The It Couple
Chapter Forty-Five
"Instagram Notification: Kagome_H posted 10 photos, 5:45 am CET."
Inuyasha immediately diverted his eyes from the infomercial on the hotel TV and glanced down at his phone and scrolled through the photos, ignoring that all-too-familiar pain gnawing at his guts. It was around 11:45 pm here in New York. The time difference...six hours. He clicked his teeth and opened the first photo.
A slightly askew photo of Kagome, her hair up in a high ponytail to keep it out of her face. That same stray curl by her forehead. She was sweaty, flushed, and laughing, standing holding her camera up, next to a huge burly tattooed man who was clearly having to lean down to fit in the photo and making a silly face. "Meet Luuk. He's the best bouncer in the world and he doesn't mind putting me on his shoulders so I can get a good shot."
Hundreds of likes, and comments on how happy she looked.
Several photos of...wait, she was shooting photos of Clutch? Ugh. He was so jealous. He thought about texting her to tell her so, but wasn't sure if she'd wanted him to have her new number at all. He'd had to more or less coax it out of Miroku, who'd gotten a small cash bonus out of the deal and who hadn't stopped grinning even after Inuyasha told him to fuck off and go home.
And so Inuyasha had the number, but hadn't summoned up the courage to try it.
What if she didn't want to talk to him at all? They hadn't exactly parted on the best of terms, and she seemed to be having so much fun without a thought toward him at all.
He continued scrolling through the photos.
A picture of Kagome surrounded by the band members, all of whom were smiling broadly. "So this is Clutch, but you probably knew that. And they are the biggest sweethearts ever. We talked music for a good hour before I finally left them alone. Thanks for being so wonderful!" She had tagged a few of the band members who had Instagrams.
First comment was from the lead singer. "Thank YOU for all your photos. You're gonna go far kid. Love, Neil."
Okay, Inuyasha was famous as fuck, but even that had him a little starstruck.
Another photo, this one of a small tenement-style window, looking down onto a cute little street deserted of people. The sun seemed to be peeking over the tops of the buildings out of frame. Just a hint of pink in the light. "My battle station for the next two weeks. I. Am. In. Heaven."
She sounded so happy. I'm glad for her. At least, I think I am. He immediately squashed the negativity inching into his thoughts, realizing what a selfish bastard he was starting to sound like. At this rate, he was no better than-
"Alert: Kikyou1 liked Kagome_H's photo." Ugh, these notifications.
"Alert: Kikyou1 commented on Kagome_H's photo."
Repeat ad nauseum. Inuyasha couldn't resist the curiosity. He clicked the first photo, the one of Kagome and the bouncer fellow.
"Luuk, huh? I know SOMEONE who's gonna be jealous!" And a heart emoji. Kikyou really could never let an opportunity pass, could she? Dozens of comments followed that one, every single one of them speculating that she was talking about Kouga.
The comment and like notifications kept coming. Inuyasha temporarily thought of unfollowing Kikyou on Instagram to stop the barrage, but he heard Miroku's voice in his head reminding him that a simple unfollow was enough news for some shitty Buzzfeed-style article declaring 'OH NO! TROUBLE IN PARADISE!'. He didn't need any more of that shit coming his way.
So Inuyasha went into his phone settings and turned off Instagram notifications.
But then he realized he wouldn't get a buzzing alert whenever Kagome posted, and the thought of not keeping up with what she was doing at the soonest possible moment was worse than the annoyance of Kikyou's pestering.
He went back in and changed the settings back.
Two days later, Inuyasha snapped awake in the middle of the night to that familiar buzzing from his phone. He'd barely closed one eye for fear of missing a post from her. Would there be any sort of clue in this one, something that might hint at how she was feeling about returning home? Anything to indicate how she was feeling about him? He knew the chances weren't high, but he'd resolved to analyze and search desperately through every single photo she posted for the next two weeks.
This was proving to be hell for his sleep schedule. The New York Film Critics Awards were tonight, and Miroku had insisted to him that he call it an early night. But how could he explain to Miroku that he couldn't let himself sleep, not really, not when Kagome was yet to post anything today?
He'd ignored all of Kikyou's texts except for the one asking what color he was wearing.
"I already told you. Black Westwood." And nothing else.
"Oh, yeah! I forgot! Silly me." Another heart emoji.
And he'd gone right back to ignoring her, even after she sent several variations of "Are you mad at me?" and "If this is about what happened on the plane, I told you I was sorry…" Any other time he would have sighed and texted back, but he was busy. Waiting for Kagome to post again.
The notification was from Kikyou's Instagram account. He scoffed. Apparently she was up right now too.
"Preview of Entertainment Weekly's new cover image, coming out early next week. Thought I'd surprise you guys." And three emojis - a wink face, kiss face, and blushing face.
It was a preview of the Entertainment Weekly photoshoot they'd shot, a cropped version of the shot with only Inuyasha's chin visible. But it wasn't like it was a secret that it was him. Already the likes and comments and freakouts from the adoring fans were pouring in.
Inuyasha scowled at the image, running a hand over his face and getting up to get a bottle of water from the hotel suite's kitchen.
Miroku was sitting there in a bathrobe, stirring a mug of coffee that he'd probably already dumped a ton of sweetener and creamer into.
"What are you doing up so early?"
"What do you mean?" Inuyasha said, cracking his neck and stretching out a sore muscle in his shoulder, "What time is it?"
"Four-thirty am, give or take. I thought I told you to get some sleep. Go back to bed. We've got a hell of a late night tonight." Miroku looked at him sternly before taking a gulp of his coffee.
Four-thirty am here. That's ten-thirty am in Amsterdam.
Inuyasha wondered if she was up by now, or if she'd let herself sleep in after staying up until the wee hours the last two nights. He pictured her ascending a metal staircase to her small apartment room, exhausted but rejuvenated at the thought of reviewing all her footage and choosing the best shots to edit, then posting the ones she'd deemed worthy enough to her studio-promoted Instagram page.
Yura Kaminoke had been all over every post she'd made, writing a hundred-word article about each post, and Inuyasha knew this would continue in force until Kagome got home.
If she ever comes home.
Inuyasha took a water bottle out of the fridge and drained almost half of it. His mouth had been so dry lately, his teeth grinding together on edge. He'd bitten his tongue once or twice too, not even by accident, just to wake himself out of a dazed stupor.
"Have you tried just calling or texting her?" Miroku's voice made him turn.
Miroku had his chin in his hand and was looking at him without a smile, but Inuyasha saw the quiet glee in his eyes and immediately wanted to punch the bastard.
"Why would she want to talk to me, anyway?" Inuyasha said softly, scowling down at the water bottle as he redid the cap.
"You're right," Miroku said, "What was I thinking? She's having the time of her life without all your bullshit." He immediately tensed up, clearly ready to dodge some sort of thrown missile.
Inuyasha just glared at him, but didn't have the heart to let himself rage, even if raging at Miroku was his favorite pastime the last few months.
"I'm going back to bed," he sighed, trudging back to his room.
"That's what I told you to do in the first place," Miroku called in a friendly tone, "You have to be handsome tonight, and right now you look like a junkyard."
"Inuyasha," Miroku said, arms folded, looking at him from across the limo, "Put your phone away. We're about to pull up to the red carpet. It's a bad look, being distracted like you don't even care."
"Sorry," Inuyasha mumbled. He put his phone into his suit pocket, mentally kicking himself. Get your head in the game, idiot. You can read her posts later.
Inuyasha tried to not let himself sigh with too much resignation as he thumbed the lock button and slipped the phone back in his pocket, severing his only line to Kagome for the next few hours.
Kikyou touched his hand, and he instinctively jumped and recoiled back. She was sitting next to him, glad in a black strapless gown with a sweetheart neckline, looking every inch the Hollywood goddess she was.
"I know you hate me," she said softly, and cut him off when he moved to speak, "but tonight, just, for a little while, pretend you don't, okay? Just for tonight, pretend you still like me. For both our sakes." Her eyes sparkled with tears.
Inuyasha sighed and gave a brief nod as the car door was opened for them.
As he stepped out of the limo, profferring Kikyou his hand with the most genuine smile he could muster, Inuyasha couldn't help but think about how much he hated the blinding camera bulbs. Surely, someone somewhere has come up with a camera that wouldn't stop an epileptic in his tracks, he mused, as he forced to keep his eyes open for the photos.
He wondered if Kagome used flash, and then a small pang of guilt and pain brought him back to the real world.
Kikyou used his hand to pull herself up and out of the limo, and the lights around him exploded even more. She beamed out at them, before turning to him with a bewitching smile on her face. "It wouldn't kill you to wave too," she hissed through her teeth, somehow without moving her mouth. Inuyasha wondered how the hell she did that, before slowly raising one hand in what he hoped looked like a casual wave.
He knew this was his job, and by far not the first time exiting a limo to fanfare with Kikyou on his arm, but he just couldn't seem to concentrate tonight. Too little sleep and too many miles to Amsterdam for his head to be in this.
"Okay, you brilliant shining stars," Miroku muttered, his voice dripping with sarcasm, "Let's get through this night in one piece."
Inuyasha got his award, posed for photos with Kikyou, got through all of it like he was looking through a lense covered with Vaseline. The crowds, the noise, the clamor around him, all of it was hazy and muffled.
He made a brief appearance at the afterparty, letting Miroku and Sango railroad him around through conversations with all the right big-shots, then excused himself and went home to his liquor cabinet and Kagome's Instagram feed.
"Alert: Kikyou1 posted a photo." It was a photo of her and Inuyasha in the limo on their way to the awards. When had she taken that? She was smiling mischievously at the camera, with Inuyasha looking elsewhere. That sneaky little-
The caption was the kicker. "Reunited and it feels so good!" Thousands upon thousands of likes. Comments full of heart emojis and exclamation points. Apparently the world had decided who it wanted on Inuyasha's arm.
Nazuna found him the next morning, passed out on his couch again, with Judas Priest still blaring through the living room speakers.
"Inuyasha?"
He looked up from his TV show (some soap opera about rich teenagers in a big city treating each other like dirt), mouth full of potato chips, the third beer of the afternoon in his hand.
Nazuna was standing in the doorway to the den, looking at him with great pity. He hated that shit, like he was some sort of broken baby. Everyone could all fuck off. He was fine. He'd be fine.
"Kikyou's here to see you. She said she's been trying to reach you for days, but you're ignoring her. Should I make her leave?" Nazuna gave a wary glance over her right shoulder towards the foyer.
"Nah, fuck it. She has something to say, let her say it." Inuyasha sat up, brushing chip crumbs off his tee shirt and tossing the half-empty bag onto the coffee table in front of him.
Nazuna didn't look sure, but she disappeared and reappeared a moment later with Kikyou, who was dressed in a simple white sundress and wedge heels. Always white. Always the perfect angel.
"Inuyasha," Kikyou said softly after Nazuna got the hell out of there. She stood in the doorway, wringing her hands in front of her as if she were unsure what to say beyond that. There was that sympathetic goddamn look again, from another person. Inuyasha was immediately starting to regret not turning her away.
"Want a beer?" He held one up for her.
She instinctively wrinkled her nose as she hesitantly made her way to sit on the armchair opposite the couch. "Inuyasha," she said again, voice soft as a lullaby, "What are you doing to yourself? You know you have to fit in a tux again tonight, right?"
"I'll fit in it," he growled, taking another sip of his beer.
They were both silent for a few moments. Inuyasha was content to ignore her in favor of the beer. Beer was a lot less confusing.
"I just came by to see if you would talk to me," Kikyou said, a little testily, "but apparently, I hoped for too much."
Inuyasha sent her a sullen look out of the corner of his eye and pointedly took a huge, long gulp of beer.
"I just needed someone to talk to," Kikyou said, her voice faltering, "I know you hate me right now and I know I have no right to come here, and I know I told you I was sorry. I will never try to kiss you again. I just..." She trailed off, seemingly realizing she was stammering and getting ahead of herself.
He sighed. "I don't hate you," he said finally, "I just need to be on my own for a while. To get some perspective on this whole thing. And I'm sure you don't mean to be ruining that, but just your being here gets me all confused."
She sniffled. "Should I call Sango and arrange to have us show up separately at the Critics Choice Awards tonight? I can do that. We'll just get different limos, and you can go with Miroku-"
"Don't bother," he said, waving her off, "I'll be a good boy and follow directions from the studio. Just please, for the love of god, stop trying to get me to fall back in love with you."
Kikyou's eyes widened and her face flushed. "I'm - I'm not - I wasn't trying-"
Inuyasha smirked humorlessly. "If you weren't trying," he said evenly, "then that makes this even worse for me. It means I really am as confused as Kagome said I was."
"What do you mean?"
He sighed. "Nothing. Now go on home; I've got another few episodes to watch before it's time to start getting ready. I'll meet you at your house at eight pm."
Kikyou's eyes were still shining with tears. "Okay," she said, seemingly reluctantly, "See you then."
After she left, Nazuna reappeared in the doorway, looking a little judgmental. Or maybe she was just having stomach trouble and Inuyasha was just projecting. Whatever.
"Anything I can do for you, sir?" She folded her arms and leaned against the doorframe.
"Yeah," he said after a moment, draining the rest of his beer, "I'm a lonely bastard. Come sit and watch some 'Gossip Girl.'" He patted the sofa beside him and kicked his legs up on the coffee table.
"Got a cigarette?" Miroku asked, shrugging into his tuxedo jacket, pausing long enough to finish his two fingers of whiskey.
"Yeah." Inuyasha tossed him the pack.
"At least tonight will have some suspense," Miroku mused, lighting his smoke, "We don't actually know beforehand if you're winning this one or not."
"Does it matter?" Inuyasha glared at his own reflection in the mirror as he finished tying his bowtie.
"Eh," Miroku shrugged, then seemed to remember his job. "I mean, yes, yes it does. We're waiting for Oscar noms to be announced, then we can get a real plan in place. Until then, you have to be as visible as possible."
"Is that you talking, or Sango?"
"Both of us."
Inuyasha scoffed. "Okay," he said, "I'm here to please. You're both full of shit, though."
Miroku sent him a baleful look, then immediately glanced at his cell phone with a surprised look. "Oh, hi, Kagome," he said, putting it up to his ear with a glance Inuyasha's way.
Inuyasha spun on his heel, knowing he looked stricken and desperate. "That's Kagome? How's she doing? Is she coming back soon?"
Miroku's serious look melted into a very pleased-with-himself grin as he lowered the phone. "Jesus, you are gullible. If you're that hung up, why not call the girl? It would spare us all a lot of your stupid mopey faces."
Inuyasha launched a nearby TV remote at his head.
Miroku ducked with an air of practiced grace and kept that stupid goddamn smile on. "You really haven't talked to her at all the last two weeks, have you?"
Inuyasha answered with nothing more than a furious glare.
"Wow," Miroku said, "So you're just stalking her Instagram and waiting for her to come to you? You're worse than a high school kid."
"Alright, Miroku, I'm fucking warning you-"
"Kagome must be worried sick about you if you've dropped off the radar this much. Or at least, she's getting to see all those lovely Instagram posts that dear Kikyou's been dropping on us. Must be weird for that to be all she sees of you for the whole time she's gone, huh?" The smile was gone now, replaced by a patronizing, sort-of-angry expression.
Inuyasha fell silent, staring at the floor.
"Anyways," Miroku said, his happy manner returning as quickly as it had left, "Let's get going. We've got awards to win. Well, maybe."
Inuyasha started out his front door and clambered into the waiting limo, adjusting his cuff links.
"Two seconds," Miroku said, glancing at his phone, "I gotta take a piss."
"Coulda said something before I got in the damn car!" He heard Inuyasha's growl behind him and shrugged it off.
"Talk to me," he said, putting the phone up to his ear as soon as he was out of Inuyasha's line of vision.
"Everything's good on my end," Sango's voice sounded gleeful again. It had been a while since she'd sounded like that, he mused.
"Okay," he said, "See you soon, babe." He thought to ask her what sort of underwear she was wearing, as was tradition, but thought better of it.
This was an all-Inuyasha chapter until the end, and boy howdy did this go through a few rewrites. Hahaha. Hope you guys like it cause oyyyy this one was a toughie to word correctly. Also I got super busy this week, somewhat randomly. How dull.
SONGS! Well, one song. Thank you, File 13! I LOVE YOU FOR REMEMBERING THIS ONE YOU ARE AWESOME!
Inuyasha AND Miroku - "Cmon" by Panic! At the Disco and Fun (As recommended - Inuyasha is first male voice, Miroku is second. It are perfection. It are beautiful. I are love it.)
No other songs for other characters. Think of this chapter as a self-loathing sort of interlude.
Love you guys! New chapter out sooner than this one! Pinky swear! - meggz0rz