I disclaim.
Wake-Up Calls
Morning light streaked across the bedroom in thick yellow bars. The grey tabby cat that had been sprawled across the end of the bed gave his owner a loud meow as a way of 'good morning' and stalked off to find a warm piece of sunlight to snooze in. Agatha kept her eyes tightly closed, refusing to be awake. She had nearly succeeded with that plan when her phone rang. She turned onto her right side, opening her eyes the smallest crack to glare at the offending sound. For a split second she wondered when her ringtone had become I'm Walking On Sunshine before reaching out to pick up her cell. The caller ID was flashing McKenna Wade and she stole a glance at the clock. Aggie Lynn sighed to herself before pushing the 'answer' button and bringing the phone to her ear.
"McKenna, you know it's only eight in the morning." Aggie rolled onto her back and stretched, ignoring McKenna's obviously delighted laughter.
"Yes, I know. But you didn't call me yesterday." Aggie fought the urge to roll her eyes and settled for what had to have been a gargantuan yawn.
"That doesn't mean you had to wake me up." She managed to barely stifle another yawn before continuing. "I meant to call you last night, but I passed out on the couch. I guess I was really tired." She contemplated sitting up, but decided that she rather preferred to just lay there and prop the phone up with her pillow. She heard McKenna snort on the other side.
"Whatever. I see how it is. You just don't love me anymore." Aggie rolled her eyes and stretched again, waiting for McKenna to continue. "Anyway. I wanted to know when you were planning on coming and visiting me again." Aggie started counting tiles on the ceiling and gave herself a moment to think. McKenna Wade was her best friend in the entire world, but she always needed time to regroup after spending time with her.
"McKenna, I've got to open the Inn for business tomorrow and the season's just getting started. I can't leave just yet." She heard McKenna sigh on the other side of the line and decided that since she was awake, she might as well get up and get herself ready for the day.
"Well, I guess that that means I'll just have to come up and see you. I gotta go, but I will be planning my trip okay? Love you." Aggie returned the sentiment and hung up, tossing the phone back onto her bed as she headed into the bathroom. Once she'd finished all her morning rituals, she streaked back into her bedroom, lunging for her underwear drawer. She hated the chill she got after a shower and was swift to get her undergarments on. She pulled on a pair of jeans that had certainly seen better days and a shirt from her high school drama days. After feeding the cat and making herself some breakfast, she pulled on some shoes and made her way over to the Inn. As she stared at the orange walls in the lobby, she wasn't sure how Bree had thought that it looked better in the sunlight. The light made it something of a neon orange color, plastered all over the walls. Aggie Lynn sighed.
"Well, at least it's only on the walls." She checked her watch, and figured that since it was past nine, the hardware shop should be open. After returning to her apartment and getting her wallet and keys, she decided to walk down to the hardware store and see what she could do about the paint job.
Aggie Lynn was not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination. Once she was fully awake, however, she was pleasant no matter what hour of the day. She was rather fond of the cooler temperature in the morning hours and so when she walked into the hardware store about twenty minutes later, there was a smile on her face. The man behind the counter was only a year or two older than Aggie Lynn, and she smiled warmly at him as she walked around the counter to give him a hug.
"Colton Noll, when did you get back into town?" Her cousin smiled at her, returning the hug with gumption. Aggie Lynn hopped onto the counter her cousin had been leaning on and gave him an expectant look. He sighed and gave her what Aggie Lynn had dubbed the "Patented Noll-Man" smile.
"I got back in a few nights ago." He leaned back onto the counter behind him, studying his cousin. "What's got you here this early, Agatha Lynn?" Aggie stuck her tongue out at her cousin; he always insisted on calling her Agatha. The one time she'd asked him about it he'd simply shrugged, gave her the Noll-Man smile and told her that it was her name.
"Bree and her brother decided to paint my lobby this lovely shade of supernova orange." She gave Colton a half-grimacing smile. Her cousin looked as if he might laugh before he smothered it with a serious face. Aggie Lynn gave him a withering look before continuing. "And I need to do something that'll tone it down a bit." Colton couldn't smother the laugh that escaped him and narrowly dodged the well-aimed smack that Aggie Lynn sent his way. She followed her cousin back to the paints area, picking a rusty reddish color that would mask the bright orange color well and still be aesthetically pleasing. As she carried the cans of paint to the register, she gave her cousin a small smile.
"How's your momma doing? Last I heard she was in the hospital." Colton sighed and rang up the cost of the paint, giving her the obligatory family discount.
"As alright as she can be. She was there for some tests and they found that her cancer's come back." As Aggie Lynn handed over the money, she frowned.
"I thought they'd gotten all of it in the last surgery they did?" Her statement was questioning and the look in her cousin's eyes told her all that she needed to know. She'd never been particularly close to any of her other relatives - and she had plenty of them, Lord knew - but Colton and her had shared something in the fact that his father had died when he was young as well, and his mother had worked all of the time when he was younger. The two of them - one an orphan, and the other as good as - had bonded closer than any brother and sister they knew.
"The doctor said these things just come back sometimes. That there ain't anything can be done." He leaned heavily on the counter in front of him, shaking his head. "They give her a few months, if that." Aggie Lynn once again pondered at the unfairness of good people dying young. She placed a hand on one of the ones that Colton had balled up on the counter. She didn't have to say anything, he knew she was telling him silently that she would be there, through it all.
"Anyway, can't afford to get mushy on the job." He gave her a weak imitation of the Noll-Man smile and shrugged. "Sides, at least my walls ain't neon orange." Aggie Lynn scoffed and shook her head. Her cousin would never admit defeat, and it was part of the reason she loved him so much.
"Yeah, yeah. Feel free to come by and paint later." Colton gave her a look that said he was clearly not into that idea and she smiled. "I'll feed you." Bribery always worked with the men in her family, and bribery with food even more so.
"Well, maybe I'll drop by." He hedged, making Aggie Lynn snort with laughter.
"Yeah, yeah. Love you." She grabbed the two cans of paint and was nearly to the door before she turned back around. "Hey, let me borrow your truck." Colton eyed her warily, and she knew he was remembering the last time she'd tried to drive his monster of a truck. "I promise I'll bring it back as soon as I drop off the paint." She rolled her eyes and watched him weigh his chances.
"You'll make raspberry bars?" Her cousin was overly fond of the sweet treat she'd started making two years before, and she was completely surprised at how his waistline not only didn't grow, but seemed to shrink. She cursed high male metabolism and nodded, nearly missing the keys he tossed at her. "Bring it back in one piece." She rolled her eyes and headed for the door once again, determined that the day would be good.
Inuyasha woke with a start, his golden eyes focusing on the ceiling quicker than he actually woke up. He stared for a moment longer, wondering what had woken him so abruptly, when he noticed a buzzing sound that grew more annoying the longer it sounded. He was going to simply lay there until the sound went away, but when it seemed as though the annoying buzzing would continue forever, he grew a bit irritated. Snarling in a way that belied his demon heritage, he threw the covers from his bed, stalking to the buzzing bag on the floor. He had a bizzare moment where he remembered that scene in one movie - Fight Group? Fight Something? - where the character had his luggage taken because it was suspected of having a dildo. Red flashed through his vision as he imagined finding a buzzing dildo in his bag and he began making more plans to murder his half-brother, before he came to his senses and realized that the buzzing was from a phone that Kagome had shoved into his hands before they kicked him out of the house. As he read the number on the display he wondered briefly what time it was in Tokyo before pushing the answer button and putting the phone up to his ear.
"What time is it there?" His voice was full of gravel from his brief amount of sleep and he briefly wondered what it sounded like on the other end of the phone. Kagome sniffed in a way that he was all too used to hearing before replying.
"Well that's a fine hello. Especially considering you didn't call to let us know you'd made it in just fine." Inuyasha yawned loudly, fully intent on crawling back into bed, even if it meant falling asleep on the phone. "And since you want to know, it's ten at night here." Inuyasha glanced at the clock on his bedside table, noting the time at 8 in the morning, and the time difference as 14 hours. It certainly explained why he was so damn tired.
"I'm not a child, Kagome." He knew that he was mumbling into his pillow, but the bed was suddenly the most comfortable thing he'd ever lain on and he couldn't remember the last time he'd had a pillow so soft. "I can take care of myself you know." He was desperately trying to stay awake so that Kagome wouldn't yell at him any more than she probably was going to anyway, but he had a feeling that if she didn't provide him with some scintillating conversation quick like he was going to do just that.
"I know that Inuyasha." He heard her pause, and speak some sweet nothings to her husband before returning to the phone. "So, how was your flight? Do you like it so far?" Inuyasha ran through several different responses in his head before finally settling on one that would offend her the least.
"Kagome, when you and Sesshomaru took that eighth honeymoon a few years ago, did your phone ring at all?" He could practically hear her thinking on the other end of the phone, and before she could reply he added, "Think of this as my own personal honeymoon of one. And don't call me this early again." He hung up the damnable thing, a smirk of pleasure across his face. Irritating Kagome had always been a favorite pastime of his, and it seemed that it was one he was going to have to take up again. As he stared at the cellular phone in his hand he wondered why it worked. Weren't cell phones only supposed to work in their country of origin? He was tempted to follow the thought further, but quickly succumbed to the sleep that was vastly more tempting.
When Inuyasha roused from sleep a few hours later - somewhere in the ball park of eleven-thirty - he was more rested and far more pleasant that he had been. The phone that had woken him some three hours earlier was still in his hand and for a split second he contemplated dialing Kagome and Sesshomaru to ask them nonsensical questions, but figured that if Kagome answered at all she'd be even more testy than she'd been at eight when he'd hung up on her. Tossing that notion, and the mobile phone, aside, he crawled out of bed again and headed straight for the shower. After bathing and brushing the fuzz off his teeth, he dressed and considered his next plan of action. He wasn't following any sort of preset plan of action, and he supposed that any destination was as good as the last. Deciding to just ride the interstates until he found someplace worth staying in, he packed his bag and checked out of the Holiday Inn, decidedly more pleasant to the young lady who was at the front desk, even if her accent was just as thick as the girl the night before.
After getting some food from the little mom and pop restaurant just down the road - and making a promise to himself to have Kagome start cooking this fried okra and chicken salad - he set out on the road and had the feeling in his gut that his life was soon to change.
A/N: He's getting closer and closer! Once again, might've been a rushed way, but the story really deals with the two of them together so I've got to get him there. A little more background on Aggie Lynn's side. Thoughts? ^_^
