When a Lie Leads to Truth
(Chapter Five)
Kagome Higurashi was never one for great expressions or wild fantasies. She wore her dreams softly, and her loving comments which left so much import on others were also by nature, ambiguous. So it was that confessing the absolute truth, with its awful glaring frankness, was something Kagome was never good at. Instead her secrets remained hidden inside.
After returning from the Feudal Era and her fight with Inuyasha, Kagome dragged on for days, lost in an obvious depression. Yet, she never took the time to fully explain the extent of her sorrows to Sota, Granda, or anyone in her modern world. Even Mama Higurashi was left to wonder preciously what had transpired to make her so miserable, for all she had to go by was Kagome's fleeting comments that Inuyasha had wanted her in place of Kikyo. How or why Kagome had come to this conclusion was completely beyond her.
Yet Kagome never confided to anyone. Like to all other times, she bottled her fury and despair inside herself. She chose not to admit being upset to herself or even a dairy, for writing it down would make it seem real. No, Kagome Higurashi thought to herself, it was far better to elude her sorrows by pretending they didn't exist. As Sota so sagely put over the dinner table, Kagome always chose denial.
Instead of facing her problems directly, Kagome mired herself within the coursework of her classes, hoping that business would take her sorrow away. To some extent it worked. Yet, despite her mind being filled with math equations, a painful knawing at her heart remained constant. So it was with an almost sickeningly happy jolt that one day Kagome caught sight of a familiar flash of silver outside her window. Only, after a moment the blur disappeared and she frowned disappointedly. Was it really all over between them? She half hoped and half feared that this was true.
But then, something earth shattering happened. It was unconceivable to Kagome, so much so that her jaw dropped. The doorbell rang. And the most frightening thing of all was that when Mama Higurashi opened the door to accept a basketful of fruit it was not Hojo standing there. It was Inuyasha.
"Inuyasha!" Kagome hissed immediately and pulled him aside by the elbow. "What are you doing?!" Her eyes raked up and down his form, noting with confusion that his usual red robe kimono had been replaced with tight-fitting jeans and an even more tight-fitting shirt that showed off his muscles. With a gulp, she directed her eyes upwards and sighed in relief that his dog ears had been covered with a black and white checkered bandana. Otherwise, anyone walking around the neighborhood might have seen him.
"Hey Kagome," the hanyou began with a semi-confident air. Kagome bristled and nearly forgot her mother's presence in her eagerness to yell at him.
"Um, Mama," she spoke slowly in a falsified sweetness. "Could I talk to Inuyasha alone for a moment?" The hanyou swallowed nervously.
"All right dear," Mama Higurashi sighed while toting away the basketful of fruit. "Just go easy on the poor boy, all right dear." Kagome said nothing. She merely watched her mother's back with fearsome eyes until the elder Higurashi disappeared behind the kitchen doors. Then turned back towards Inuyasha as he tried to sneak out the nearest exit.
"Oh no you don't!" Kagome yelled grabbing a fistful of his t-shirt and forcing herself into embarrassing proximity against his chest. Only at this moment, Kagome didn't care. "What on earth do you think you're doing here, showing up after all you've said to me? I thought I made it perfectly clear to you Inuyasha! You're free to choose whatever woman you want so long as I'm not in the picture."
"Kagome." Inuyasha whimpered in earnest. "Don't be like that. The one I want to be with is you, Kagome."
"Oooo!" Kagome cried. Throwing up her hands in disgust she stalked away only to have the half dog-demon chase after her. "You are absolutely the worst Inuyasha! I can't believe you have the nerve to say something like that! You are simply, simply unbelievable!" Inuyasha found the door to Kagome's bedroom slammed in his face and he pressed his ear against it to listen. The ranting continued within.
"That stupid, no good, loser! I can't believe I ever considered being with him! He's such an arrogant..."
From his position leant against the door, Inuyasha flickered his ears back miserably. Then he pulled out the bouquet of roses he had been successfully hiding behind his back. With an almost tender look to them, he suddenly came up with a brilliant idea. He rushed down the stairs and out the front door again.
A few minutes later, Kagome peeked out the door again and sighed in relief. Inuyasha was gone. She made a trip to the bathroom to wipe away all traces of her tears. Then she went downstairs for a large bowl of double chocolate icecream. Balancing it carefully, she sucked on the spoon thoughtfully and opened her bedroom door. She gasped.
There, strewn all about her room in a trail leading to the open window, were forty-six roses. A single rose was crammed in the ledge of the windowsill, the petals rustling softly. One last rose was perched delicately on the top of her pillow coveting a florist's greeting card. Despite her wishes, Kagome's eyes began to get blurry.
"Oh Inuyasha!" she murmured wonderously.
Unbeknownst to the miko, there was a small group clustered secretively behind the wellhouse. Eri, Yumi, and Yuka had watched the whole thing through her window and open front door. A seasoned pair of binoculars lay forgotten now as the three girls clustered around the reflective hanyou. He had flopped down onto the ground again and so they all now sat around him in a small circle.
"Well, I gave Kagome the flowers like you said to so now she'll have to forgive me, right?" Inuyasha looked amongst the three girls uncertainly.
"Right!" said Eri. "No girl will be able to resist that! And it was so cute the way you left them for her, Inuyasha-kun! So dashing!"
"Right."
"Okay!" said Yuka cutting it. "Now it is time to commence phase two!"
"Phase two?" Inuyasha frowned uncertainly.
"Yes! Phase two! Steal the heart of the girl!"
"What?" Inuyasha did not like the phrasing as his curdling lip suggested.
"Calm down, Inuyasha-san, it's only an expression. Yumi, did you get the tickets?"
"Um, hum. And you made the dinner reservations?"
"Yup. Let's go for it!"
"Kagome's not going to know what hit her. Sheesh, calm down Inuyasha-kun. It's only an expression." An involuntary growl was cut off.
"Sorry," said Inuyasha blushing nearly as much as his haori would have been. "So what is it I have to do again?" All three of the girls groaned.
Later, much later in the afternoon a pair of amber eyes watched their quarry. The owner of these eyes had his directions. He had a very important mission to carry out and he would, so help him, succeed. So he crouched lower on the branches of the tree outside Kagome's window and then… he pounced.
Only to collide with a pair of newly erected shutters as they were swung closed on him. Cursing softly, Inuyasha picked himself up from the ground. He looked up to see Kagome as she stared down at him. With a haughty sniff, she opened the blinds wider so that she could lean down against her windowsill to glare at him. "Want something, Inuyasha?" she mocked. Inuyasha bristled but caught himself in time. No, now was definitely not a time to give in to his temper. Instead, he stood and brushed himself off to gaze up at the seemingly unreachable girl. He noted that Kagome's arms were crossed defiantly over her chest- not a good sign for him.
With a muted growl, Inuyasha thought back to his mission- give Kagome the tickets and ask her to dinner. He cleared his throat.
"Hey, Kagome."
"What do you want?"
"Keh."
"Inuyasha, if you're not going not going to tell me than I'm leaving."
"Wait temee!" (This is the rude enunciation Inuyasha uses which is often translated as wench or bitch. It means you in an insulting manner.)
"Inuyasha, osuwari!" The dog hanyou flinched, then laughed.
"Oi, you took the beds off me remember temee?"
"Oooh, you jerk!" Kagome grabbed things of her bedstand and began lobbing at the hanyou. Inuyasha found himself being rained on by school books, an alarm clock, and even a pink cat-shaped toothbrush.
"Inuyasha, if you know what's good for you you'll stay away from me!" A good dose of fear flickered in Inuyasha's eyes and he leapt up onto the branch he had inhabited earlier.
"Oi, Kagome. Don't be like that. I just came here to give you something. It's important."
"Really?" Kagome lowered the a 700 page chemistry book that had been poised half-way above her head. "What is it Inuyasha? Is it from Sango? Or is this another gift from someone else? Because I know those flowers couldn't have been your idea." Inuyasha bristled.
"I'll have you know that I paid for those flowers myself! Your mother said that I just have to help out at the shrine for little while!"
"She did?" Kagome frowned thinking back to the previous day. It was possible, she decided. Inuyasha could have visited her mother while she was at school. That would explain the apologetic roses. After all, they didn't even have long-stemmed roses in the Feudal Era, let alone a symbolic meaning for them.
"So why did you bring the roses, Inuyasha?" Her brow furrowed in concentration as she listened.
"So you would come back, dammit! And also this. Your friends said we should, err do these things." Kagome frowned as a pile of gift certificates and theatre tickets fell onto her lap.
"You spoke with Eri, Yuka, and Yumi?" Something in the back of her mind began tickling. In a moment she knew what it was- this was a setup.
"Yeah," said Inuyasha blushing, his hands tucked into the sides of his haori as he looked loftily away.
"So, what I'm supposed to say is… do you want to go out with me?"
"What?" Kagome blinked. Inuyasha nearly tore his hair out at having to repeat himself.
"I said do you wanna go to dinner with me, dammit?" He pointed furiously at the scraps of paper now on her lap and Kagome picked one up carefully to examine it. Her eyebrows nearly shot up into her hairline at the sight. The restaurant they were meant to go to had a minimum price of 6,194.50 yen (fifty dollars) per meal. Well, if this was Eri and Yuka's doing, then it more than made up all those Wacnold's burgers they sponged off her.
Kagome reluctantly acknowledged Inuyasha's fidgeting. "Sure," she replied softly.
She wasn't sure if she was being foolish. She wasn't sure if Inuyasha really meant it or that she should forgive him. But still, somehow her heart was doing drumrolls in her chest. A dinner and movie date with Inuyasha? Somehow it all seemed too good to be true. In fact, Kagome was certain there was something wrong about it. It was Kikyo Inuyasha wanted, not her. He was just trying to lure her back to his side of the well so that she could be the deceased miko's replacement. And yet, Kagome could not help but feel something akin to blind hope. Maybe, somehow she had misunderstood? Maybe there was some love in his heart for her after all?
With a regretful shake to her head, Kagome looked at the date on the tickets and gasped.
"Oh no! Hurry Inuyasha! I have to get dressed right away! We have less than an hour!" With that the window screens snapped shut leaving Inuyasha to wait on his tree branch.
Inuyasha sighed. It was a soul-deep, breathy sigh that spoke of emotional exhaustion and a touch of nostalgic love. He settled back comfortably against the flaking bark of his favorite modern-day perch and shut his eyes only to reopen them immediately. An assemblage of three girls huddled below him in the darkness.
"So, how did it go?" hissed Yuka."
"Just fine," the hanyou tossed off casually as if he had not at all been worried about it. His ears were met with a chorus of suppressed giggles.
"All right. We'll see you later tonight. Remember the plan." The three teenage schoolgirls glided off into the darkness. Inuyasha watched them go, and then turned his attention back to the more important matters at hand. Like watching Kagome. Feeling a peace he had not known for several days, he let the faint odor of her scent drift about him in reassuring, softening waves only to contrast sharply with her current and somewhat entertaining panic.
"Where is my toothrush!" Inuyasha could hear his miko screaming. Scratching his head he yawned and looked bemusedly at the toothbrush that now lay in the dirt far below him. Oh well. That is what she got for throwing stuff at him!
(Notes: I don't own Inuyasha. But I wonder what Eri, Yumi, and Yuka's plan is? Hm. Later.) PS. please don't drop my other stories! Sniff, sniff. I just want to cry now since I've lost two readers for my longest one. It has a long way to go still and it's kind of unpleasant right now. But it has a happy ending! I am working as hard as I can on this one. It's just difficult since I'm not in a happy mood. I'm stressed out over my own love/lack of love life. That and everyone keeps telling me that real, meaning full relationships are non-existant and, "who cares about them anyway?" So if it goes really slow, it just means that my imagination isn't working so well for me. I would be more than happy for some advice on good things to put in!)