The It Couple
Chapter Forty-Two
Inuyasha, feeling very much humbled and also like he would do anything in the world for her right now if she would but ask him, wordlessly returned to the couch and sat down, opening a bottle for her and holding it out.
"Thanks," she said softly, taking a sip and sitting on the armchair across from him.
"Can I get you anything, Miss Kagome?" Nazuna swept into the room again, looking excited and animated again for once.
"Oh, no," Kagome said, "No thank you. I'm fine with this." She held up the beer with a friendly smile. Nazuna nodded, glancing from Kagome to Inuyasha in confusion, and quickly excused herself from the room once again.
Silence. Awkward, awkward silence. Was she angry? She didn't seem angry. She should be angry, he knew.
So he did what he did best - word vomit.
"We didn't do anything," he exclaimed, "I swear to you, Kagome. I just got drunk and passed out."
"In her bed?" Kagome guessed, and the sadness and resignation in her eyes was almost too much for him to handle.
He couldn't find the words to respond.
"I mean," she said, her voice lighthearted as she took another generous sip of her beer, "I expected this would happen. I know my sister. I know how she works. It's just-"
And the tears sprang to her eyes and all Inuyasha wanted to do was get up and hold her tightly or maybe find a time machine and go back and fix it just fix it -
"Kagome," he tried again, somehow knowing it was futile, that he had no leg to stand on, "I promise nothing happened. Ask Kikyou, she'll tell you the same thing. And this morning, Kikyou told me again that all she wants is for the two of us to be happy. That she misses me, yes, but she understands that I love-"
"Don't you dare." Kagome's eyes were suddenly hard as iron. "You don't get to say that right now. Not to me, anyway."
Inuyasha shrank back, feeling like a little kid being reprimanded and also feeling like someone had just kicked a hole in his gut.
Almost as quickly as it had come, the glare in her eyes vanished and she sighed. "Sorry," she murmured, "I didn't want to get angry. I still don't want to get angry. If I get angry and lose my cool, then she wins."
"What?"
"Besides," she continued, ignoring his query, "This will be the last time we see each other for a while. I want the memory to be happy."
"What the fuck are you talking about?"
"I got a job. A photography job," she said with a small smile, though she kept looking at her hands as she spoke.
That's amazing, he would have said under any other circumstances, I'm so proud of you! But he knew he should be waiting for the catch.
"It's in Amsterdam," she murmured, then her eyes met his and her smile seemed to slip a little, "I'll be gone two weeks. I'm shooting a whole bunch of bands in this one club-"
"Two weeks?" Inuyasha interjected, unable to keep the hopeless look off his face.
"Yes."
"You're skipping the awards. You're not coming with us." He almost whispered the words.
"That's right." Her tone was gentle, but final. "Both the New York ones and the Critics Choice. But I'll be rooting for you from afar."
"What have I done," he said, collapsing back into the sofa, his voice cracking with the strain.
"Whatever you did or didn't do, this is something I have to do for myself." She chugged the rest of her beer, sat it on the coffee table with a thunk, and sat back, crossing her arms and legs in that defiant Kagome pose.
"I told you, nothing happened!" He knew he sounded like a weak little baby and he didn't care. He had to make her understand. "I was just shitfaced. And I was confused. It had nothing to do with betraying you!"
"That's funny," she said, raising an eyebrow, "because I recall being almost equally shitfaced most of the evening, what with my tolerance being a running joke around here and all, and I didn't immediately go fall into bed with Kouga or any other random guy."
"We didn't fall into bed," he tried again, choosing to ignore the very hypocritical stir of anger in his guts at the mention of Kouga, "I swear to you, Kagome. I don't remember much about last night, but I know that for sure."
"You're missing the whole fucking point," she spat, her face screwing up in anger, then she seemed to remember herself and her expression relaxed. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, seemingly steeling herself up for something, then opened her eyes and spoke again. "You have some shit to figure out, Inuyasha."
"No I don't." He knew the protest sounded weak as shit.
"Yes, you fucking do. You need to take a long, hard look at yourself and what you want and who you want. I'm tired of being played for a fool here. You know there was a photo of you leaving her house this morning, right?"
"What?"
"Yep. Someone called the paps and had them hide in the bushes outside her gate. By all accounts and assumptions, you and Kikyou are back together. Well done."
"Who called the paps?"
"Think," Kagome said, her eyes narrowing. It seemed she couldn't help sounding bitter, and he couldn't blame her, honestly. "Think really hard, Inuyasha."
"You're starting to sound like a conspiracy theorist!" he said, trying to shake himself out of his own doubt and fury at the idea of being taken advantage of for the sake of headlines.
"Am I? You're probably right. Like I said, I know my sister and I now know what she's capable of as of the past few weeks. But maybe I am crazy. Maybe I am seeing things where they aren't."
He knew she had more to say, so he just remained silent and sullen. She looked at the beer bottle on the table, then at the now-nearly-empty six pack, seemed to realize something, and grabbed a coaster to put under the bottle. Her hands were shaking a little as she sat back. She refused to meet his eyes.
"Look," she said softly, "It's only been a few weeks since - since you and I - what I'm trying to say is, I get it. It can't be easy to compare a month or so with me to eight years with my sister. I don't have to like it, but I get it."
Inuyasha balled a hand into a fist, still saying nothing.
"And that's why I'm going," she said, "I need to get away from here. From all of you. Sango fixed me up with the job on a moment's notice, and I'm going to go and I'm going to be amazing so they tell all their friends in the music business what a great stage photographer I am. I even got a fucking Instagram to post my pictures on. Hell has frozen over, huh?" She clasped her hands together and leaned forward, clearly trying to control the trembling.
All the protests, all the arguments died in his throat. She deserves that more than anything. More than I deserve her, for damn sure.
"So what happens after two weeks when you come back?" He knew his tone of voice was still petulant, but there were thousands of emotions running through him at once right now and he had little to no control which one came out when he spoke. Kagome seemed the only person capable of doing this kind of number on him.
"Honestly?" she said, her face going from an even smile to a look of almost physical pain, "I have no idea."
"So what's this about not going to New York?"
Kagome sighed and dropped her stuff by the front door. Miroku wasn't going to let her have a minute to breathe, was he?
"I've got a photography gig," she said, glancing over to where he sat on the couch, smoking a cigarette, "I've had a photography gig for months now. I just forgot about it.'
"Kagome, darlin', this is me," he said grumpily, "Don't bullshit a bullshitter. You've got an excuse to skip the awards, great. So what happened with you and Inuyasha?"
"We talked," she said simply, trying to keep her voice light, "I told him I'm leaving for a few weeks. I need a break from all this shit."
"So you dumped him?"
Kagome blinked. "I - I don't know if you'd call it that…" Were we even together in enough capacity for this to count as dumping him?
"And how did he take that?"
"He was surprised."
"No shit. I bet he didn't even realize that all the gossip blogs are freaking out that he and Kikyou are back together." Miroku ashed his cigarette, then took another drag. "He's a dense moron."
Kagome couldn't help the small smile. "He is," she said, then immediately felt those damn tears start up again. "Ugh, sorry," she mumbled, wiping at her cheeks, "I'm trying to be the strong one here, but-"
Miroku slapped his hand down on the couch next to him. "Get your ass over here."
She sat down and he immediately pulled her to him, letting her cry into his shoulder.
"Where you going?" he said conversationally.
"Amsterdam." Her voice was muffled behind her hands. "Got a gig with a metal club. Two weeks and a ton of bands."
"You're gonna knock 'em dead, kid," he said, ruffling her hair, "And don't worry. I'm gonna give Inuyasha plenty of shit for you."
She laughed, but it sounded more like a sob.
Sango realized as she boarded the private studio jet that she'd been taking plane trips all wrong her entire life. Who didn't want basically a sofa to themselves, a desk for working on the go, and an open bar, with an in-flight movie thrown in for kicks?
She dropped her Vuitton duffel onto the seat beside her and immediately sat down with a sigh.
"Champagne for the flight, Miss Ryoshi?"
Fuck yes. "Don't mind if I do, thank you."
As she took a sip, she wondered how Kagome was faring. She'd booked a flight for Amsterdam later in the day. I guess we'll find out how she's doing on Instagram. That had been Warner's one insistence - that Kagome's photography cred have an online presence and following. Kagome actually had seen the value of this and hadn't put up a fight about it.
Her phone buzzed and she glanced at it.
"Your mom almost forgot to tell me you're flying in today. I'll see you soon, pumpkin."
Feeling somewhat dizzy and ill all of a sudden, Sango dropped the phone onto the tray table and drained her champagne glass as Kikyou and her entourage clambered into the jet.
"Sango, darling!" Kikyou rushed to her and air-kissed her cheek, "So good to see you!"
"Likewise," Sango mumbled as Kikyou's people shrugged past them to the rear of the plane. Hojo gave her a small wave of greeting as he struggled under the weight of what looked like six or seven different designer luggage bags. Poor kid.
Before Kikyou could say anything else, there was a thump on the stairwell outside leading up to the plane, loud enough for everyone on the plane to pause and look up.
"Ah, dammit!"
"Come on, get up."
"My fucking coffee!"
"We'll get you another coffee, Inuyasha. God knows you need it."
And Miroku and Inuyasha appeared, Miroku apparently half-carrying, half-dragging Inuyasha up the stairs. Inuyasha's white shirt was splattered with what looked like an entire cappuccino and he looked damn near wasted. Guess Kagome gave him the bad news.
"Come on, Inuyasha. I picked you out a nice seat. In first class." Miroku had hold of Inuyasha's left arm and was leading him down the walkway.
"That's nice," Inuyasha slurred.
As they passed her seat, Sango fought to catch Miroku's gaze, but he was firmly and truly ignoring her.
Sango leaned back in her seat and let out a scoff under her breath. She wanted to be angry, but instead just felt like finding an airplane blanket and disappearing under it.
"Inuyasha," Kikyou said, "You look horrible."
Miroku unceremoniously dropped Inuyasha into a seat and straightened up, dusting off his own clothes.
Inuyasha didn't reply, just looked down at his soiled shirt grumpily.
"Here," Miroku rummaged through one of the carry-on bags and tossed Inuyasha the first shirt he found, a faded black concert tee shirt. Inuyasha caught it and unfolded it. "BLACK SABBATH" was written in giant block letters across the front, and Miroku actually could watch in real time Inuyasha's face crumpling in silent anguish before shaking out of it and pulling the old shirt off and the new shirt on. Of course, Inuyasha was pretty wasted, so there was a little getting tangled in the old shirt involved.
"Give it to me," Miroku said, and Inuyasha complied, laying the damp shirt in his hand. Miroku crumpled it into a ball and shoved it into the luggage bag, not caring if it messed up the other clothes or not. He could just take care of the dry cleaning when they got to New York.
"Can I sit down now?" Miroku said dully. Inuyasha just growled in the back of his throat and folded his arms in a sullen pout. Honestly, it's like dealing with a child sometimes.
"Inuyasha," Kikyou seemed eager to try again, leaning across the aisle and placing a hand atop her former fiance's, "Are you alright? What happened with Kagome?"
"She dumped me," Inuyasha snapped, waving over a flight attendant, "Whiskey. Whatever you have." The flight attendant scurried away.
"Is that really necessary?" Miroku said quickly, "I think you should have some coffee, Inuyasha. We have a long flight ahead of us."
"Miroku."
"Inuyasha."
"Leave me alone."
Miroku scoffed. "Fine, but I'm not carrying you off this fucking flight. Kikyou, he's all yours."
He shuffled past Inuyasha's knees, making sure to place a well-aimed kick to his shins. "Oh, sorry," he said lightly in response to Inuyasha's hiss of pain, and he shoved off to the row of seats in front.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sango watching everything unfold from behind her leather-bound planner. She was wearing that damn pink sweater again. The one that always drove him crazy. He caught the scent of her perfume and all he wanted to do was drop himself into the seat next to her, throw that damn planner across the room, and make her forget her own name.
But he had his pride, dammit. And somehow he'd started to want more than just mind-blowing sex from her. She didn't want to give more, that was fine. He would search elsewhere.
So he instead took the seat across the aisle from her. The window seat. As far from her as possible. Kicking out his legs and making sure not to send even a wayward glance Sango's way, he pulled a hardcover book from his bag. The title, blazed across the cover in bright white lettering, read "A Brief History Of Time, by Stephen Hawking."
Opening it up to the middle, he struck a thoughtful pose and watched Sango out of the corner of his eye. She was looking at him curiously, but not overtly interested.
Carefully, he turned the page, not of the large doorstop of a book in his hand, but of the Batman comic he'd tucked into the center.
This was going to be an interesting flight.
Sighhhh. Poor Kagome. She's gonna be okay though. She's got this.
LOL at Miroku the Intellectual (TM) Meg2018. Well, he DOES have a college degree, so I guess he's got more claim to the title than any of these other entertainment types, right? Hahaha. He's still so hung up on Sango it's almost funny.
Inuyasha is a hot pile of garbage, but what did you really expect? Of course, now Kikyou's got him all to herself. This will either be really good for him or really really bad for everyone.
SONGS!
Kagome - "Focus" by Ariana Grande (more as an eff-you to Kikyou, though there's some stuff directed at Inuyasha in there too hahaha)
Inuyasha - "So Much For Pretending" by Bryan White (sniffle)
Miroku - "Lonely Boy" by The Black Keys (JEEZ THIS SONG FITS SO WELL)
Sango - "Go" by Grimes (lyrics fit, plus it sounds kinda dark and that's sorta where she's at emotionally EVERYONE IS SO BROKEN I AM NOT SORRY)
Nothing for Kikyou this time around. I'm still blasting "Look What You Made Me Do" every time I write her. C'est la vie.
Thanks for reading and reviewing! Love you, you beautiful unicorns! - meggz0rz