-dramatic gasp- Look! Can it be?! A fast update?!
Lol yeah, I figured that since I spent so long writing the last chapter, I'd better give you guys a fast update to make up for it. Any complaints? No? Good. Lol.
I haven't eaten for the past 23 hours, so I'm a tad hungry lol. I'm doing the 40 hour famine you see, which is a fundraiser where you go without food for 40 hours. The funds go to little kids in a different country each year. This year it's India. I've raised 45.00 so far :) So yeah, I still have 17 hours to go.
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.
"The lobster and the basil bruschetta for table 4!" Kagome called out.
The chef, a handsome man with wavy black hair tied back into a ponytail and soft blue eyes, smiled at her.
"Thanks, Kagome." he said.
"No problem, Muso."
Kagome walked back out of the kitchen with a bright smile and a warm dish in hand; someone from table 7 had ordered the roasted vegetable terrine. Around her other waiters and waitresses were bustling around, taking orders on their small black notepads. It was a busy night at the Ryukotsusei restaurant. Kagome could spot a few of the regulars amongst the mass of newcomers, mostly rich people staying in Tokyo on business or whatnot.
"No, you stupid girl! I said I wanted the pasta! The pasta! What part of that do you not understand?!"
Kagome sighed. One of the younger, less experienced waitresses had been given the task of seeing to Urasue; an old woman who, despite the hundreds of complaints she made, was always there when Kagome worked. Right now she was scowling darkly at her poor victim with bulging red eyes, her wrinkly finger jabbing furiously at the menu.
"Shunran, why don't you go and see to table 11? They've been waiting for a while." Kagome suggested.
Shunran nodded meekly. "Okay." She scampered off to the newly assigned table, leaving Kagome to face the elderly woman.
"Well, well, now we might finally get some service." Urasue said snidely.
Kagome rolled her eyes. "You shouldn't do that, you know."
"Do what?"
"You'll scare off the new recruits."
Urasue sniffed. "If you haven't noticed, this is a classy place. You either drive over the bumps or you take another road."
"You're no bump, Urasue; you're a pothole."
The woman grinned. "Indeed."
"Let me guess, the Napoletana?"
"That's the one."
Kagome scribbled down the order and bobbed a curtsey. "At your service, madam."
Urasue just sniggered.
The Ryukotsusei restaurant was a classy place. It was one of the main reasons Kagome loved her job; there was absolutely no chance of someone from her class coming to eat there. Unless, of course, by some stroke of luck one of them won the lottery. She was free to be herself; the kind, happy, courteous Kagome that customers loved. She didn't wear too much makeup and never revealed too much skin, never spoke disrespectfully to a customer or the other staff. Not to mention she had a smile to kill for. It was easy to see why she had landed a job here where no others could.
"The Napoletana for table 17," she told Muso, "Urasue's back."
Muso rolled his eyes. "Of course she is." He muttered. It came as no surprise that Muso knew who Kagome was talking about. Everyone knew who Urasue was, not to mention that she was the only person who had ever complained about Muso's cooking.
Adjusting her small black apron and grabbing the next two plates, Kagome exited through the double doors.
And very nearly spun around and ran back the way she'd come.
For standing there, walking to table 22, was no other than Inuyasha Takahashi. Kagome could have recognised the gorgeous silver hair from a mile away. There were four other people with him, two bearing the same coloured hair while the other two had jet black.
"He's gorgeous, isn't he?" Karan said with a smirk, hovering outside the kitchen door to talk to Kagome, "Why don't you go over there? He'll be kissing your dainty little feet in no time."
Kagome shook her head, ridding herself of her former stupor. "No, I don't think I will. Why don't you."
"Oh come on, Kagome. He's hot, you're hot… you're the perfect couple! Here, I'll take these. Now go!" Before Kagome could protest, Karan had used her demon speed to steal the two dishes from her hands and was walking toward table 3.
With a sigh Kagome rolled her shoulders and took a deep breath. She couldn't get her head around it. What was he doing here? Was this some kind of joke?
But as she walked over, it was plain to see that it was not a joke, but plain coincidence. Inuyasha looked just as surprised as she felt. His eyes widened and his mouth dropped open slightly, although he quickly recovered.
"Kagome?" he asked.
Kagome nodded vaguely. She was putting all of her energy into not looking too closely at the hanyou, so she was yet to really look at the other guests. "I'm Kagome Higurashi and I'll be your waitress for the ni-"
"Kagome!!"
Before she knew it, a blur of black hair and white cotton flung itself at her, sending her flying backwards. She steadied herself and stared with confused eyes down at the short woman before her.
"Rin?" she asked disbelievingly.
Rin laughed. "Of course, silly. Who did you think it was?"
Now it was Kagome's turn to hug her. "Oh, Rin! I haven't seen you since forever! How are you?"
"Oh, you know; I get by." She shrugged. "Pregnancy really takes it out of you."
Now that she got a good look, Kagome could clearly see the bulge of Rin's pregnant belly. Her smile broadened. It seemed like only yesterday that her friend was flashing her engagement ring around for everyone to see.
"I can't believe it! I was so miserable when I missed the wedding! And then afterwards so much happened and… well… oh, how I've missed you!" Kagome hugged her yet again.
"Oh Kags, I missed you, too. But hey, I guess you haven't met my husband yet. This is Sesshomaru." She gestured to the demon sitting opposite to Inuyasha. His silver hair was longer and silkier than the hanyou's and his liquid gold eyes were sharper, steelier; he looked like the exact opposite of Rin's bubbly personality. Handsome was the only word Kagome could use to describe him—handsome and icy cold.
"Nice to meet you, Sesshomaru." Kagome told him with a quick flash of a smile.
Sessomaru just nodded, looking as bored as ever.
"And this is Izayoi and Inutashio, the in-laws." She said it in an affectionate tone, like 'in-laws' was some kind of personal joke. Said in-laws, one with silver hair and the other with jet black, smiled kindly and nodded in greeting.
"It's nice to meet you, dear." The woman, Izayoi, said in a sweet, melodic voice.
"Nice to meet you, too." Kagome replied.
"And lastly Inuyasha, although it would appear that you've already met."
"Yeah, Inuyasha's kind of… my boyfriend." She admitted sheepishly.
Izayoi and Inutashio both looked genuinely surprised by the news. They both gaped openly at their son, then at Kagome, for an unbelievably long time.
Izayoi was the first to break out of her reverie. She grinned widely and jumped to her feet, wrapping her slender arms around Kagome in a tight hug.
"Oh, how wonderful! How nice to meet you! Inuyasha, why didn't you tell me about this?"
"Yeah, I wonder." Inuyasha muttered. There was a loud thud and Inuyasha winced and glared at his father, who looked back at him meaningfully. Apparently the hanyou had received a rather painful kick to the shin.
Rin was shocked, not to mention more than a little confused. For one thing, the last time she'd checked Kagome and Inuyasha lived in completely different suburbs and attended completely different schools. How had they met? And even more importantly, wasn't Inuyasha going out with Kikyo? That's what he'd told her. And he'd been texting her too, just yesterday. Was she missing something?
But now wasn't the time for worrying. She'd question Inuyasha when they were back at the Takahashi mansion; when they were alone. Right now she was simply too happy about seeing Kagome again. Instead she directed her attention back to other matters.
"Have you lost weight?" she asked suddenly.
Kagome blinked for a moment and looked down at her tiny frame, accentuated unintentionally by the plain black uniform. "I guess." She shrugged nonchalantly. In truth, she knew she'd lost weight—she'd checked the scales that morning. If she breathed in she could see the clear outline of her ribs, could feel them when she ran her hands down the smooth brown skin.
"Well, don't lose too much. We don't want you going all anorexic on us."
Kagome laughed. "I'm fine, really. But I should probably get back to work. I'll see you later, okay?"
"Alright, but give me your number first." Rin said. She already had a napkin and a pen ready, scribbling down the digits in her messy writing.
"Okay, see you, then." Kagome said after the exchange. She turned to leave, but stopped when Sesshomaru spoke to her for the first time.
"Aren't you forgetting something?" he asked.
Kagome frowned in thought. "Uh… no?"
"Our food."
"Oh, right!"
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Rin was impatient as they drove into the Takahashi mansion. As soon as they were inside, she grabbed Inuyasha's shirt collar and dragged him into one of the many sitting rooms. She'd never seen a point in having so many, seeing as none of the family really used them. But perhaps this was the reason—for conversing secretly where others wouldn't overhear.
"Inuyasha, I want answers and I want them now." she hissed, poking his chest with her finger.
The stone-hard tone probably wasn't necessary, seeing as Inuyasha's face fell before they reached the room. He obviously knew what she was talking about.
"I didn't know you knew her," he sighed, "I honestly didn't know."
"What difference does that make? And before you answer that, tell me what's going on!"
There was another sigh. Then Inuyasha began his recount, explaining everything that had happened over the past few weeks.
Rin listened in stony silence until he was finished. Her eyes glowed with anger. "So what, you're pretending to be in love with Kagome, Kagome of all people, for some freak of a girlfriend? Who may or may not be cheating on you?"
Inuyasha nodded miserably, his ears flattening against his head.
"How could you be so cruel?!" Rin cried in outrage, "Hasn't she been hurt enough? Hasn't her heart been broken enough times without you making it worse?!"
"What do you mean?" Inuyasha asked.
"You mean she hasn't told you?"
Inuyasha shook his head. "No, she hasn't. What do you mean, her heart's been broken enough times?"
"Ask Kagome, not me."
"Fine. I will."
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Korari still wasn't home when Kagome's shift ended at the restaurant. Kagome doubted her mother would be back at all that night. It wasn't unusual in any way; the pattern had been going on since… well…
But Kagome refused to think about it. It was far too painful.
She'd been neglecting the washing—the clothes basket was overflowing. Not that she was going to work on that tonight. That could wait. She just wanted to flop into bed and sleep. But when she trudged up the stairs and into her room, throwing on a pair of old pyjamas and snuggling beneath the blankets, she couldn't make herself slip into unconsciousness. The sounds of cars passing and the sharp glow of lamplights refused to fade away.
Inuyasha knew Rin. No; knew was the wrong word. He was related to her, or partially at least. He was her brother-in-law.
Did the relationship between her boyfriend and best friend matter? She tried to tell herself it didn't. But that was a lie. It did matter. She knew Rin; the happy, go-lucky girl who had never failed to make her laugh. Rin had a way of picking up the vibes of people; the bad vibes, the ones you needed to watch out for. If Rin liked Inuyasha, then Kagome could trust him. He wasn't like the others.
Her brain was still swirling with thoughts hours later, even as her eyes grew heavy and every part of her body begged for sleep. She tried counting sheep, but the cute woolly lambs grew long silver hair and pointed doggy ears, with large golden eyes that seemed to reach right into her soul. She considered getting some warm milk from the kitchen to help her doze off, but rejected the idea because of the calories that would involve. Which brought her thoughts to Rin—what had she meant when she gave her warning? The idea of anorexia hadn't really occurred to her before. Sure, she'd heard about it plenty of times, but the idea had never really sunk in. That it could happen to her; that didn't seem like a possibility. Anorexia was just a word used for people with their bones poking out of their shrunken bodies.
She tossed and turned for a while, but eventually saw the hopelessness of such a task. Her brain was far too active to sleep. Instead she reached for the photo frame, sitting where it always did on her bedside table. Her fingers ran across the glass, where even in the dark she could see the smiling faces; hers and his, printed forever in her mind. She couldn't remember what they were smiling about when the camera flash went off, only that they'd been laughing at something ridiculous, a personal joke that neither of their parents could understand.
Kagome missed those times; the days when she could crack up laughing over nothing and smile just because she felt like it. She missed having him there, his shaggy black hair and beautiful brown eyes, complete with the wide, crooked grin he always wore.
Clutching the frame to her chest, she eventually sunk into a deep, dreamless sleep, a couple of tears dampening her pillow.
...Reviews...
JoBrosCupcakeSwirl: Lol but what song should he write for her?
lorryka: Thanks! :)
Sassybratt: Oh no! Please no drasticness! My life's far too drastic as it is!
Black and Bloody Rose: Haha I'd say it's a pretty complicated situation for poor Yash. And seeing as this is an Inukag story (not to mention I'd rather eat my dog than write an Inukik story) I'd say he's gonna like Kagome a lot more than he ever liked Kikyo.
brokenchaos: Hehe let's just cross our fingers and hope he keeps that mind of his own instead of getting brainwashed by our favourite (cough) character (coughcoughcoughCHOKE) Kikyo (GAG).
Daeth101-Fox version: Lol actually, I haven't seen many people who actually like Kikyo. Probably coz I only read Inukag, so all of th Inukik stories go completely ignored... xD;
sar bear rokz jockz: Thank you! I hope the update was quick enough.
xxRockerElla: I'm afraid you're going to have to wait to see when he dumps her (translation: I haven't worked it out yet)
Sesshomaru's Megumi: Lol thank you!
Diamond369: LOL I DON'T THINK THERE'S ONE PERSON READING THIS STORY WHO DOESN'T ABSOLUTELY ADORE KIKYO (COUGHCOUGHCOUGHCOUGHGAG)
animearlinefreak: Thanks! I don't really think the Wonderwall song worked, but I threw it in anyway. :) The good songs are still coming.
Say0miSaki: I'm glad you enjoy my writing, especially seeing as writing is, like, the only thing I'm good at xD;
Hiwada.Yume.Chan: Oh my goodness! Happy birthday! Did you have fun?? I hope you did! And yes lol, I can spell it, when I put my mind to it. Unfortunately that doesn't happen very often lol.
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