Inuyasha had been together, but she fell into an almost sullen silence. Miroku was right. She'd had Inuyasha for one night and he'd been wonderful, amazing, just the greatest, but when he walked out his front door he was Inuyasha Takahashi and she was nobody.
"Try calling Sango," Miroku said, obviously by way of changing the subject.
Kagome did. "No answer." She looked at him under her lashes for a reaction and got nothing as they pulled up to the Higurashi gate.
"Should probably hide again," he muttered, eyeing the waiting paps brandishing their cameras, and Kagome obliged, unhooking her seatbelt and sliding to the floor again.
"Afternoon, Kikyou," Miroku said, stepping into the foyer and seeing Her Royal Highness seated at the coffee table alone, drinking what was probably tea, "I brought you something." He motioned to Kagome who stood behind him and shot her sister a weak smile and small wave.
"Kagome?" Kikyou cried angrily, slamming her cup onto the saucer and moving to stand up, "Where have you been? Everything's gone to hell! I needed you last night, and now Naraku's left for Mongolia and I'm just a mess and everything's terrible and you weren't here to help me!"
"She spent the night on my couch last night," Miroku said smoothly before Kagome even opened her mouth, "Poor thing spent the whole time calling all the pap agencies and telling them in no uncertain terms not to publish who threw what punch last night."
"I tried to call you a few times," Kagome supplied softly, running a hand through her wild hair.
"I was dealing with the doctor coming to the house and making sure Naraku's nose wasn't broken! Don't you think maybe I could have used your help last night?" Kikyou crossed her arms and glared, "I haven't even gotten my massage today!"
"You're right," Kagome said quickly, putting out the fire like only she could, "I'll call the masseuse right now, okay?"
"Don't bother," Kikyou said, "I'm a disaster. I need a drink. Get me a glass of pinot grigio, now."
And like nothing had ever happened, Kagome was back to being the reliable assistant as she headed immediately toward the kitchen to retrieve the grand high bitch's wine.
"Oh, hello there, Kagome," a voice called from the kitchen. Miroku recognized whose voice it was and immediately felt himself start to sweat. Sango passed Kagome with a friendly smile on her way back into the living room and only paused a moment upon seeing Miroku standing there.
She was wearing a light pink sweater and jeans, smart but casual, with gold hoop earrings and that typical high ponytail. She looked stunning and Miroku felt himself swallow. She looked like she'd slept well, and he felt a stab of envy in his gut. Just had to go and get obsessed with this woman, didn't you? Right after another woman gets you in trouble, you go and find a girl for whom you'd crawl through miles of crushed glass just to get kicked in the face by her boot.
"Houshi," she said shortly, "Glad to see Kagome was safe and sound after all."
"Yeah," he said, "Like I said, she had to hang out with me til the wee hours of the morning calling pap agencies." He hoped the signals he was sending her with his eyes were legible; the signals said "Please for the love of god go along with this, it's the best I could come up with, also I miss you already even though we've been apart for twelve hours and also I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry."
Sango at least got the first part. "Well, good on you for taking care of it." He wasn't sure quite what she was referring to, but decided to forget about it for now.
She crossed to the couch and Miroku noted that she was wearing her black Louboutins, the ones she'd worn that first night they'd slept together that had ended up kicked across the room, forgotten. He hoped it wasn't obvious that he was staring.
Sitting on the couch and crossing her legs, Sango turned to Kikyou, who seemed to immediately snap to attention and focus on every word Sango said. Interesting, Miroku thought.
"So, Kikyou," Sango said sweetly, "We've got a fitting with Versace this evening. With Donatella herself, in fact. You're not busy, are you?"
"Of course not," Kikyou said quickly, "We have to find the perfect dress for the premiere, don't we?"
Kagome emerged from the kitchen barefoot with Kikyou's wine, which she handed to her sister wordlessly and turned to leave the room.
"Seven pm at Versace work for you, Kagome?" Sango called after her, and Kagome stopped short, momentarily confused, then seemed to remember and nodded, eyes darting to the back of Kikyou's head with not a little hesitation.
Miroku smirked at the way Kikyou's face cycled through emotions of disgust, resignation, and immaculate perfection as she smiled sweetly over her shoulder at her sister. "Kagome, where are you skulking off to? Tell Kaede to make us all some brunch. You must be famished."
"I've eaten," Kagome said softly, but immediately returned to the kitchen to summon their poor cook to get up and make some food for everyone.
"Me too," Miroku said quickly, wondering if it was obvious how much he was sweating, "We grabbed some drive-thru on the way over." No one could hear his stomach rumbling right at that moment, right? It was all in his head.
Sango raised an eyebrow at him but said nothing. Kikyou merely wrinkled her nose at the idea of anything deep-fried.
Post-brunch, as she was standing in the magnificent foyer of the Higurashi home, Sango felt Miroku approach and immediately made a point of busying herself with a phone call. Pulling up her home screen, she saw a missed call and a text from her mother, and her stomach immediately dropped until she opened the text and read it, trying not to audibly sigh with relief.
"Hey," Miroku said behind her, "Do you have a minute?"
"I really don't," she said, forcing the steel edge into her voice as she opened her email and began scrolling through various communications from Warner, agents, you name it.
"I wanted to apologize," he said, and she could hear his almost pleading tone, "I didn't mean what I said. I didn't mean it to come out like that."
"Ohhh," she said with an easy smile at him that she didn't mean, not for one second, "You thought I was still mad about that? Please, Houshi, I've had worse said to me before and I'll have worse said to me yet. Your words can't hurt me." Except they did and you were right but that changes nothing.
Miroku ran a hand through his hair and she could tell he was trying to get her to look him in the eye, but she wasn't ready to give him the satisfaction just yet. Because you're right, Houshi, I am just a fucking puppeteer who can't feel a human emotion. I have to be.
"Anyway, well done with the cover story, meager though it is. Just to clarify, it was what we thought it would be, yes?"
"Yeah," he said sheepishly, "but I talked to both of them. They don't like it but I think when push comes to shove they'll keep in line."
"Kagome was never going to be the problem there," Sango said pointedly, casting him a brief glance, catching his eye and immediately returning to her phone, "It's Inuyasha you need to keep tabs with. He's an impulsive idiot and could undo all of this with one sideways glance during all the red carpets we need to get through this season."
"I know," he said softly, and she saw him out of the corner of her eye reach for her free hand. She immediately found an excuse to switch her phone to the other hand and placed her right one on the strap of her purse. She couldn't let him touch her, not here, not now, because she might break down, fall into his arms, and betray that she wasn't a cyborg, and that just wouldn't do.
"Is it as bad as we thought?" she continued nonchalantly.
Miroku retracted his hand and shoved it into his pants pocket with a sigh. "Worse," he said under his breath, "Pretty sure they're actually in love with each other."
Sango scoffed and smirked. "After one night? What are they, sixteen?"
"It's not quite that simple," Miroku said, keeping his voice very low in case a member of the staff wandered in and started listening in, "Kagome always had a crush, and we knew that, but the two of them together makes more sense than I'd like to admit."
"Get that thought out of your head right now," Sango said testily, "You talking like that gets us in trouble, in case you don't remember."
"Miss Ryoshi," a young maid said, inclining her head, obviously hesitant to interrupt the private conversation, "Your car is here to take you to your office."
"Well, then," Sango replaced her phone in her purse and pulled out her sunglasses, "See you at the premiere, Houshi. And make sure your client is really, definitely on the ball. We need them smiling and happy for the press junket. Later."
She walked out the front door like she had no cares in the world and without looking back. Only when she got into the backseat of the limo and shut the door did she let the tear she'd been holding back fall down her cheek.
"What do you think of this one, Kagome?" Kikyou said, turning around in the mirrors. It was floor-length, a rich burgundy color, with long sleeves and an almost capelike drape over the collarbone.
"I think you look amazing," Kagome said with a genuine smile. It was true; Kikyou could pull off the most high-fashion and risky dress like it was meant for everyone.
Kikyou looked herself up and down in the mirrors' reflections, and frowned. "You don't think it's too...dark? I want the camera bulbs to pick me up, not wash me out."
"I think it's beautiful," Kagome said.
"Do me a favor," Kikyou said, stepping around the young seamstress pinning up her hem and continuing to stare at herself from every angle, "Text Inuyasha and ask him what color he's wearing. I don't want to clash when we pose for the cast photo."
Kagome couldn't tell her sister that every text she had sent Inuyasha since she'd left this morning had been read but left unanswered. She couldn't tell Kikyou that every time she'd sent any message trying to gauge his mood, where his head was at, or even when she'd sent him a terrible joke she'd overheard on TV, that he hadn't replied. And Kagome really couldn't tell Kikyou that the only thing in this world she, Kagome, wanted right now was for at least some acknowledgement from him in a shortly-worded message that no matter what they might have to do for the cameras for awards season, in private they were still...oh god...something. That last night hadn't been the impulsive lark that Miroku had made it sound like.
Sure, Kagome was new to long-term relationships in general (she'd had maybe a boyfriend or two for a week at a time before her job got in the way), but it seemed like if you spent the whole night in each other's arms, alternately laughing and kissing and joking and talking about life and making love like there was no tomorrow, that it had to mean something.
True, they'd never said the "L" word, and that was okay since it was just their first night, but the way he'd looked at her… Surely there was no way to fake that.
"He's wearing a slate-grey tux with a navy shirt, no tie," Kagome supplied automatically as she mentally slapped herself back into the present moment and tentatively perused the ready-to-wear gowns, pulling out one in emerald green with a sweetheart neckline. Hmmm, she thought, this one actually might work for me and I wouldn't look like a little kid playing dress-up-
"How do you know that?"
Oh, shit. "Uh, Miroku told me. Last night." Whew. Can't exactly tell Kikyou that I saw it hanging on the door of Inuyasha's closet. Last night. In his bedroom. Where he pointed it out to me and I called him a fashion plate again and he rolled his eyes in that slightly annoyed way but started laughing nonetheless. She felt that stupid stab of guilt flow through her again.
"I'm going to try this one," she said, holding up the green gown, and headed behind the changing partition.
"Slate-grey? Ugh, what is he thinking, that won't go with this one. Take it off," Kikyou commanded the seamstress, who had clearly just finished hemming the gown because she gave an ill-tempered snort.
Kagome could still hear them as she shrugged out of her sweatshirt and jeans and pulled the green gown over her head.
"I need something in navy blue," Kikyou said, "Do you have this one in navy blue?"
"We have a white one," the seamstress was clearly trying to be patient, but after six gowns in the past thirty minutes she was growing tired, "I can get it dyed."
"You have a white one?" Kikyou cried, "Then why am I trying on the burgundy?"
"This is just for sizing purposes, miss." Kagome could hear the resignation in the poor woman's voice, "We can get the white dress dyed navy in time for the event."
Kagome jumped around in a little half-circle trying to reach the zipper, got it, zipped it up, and then smoothed her hands down the gown. It was super soft and smooth, silk maybe, she wasn't sure.
Tentatively, trying not to trip on the overlong hem (this would most certainly have to be tailored to accommodate her being height-challenged), she stepped around the partition and up to a small side mirror where she looked herself up and down.
The neckline wasn't quite a sweetheart neckline, she qualified, but more a notched v-neck that showed quite a nice amount of cleavage. And there was a hell of a train, besides. A real grown-up fancy dress. Kagome couldn't believe she was actually excited, since she lived in jeans with ripped knees and concert t-shirts, but there was something that made her sort of light up inside, just as she'd felt when she'd put on the blue dress she'd worn to the HFA's.
"No," Kikyou said, and Kagome looked over to see that her sister was watching her like a hawk, "Leave it white. Inuyasha loves me in white."
Mean ol' Miroku strikes again. Don't judge him, he's in a bad mood and people are just falling in love all over the place. It's enough to give a man hives.
Also Inuyasha is not texting back. Hope he's okay. *sniffles*
Premiere funsies next chapter! *Borat voice* I AM VERY EXCITE! -meggz0rz