When a Lie Leads to Truth
(Chapter Six)
Kagome could hardly believe it. Here she was, about to go on her first real date with Inuyasha! The miko gazed deeply into her mirrored reflection across the vanity and noted the happiness there. With a giggle, she threw her hairbrush up into the air and did a short pirouette. It was, for her, out of character to act as carefree as her average schoolgirl counterparts, Eri, Yumi, and Yuka. Too many important matters of life and death weighed on her mind to let her act so joyous. Yet on this occasion, Kagome gave fully into her rebellion. She was a young girl in love, dammit! And she intended to fully intended to enjoy this night out with the boy she admired, even if that boy was not really err… well, human.
No, so help her, she, Kagome Higurashi was going to the movies. With this bold statement, she stepped into her high heels and snapped the lock shut with an audible click. Checking herself in the mirror one last time to ensure perfection, Kagome suppressed the shutter of excitement that coursed through her. Then, with a nod, she took a deep breath and opened her shutters.
"Inuyyaasshhaa!" Her living chariot arrived momentarily.
"What is it now?" Inuyasha asked irritably, leant casually against the wall of her room as though he had been there for hours instead of having just dropped from out of nowhere.
Kagome whirled to fix on him a warm liquid smile. Inuyasha felt himself melt somewhere in his knees.
"Nothing. I just wanted to know if you're ready to go?"
"Keh. Why wouldn't I be? I've been waiting on you for hours!"
"Half an hour, Inuyasha," Kagome corrected him.
"Fine, whatever. Let's just go." Kagome gave out the merest giggle. It seemed things were back to normal between them.
Inuyasha kneeled and in one fluid motion, Kagome climbed on as he stood. Then they were off, racing out the window, down the shrine courtyard, and onto the rooftops of downtown Tokyo. Brilliantly neon advertisements flashed by them as if they were signposts and soon, Kagome found herself pointing a finger down to the false sun burning its iridescent fingers along the façade of the downtown movie-plex. A stream of people, tiny like ants, busily poured in and out of the concrete and glass structure.
"Come on Inuyasha!" Kagome squirmed a bit to goad him with her loafers. "The movie must be starting in a few minutes!"
"Yeah, yeah I'm going," the dog demon responded almost lazily. With a gentle bound, he leapt off the peak of the three story building to coast down into a dark alleyway beside the movie theatre. Several teenagers, waiting in line to buy tickets, caught sight of the overhead motion and pointed fingers, gasping.
"Dude, is that Spiderman?" one of the gangly teenagers asked his friends.
"Nah," remarked another. "Too much hair."
Meanwhile, Kagome and Inuyasha straightened themselves. Kagome shook her clothes out and, thrusting her chest out for a show of composure, lead the way. It was a dangerous thing she knew bringing Inuyasha into a public place. But against all thread of reason she was more than willing to risk it. Hopefully, the movie theatre would still be structurally intact when they left it. If not, well, she was not going to allow herself to feel guilty about it.
Taking the tickets to the movie out from her purse, Kagome passed by the line of theorizing teenagers. Inuyasha followed along behind her as if tied by a sting, both arms folded arrogantly. His ears folded back sourly against his head at the surroundings. There was nearly as much noise here as there was on a youkai battlefield pummeled by explosions. He should know since he had been caught in quite a few.
With an agitated yawn feigning boredom, Inuyasha stretched and moved himself closer to Kagome so that he was almost pressed against her. It was a good thing he did too for the population of people was getting denser. A flood of moviegoers struggled to get through the ticket takers without spilling their popcorn or oversized sodas. Suddenly inspired, Kagome giggled and took a few brisk, high spirited steps toward the concierge stand. This sprightly gait was all her high heels would allow. Inuyasha followed dourly.
Three short minutes later as the lapping waves of people mysteriously vanished, Kagome led the reluctant hanyou toward an acne spotted boy taking tickets and wearing his round cap at a slouch. As she handed her tickets away, she was immediately bored by the long speech droned out by the equally bored attendant.
"Theatre's to the left. No talking while the movie is going. No guns, knives, or weapons. Smoking is prohibited."
Kagome stepped across the turn-style and waited while the attendant repeated the same speech to Inuyasha. Only towards him the reaction was much more wary. Calculated almost. At the end of said speech the ticket attendant's nervousness only increased as Inuyasha flashed his fanged teeth at him.
"Now why would I do that?" came his rusty growl. Kagome giggled as the ticket taker looked disconcertedly at Inuyasha's tensing nails.
"Er, yes." With a panicky smile, he eagerly waved them away.
Yes, Kagome thought to herself with an accepting smile. It was impossible for Inuyasha to go weaponless. Except for the night of the new moon perhaps. With an almost tickling sensation of pride, she wrapped her arms around his elbow, keeping him close to her. Inuyasha blushed at the close proximity.
Soon, they were seated and Kagome plopped the popcorn and soda she had bought between them. Her idyllic smile vaporized as Inuyasha snatched up both containers and proceeded to chow down.
"Inuayasha!" she hissed vehemently wrestling them from his fingers. "I bought those for us to share!"
"You mean eat from the same bowl?" Inuyasha sounded merely curious but Kagome's cheeks pinked as she thought up all sorts of impossible romantic situations involving touching fingers or alternatively, hand feeding.
"Err, yeah," Kagome sputtered. "You know what Inuyasha, I'm not very hungry after all. You eat it." The miko let out a heart weary sigh at the thought of her lost popcorn. Only to find the container nudged at her.
"Here."
"Hm?" Kagome stared at it.
"Look, are you gonna stare all day or are you gonna take it?"
"Um. Oh, here Inuyasha. I'll just set it between us. Then we can both have some if we get hungry."
"Keh." Kagome sighed happily at the averted disaster, causing Inuyasha's ears to twitch beneath his bandana. He was about to ask about her reaction, but fortunately for Kagome the movie started.
It was an action film with flimsy romance in it. Inuyasha stared at the screen bug-eyed while the projection played. After some time he began sniffing and turned his head slightly only to scowl. He poked his finger into Kagome's shoulder, distracting her.
"Hey. Kagome," he called out in his equivalent of a whisper. Kagome turned her eyes to glare at him as she missed an important moment.
"What is it Inuyasha?"
"Why are those people doing something like that in public?" Kagome turned around and spotted two people making out in mimicry of some major hanky-panky. As rapidly as she could, she whirled her head round again. At that moment, it was doubtful that her cheeks could turn any redder.
"Because Inuyasha. Some people… simply do these things," Kagome explained as if she was speaking to a small child. When Inuyasha sneezed again and complained about the smell of "lusting humans" she stood up and led him by hand from the threatre to stand in the encouragingly bright hallway.
"You know what, Inuyasha," Kagome said suddenly not caring about the movie. "Let's just go and get ready for dinner." The hanyou's eyes took on a certain sparkle.
"Good idea!" Inuyasha strode off ahead of her leaving Kagome to jog in order to follow.
"Okay," Kagome thought to herself as she stared outside the tinted windows of the cab she had called by lobby payphone. "So the movie was a complete bust. But surely something good will come out of dinner?" How very right or wrong she was!
Kagome knew there had to be something amiss when she saw Ayumi standing behind the customer greeting table, with her luxurious hair tied back and wearing a neat, formal apron.
"Hello Kagome!" her longtime friend and schoolmate called to her with a slight giggle. "May I help you with something, Miss Higurashi?" Kagome frowned slightly at the emphasis on Miss. There was a very odd feeling behind it.
"Hi Ayumi!" she fluttered nervously. "Do you work here?"
"On weeknights and weekends only. My mother doesn't mind me working late and I really like it here."
"That's good for you Ayumi!" Kagome smiled, happy for her friend. At the same time, a strange stab of guilt ate at her. This is what girls her age should be doing- finding a job, choosing boyfriends, shopping… well at least she was a fluent shopper of 'ninja snacks'! But Kagome had never so much as had one paying job in her life! The thought of it was almost shameful.
"Well," Kagome mumbled, digging through her purse as if it were her lifeline, "Me and my friend Inuyasha are here to eat dinner." She dropped the two gift certificates on the counter as they had burned her and refused to look at Ayumi. Ayumi, meanwhile, picked up the two slips of paper and cradled them with a professional air. An unincriminating smile could only leave Kagome to wonder if she was behind the gift certificates after all.
"Right this way, Miss Higurashi." Ayumi giggled briefly, the back of her hand disguising her mouth. "I will be with you shortly." After leading Inuyasha and Kagome to the most secluded, overly romantic portion of the restaurant with its semitransparent screen of real willow and roses, she handed them both a velvet covered menu. Then, with a deep bow, she moved away.
Kagome gazed around here. There were six different utensils in front of her instead of the usual three. The napkins were set by themselves, folded into lavish tents. The table was pure wood, sleek and glossy and the tablecloth was satiny to the touch. With an almost reverent awe, she cracked open the menu to discover names of dishes she never existed. What on earth could she possibly order for both herself and Inuyasha? Steak. That had to be it. Every high class restaurant had a steak. Scanning down the flowery print, she sought out the safest, most ordinary description of a flame-broiled steak. As long as she specified that they put no sauce or spices of any kind on it, Inuyasha would love it. She had been cooking for him long enough to know his preferences. Unfortunately, cumin wasn't one of them. Kagome's eyebrow raised as Ayumi came back with a wine bottle and its carafe in hand.
"Ayumi." Kagome blushed. "You know I'm not old enough to drink."
"Ah," Ayumi winked. "But this is a special occasion. Besides, it's sparkling grape juice, silly. Not quite the same but we want to build the correct mood don't we?" Kagome's worry only kept increasing.
With a smooth chink, Ayumi laid out two crystalline wine glasses. With a practiced hand, she portioned out the foamy drink until it lay shimmering in the lamplight and the pungent fragrance of clarified grapes filled the air. Then, sinking the unfinished bottle in its container full of ice, Ayumi bowed again. She left bearing a very mysterious smile.
"I wonder what that was all about." Kagome fidgeted and took an exploratory taste of her drink. She nearly spit it out as Yuka appeared wearing a high-class waitress uniform.
"Yuka, you work here too?"
"Sorta, Kagome-chan. May I take your order?" Kagome shook her head and let the shock wear off.
"Err yeah. Inuyasha and I will both have the flame-broiled prime tenderloin steak without the spice blend. Make his rare, please. I would like mine medium-well done."
"Right away, Miss Higurashi," Yuka said winking. She folded up the menus and disappeared from sight.
Yuka flounced happily into the establishment kitchens. There, Eri was having an animated gossip session with the pastry chief.
"And Kagome said, 'he is so two-timing' and it was like, she was always coming to school so upset over him because of this girl I just learned was named Kikyo."
"Hm, un," the pastry chief did his best to ignore her as he went about his mixing.
"And I was all like, 'Kagome you need to get yourself a new boy!' so we tried to like get her to go out with Hojo but she never seemed to be interested in him even though Hojo is so perfect."
"Um hum," said the pastry chief still ignoring her.
"But then we met this boyfriend of hers and he is so hot and he turned out to be really nice also so we can't help but be happy for her."
"Um hum," said the pastry chief contemplating kicking her out of his kitchen.
"So all we need now is for her to forget all about this Kikyo so the two of them can get together. He even wants to marry her! Isn't that exciting?"
"Is that so?" The pastry chief was hopeful that the long explanation had taken on some sort of purposeful direction.
"Yeah. So now we need you to make an extra dessert cake for her! Yuri, Yuka, and I will be paying for it out of our tips. All you have to do is write, 'Will you marry me, Kagome?' on it. It will be perfect! Kagome-chan won't be able to resist saying yes!"
"Is that so?" The pastry chief reiterated. With a less disfigured frown than before, he relented.
"I suppose I can put together another cheesecake."
"Yeah!" Eri danced off happily, Yuka in tow. The pastry chief breathed out a sigh of relief as the door swung shut. He straightened up, cracked his back, and took on an air of mystified puzzlement as the task required of him finally began to sink in.
"Now what was that girl's name again? Kikyo?" He scratched his head.
Tucked away in the cozy corner booth, both Inuyasha and Kagome continued to wait silently. The extravagance surrounding them was so antithesis to their familiar campfire meals that it put them both at unease. Still, Inuyasha was most nervous by far for he had more in mind than one simple dinner. With an almost quavering hand, he tossed back the cup of fruit juice. He frowned, disliking the fact that it was not the sake he had come to expect at meals since the day he had stopped nursing. But it was only a nervous motion anyway since sake did not affect him. It was only a matter of minutes before the carafe was dry. Kagome looked somewhat exasperated at him as she surveyed her own empty cup.
"Err, Inuyasha?" He surprised her by pushing his own half-drained wine glass her way.
"Here." He sounded rusty, almost broken yet uncommonly affectionate as well. Kagome picked up the glass and took a small sip. She looked back at him only to be surprised at the fierce intensity swirling in his eyes. It had been so long since she had seen such an expression. It was the same one he had taken when he had almost kissed her for looking like Kikyo, on that fateful day before Kikyo's soul had been torn out of her by Urusuai. Only now, she suppressed with a shudder, it looked so much deeper. The miko was half grateful when Ayumi came to drag her out of reverie.
"Kagome-chan," Ayumi said smiling so softly one might have thought it was the contentness of maternity. "If you will follow me I have something special to show the two of you."
"All right." With a flickering of curiosity, Kagome laid down Inuyasha's wine glass. She stood up just as Inuyasha did and the two of them followed after the concierge. For several moments, there was nothing but the sound of skirts rustling. But then, there was the delicious undertone of strings playing. The sound grew louder as they turned into a ballroom.
Kagome stared. An immense room lay before them, with a small orchestra seated on stage at the far end. Clustered elsewhere in a small arc were many rounded tables, all of which were currently unoccupied. Beyond the tables and wedged in between the the orchestra was a small pool of light. It glowed luminously, appreciative of the moon which had risen mere hours ago. Despite the excitement of the night, the soft caress of moonlight made Kagome sleepy instantly. Unconsciously, she leaned back on Inuyasha's arms and he held her.
"Kagome?" She could hear his chest rumbling in askance. She shook her head and stood up.
"What is this place Ayumi?" The school girl's first reply was that of lips quirking.
"Oh this? It's just a little surprise for the two of you. Come, dance! There's nobody watching! It will be fun."
"I don't know." Secretly, Kagome wondered if wither she or Inuyasha even could dance. She was always so uncoordinated and well-clumsy. Inuyasha was graceful in battle but that hardly meant success on the dance floor.
"Come on, come on!" said Ayumi pressing. Kagome did not resist as she was led by arm to the dance floor. She stood waiting there for Inuyasha.
"Err." Kagome mumbled un-syllablated profanities. She looked awkwardly at Inuyasha to find that he didn't know what to do either. With arms crossed and head tipped sideways, he looked askance at her. Ayumi took charge by guiding the miko's soft hands.
"Like this, Kagome-chan," Ayumi said so softly it was like whispering. She lay Kagome's right hand on the hanyou's shoulder. At contact, a pulse electrified the miko's palm. She could feel her chest tighten in excitement. Her heartbeat became thunderous.
"Um, Inuyasha?" It was as if the air cloaked the sound. Kagome did not hear Inuyasha speak, she only watched his lips as they began to move, her left hand lain along the small of his back. Unintentionally, Kagome held him tighter.
One-two-three, one-two three. Following Ayumi's directions they paced in a small box. They were not dancers enough to elaborate or stretch across the floor as they were meant to. But they were lost in their own little world and content to it. There was only one thing that they listened for, and that was the contact that pressed warm and longingly between them. Abruptly, the moonlight night had taken on the clarity of dreaming. Finally they stopped.
"Inuyasha?" Kagome said wondrously, never breaking their eye contact. They stared long at one another and then… the atmosphere of wonder descended so that it lulled. It did not, however, disappear.
"K..Kagome," Inuyasha choked out before boldly taking hold of her hand. "There is something that I have to ask you." Kagome could feel the storm in her heart rising again.
Silently, the two walked back to their table. As they did so, they walked arm in arm causing many of the other restaurant patrons to turn in their seats to look at them. There was many a conspired whisper and giggle about it.
But Inuyasha and Kagome did not care nor did they notice. Instead, they were lost in their own idyllic world as they returned to their secluded table to find a tray there. It was a shell of silver, with two dessert dishes lain out by the side. A pot of dessert coffee replaced the carafe, along with two pure white mugs topped by sprigs of flowers.
"Inuyasha," murmured Kagome overcome with happiness. Tonight had to have been one of the singular best of her life! She only hoped it would continue. She anticipated that it would, especially if she guessed right what was Inuyasha's question. Kagome suppressed a small knowing smile as both of them reclaimed their seats, Aumi presiding over them.
"Kagome." Inuyasha stuttered nervously and she waited for him to continue. He choose not to. Instead he pointed a long finger toward the silver domed tray before her.
"Open that," he said, chickening.
"Kagome raised an eyebrow but moved to do what he said, her heart swooping in happy roils. In a second, it dropped sickeningly.
"Will you marry me… Kikyo?!" she said incredulously.
Author Notes: Uh oh! Somebody goofed up! I wonder if Kagome will be angry? Snicker, snicker. Sorry to do this to you guys but the story isn't over yet.