A special thank you to…
Tinuviels's Song
Boylessgirl52941
Hearii-sama
ffgirlmoonie
MeiunTenshi
Miko no Kaze
haunting hanyou
sweetrosie
Al
flynfreako
Remenescent
Mistress of Demons
Avelyn Lauren
Disclaimer:
Lawyer #1 & #2: Well, well, well. We meet again.
Pwale: …I thought I killed you guys.
Mr. X: …uh-oh…:he leans over to Jenny.: Hide me!
Jenny: Hell no.
Lawyer #2: YOU! So this is where you've been hiding, eh?
Mr. X: …
Lawyer #1: You traitor! How dare you betray our cause by siding with this…this…this mongrel!
Pwale: Hey! Don't be mean to Inuyasha!
Sesshomaru: Though it pains me to say this, I have to agree with the lawyer. Inuyasha is a mongrel.
Pwale: Then what does that make you? A pure breed?
Sesshomaru: …yes.
Pwale: …
Al: …
Lia: …you do realize that's a bad thing?
Jenny: Uh, guys…for most people that's a good thing.
Pwale: Yeah…well then those people are foolish! Pure breed's are never as cute, you know? I mean the Tramp is much cuter than Lady!
Lawyer #1: That's all a matter of opinion!
Jenny: I have to side with the penguin there. Lady's cuter.
Al: Penguin? What penguin? WHERE! TELL ME!
Jenny: I meant the lawyer.
Al: Oh…
Lawyer #2 comes back from a huddle he's been having with Sesshomaru and Mr. X in the corner. He looks defeated.
Lawyer #2: Judging from the previous disclaimers, I am forced to admit that you do not own these characters and that you recognize that fact.
Pwale: Really? You're not just saying that?
Lawyer #2 nods. Lawyer #1 looks around.
Lawyer #1: Nice place you got here.
Pwale: Yeah. Surprisingly easy to clean, for a castle.
Lawyer #1: No servants?
Pwale: Only invisible ones, minions, candy monsters and a Review Lion…somewhere…
Lawyer #1: Really? Do you own that?
Pwale: Absolutely! But…sniff…she keeps accepting catnip from…sob…other people…sniff…
Mr. X: Oh, you poor dear.
Sesshomaru (smirking): I'd hug you, but I can't so I won't.
Pwale: That made no sense, and you said it wrong. And it's my line! I made it up!
Lia: Really?
Pwale: Either that or I read it somewhere.
Al: WE ARE STOPPING THIS DISCLAIMER RIGHT NOW!
Pwale: What! NOOOO! I WASN'T DONE!
Al: …QUICK! ATTACK! DON'T LET HER WRITE ANY MORE!
Please note that this chapter title, chronos, is the Greek word for time and season. I am not making this up, and I did not get it from an unreliable source. Unless my textbook is entirely made up of lies…I wouldn't be surprised actually.
Sorry! You can read the chapter now!
The Stamp Of Gold
Chronos
By Pwalefriend
Waiting. Inuyasha was waiting. That isn't something that Inuyasha usually has the patience to do. He normally just, if he had to wait, waited impatiently for whomever or whatever he was waiting for. But get this time he was waiting patiently for Kagome who, he had told himself, was worth it.
Now, this may just seem cute and sweet to you, but may I remind you that they don't know each other all that well. And even to people whom Inuyasha's known for years he's about as warm and loving as a cactus in Antarctica.
So there was probably some hidden agenda here.
The door opened and Inuyasha perked up, peering through the cork to see if it really was the governess who had just entered. It was, he was relieved to see. She sat down and waited patiently for his instruction. Inuyasha smirked at her obedience.
"Good morning Kagome." He said.
"Good morning Inuyasha." She replied. "I hope I finds you well." Kagome added. Inuyasha snorted.
"As well as can be expected with the weather." He said. Kagome blinked.
"You don't like the snow?" She asked. Inuyasha shook his head before remembering that even though he could see her (courtesy of super eyesight and mirror technology) she could not see him.
"No, I don't." He said.
Yes, you read that correctly, mirror technology. Inuyasha had equipped the study with a set of mirrors that were set up so that he could see all of his rooms from a set of mirrors that he had with him in his little confession box-like area. It was a complicated concept, and not one that even Inuyasha who (for all his idiocy) was actually a technical genius, had not been able to figure out on his own. It had taken physical help (labor) from Miroku and magical help (labor) from the Elementals to establish the system, but as Inuyasha would often say, it was worth the sweat (not his own sweat, of course).
"Why not?" Kagome asked. Inuyasha blinked.
"Why not what?" He asked.
"Why don't you like the snow?"
"Because…it's wet…and cold. And it makes everything else wet and cold. And in the beginning it's pretty to look at, sure." He shrugged. "But after a while it gets pretty monotonous and dull."
"I know exactly how you feel." Kagome said passionately. "You should see it in the city though, at least here it stays clean for longer then three minutes."
And so it continued. Instead of having the arranged lessons the two compared and contrasted their likes and dislikes of the different seasons like two old granny's complaining about their numerous aches and pains.
Knock, Knock.
Kagome and Inuyasha looked up in surprise at the noise. Well, Kagome looked up. Inuyasha looked slightly to the left at the mirror that showed him who was standing outside the study door. Inuyasha recognized the figure at the same time the Miroku stuck his head in to address Kagome.
"Kagome? Kaede told me that if I didn't remind you, you'd forget about lunch until you were hungry enough to eat us all out of house and home. So I'm here to remind you to go eat lunch now." Miroku told her sternly. Kagome looked down at her stomach in surprise. And, as if on cue, it rumbled angrily.
"I completely forgot!" She yelped. She turned to the cork panel that hid Inuyasha from her sight. "I'm sorry Inuyasha. I'll go eat lunch and then come right back up and we'll get down to the lesson, eh? I really don't know where the time went!" And with that she fled, leaving Inuyasha to face Miroku's sudden and annoying smirk alone.
Miroku strode forward in a quite confident manner and languished himself in the chair that Kagome had sat in. Yes, Miroku did not merely sit in the chair. That is something for lesser beings. Miroku languished himself in the unworthy seat.
Inuyasha just eyed him warily. This did not bode well…
"So…" Miroku said in a chatty voice. "What happened today between you and the fair Kagome?" He, unlike Kagome, stared straight at the flashes of shining gold that one could see through the cork. Because he, unlike Kagome, knew that those flashes of gold were none other then Inuyasha's own eyes.
"Feh. I don't know what you mean." Inuyasha snapped, even though he knew perfectly well what Miroku meant.
"Well," Miroku said. "What…activites were you and Kagome…engaged in before I came?" Miroku smirked. "I didn't interrupt anything, did I?"
"Yes." Inuyasha snapped. Miroku, for a second, nearly died of shock. He couldn't have heard that right…could he have?
"…" Miroku just stared in open-mouthed shock.
"Our conversation." Inuyasha ground out.
For a second Miroku thought that he really had died of shock.
"You were…having a conversation?" He asked again, just to make sure that he had heard right.
"Yes." Inuyasha growled. "Is that so hard to believe?"
Miroku gaped, nodded and then ran out of the room at full speed. He fled Inuyasha's rooms, barreled down the hallway and just as he was turning the corner barged straight into Kagome. The two of them tumbled over and over each other and, since Kagome had been standing on the top step, tumbled over and over each other on their way down the Grand Stairs. When they had reached the bottom the entangled pair remained very still for a moment while they checked their bodies for injuries. Then Kagome got her voice back.
"Miroku?" She gasped, not in surprise. The wind had been knocked out of her, rather. "What do you think you're doing? Racing around like that!"
"Did…you…have…a conversation…with…Inuyasha…?" Miroku gasped as he tried to get his breath back. Kagome eyed him suspiciously.
"Yes…" She said slowly. Miroku stared at her.
"Really?" He asked. "A perfectly civil conversation?"
"Yes…" Kagome said.
"You're absolutely sure? What was it about?"
"Yes, I'm absolutely sure. And we talked about the weather."
Miroku froze in shock. Kagome frowned.
"Miroku?" She asked, he gave no sign of having heard her. "Is something wrong? Miroku?" Again he was unresponsive. "Hello, Miroku?" Kagome said, waving a hand in front of Miroku's face. Nothing.
Suddenly Miroku took a big gasp, leapt to his feet and ran off with cries of 'HELP! MURDER! POLICE! SANGO! POLICE! KAEDE! POLICE! KOGA! KANNA! ANYBODY, PLEASE HELP ME!'
Kagome, who had long ago decided that lunch took precedence over such foolish and unreliable things as absolute insanity, shrugged and continued on her way to get food in the kitchens.
Inuyasha watched from his window in amusement as Miroku tried to explain the source of his disquiet to a very confused yet still quite stoic Kanna, while both of them were freezing their toes off in the snow. But at least Kanna was wearing the appropriate clothes.
"You have to believe me Kanna!" Miroku was saying. "They were having a conversation! A civil one! About the weather! Inuyasha and Kagome! And they haven't even known each other for five years! An actual conversation!"
"Are you sure you haven't been drinking from Koga's private stash again?" Kanna asked in her expressionless way. "You know that Inuyasha never has a conversation with anyone that he hasn't known for at least five years. He just doesn't trust anyone." Kanna turned away. "And for good reason." She added.
"Huh? You don't like Kagome?" Miroku asked. Kanna shook her head.
"No." She said. "I like Kagome. I was referring to what happened last time."
Ah. Last time.
The thought of Last Time sobered Miroku up immediately and he began to trudge his way back to the mansion.
Last Time. They never talked about what had happened Last Time. In fact they tried not to even ever think about it. Even the arrival of Kagome, whose very presence was so deeply rooted in the events of Last Time that it should have been impossible to not think about it, they had all managed to completely avoid the subject.
Well, maybe not all of them. Kanna had clearly been thinking about it. And maybe that made sense. Kanna was the most down-to-earth person in the entire Feudal Era, and for all of Inuyasha's airs Kanna was really the one who had been most affected by Last Time.
To everyone she seemed to have gotten over Last Time without a hitch, and many admired her for it. But still…Kagura was always worried about her little sister. And Kohaku went to extra lengths to make sure that Kanna never got upset. Maybe Kanna still had wounds, just like Inuyasha. But then, who wouldn't.
You would be hurt too if Naraku was your master.
Well, what do you think about this? Like the way I'm bringing Naraku into the story? We're starting to get under way now! Wow, I don't think that it's ever taken me so long to start with the main plot before. Chapter 13, it's high past time, huh? Well…oh…I just looked at my outline and realized that I wrote a completely different chapter then the one I was planning to write…well, that was stupid!
My Review Lion was so happy with her new catnip armor…let's just hope that the weird weapons guy was trustworthy!
Mr. X: That wasn't a weapons man, or whatever you just called him. He was a gardener.
Pwale: Shh! You fool!
Well, Review! I found those runaway candy monsters, so now if you don't review my candy monsters as well as my Review Lion will come after you!
"ROAR!"
"SUGAR! SUGAR! SUGAR!"
See, aren't they just the darndest things?
Sincerely
Pwalefriend.