First of, I'd like to thank everyone who voted on the poll for this chapter. The poll results are posted up on my profile page for anyone who's interested. The gadget that got the maximum votes was the washing machine. So here you go guys, knock yourselves out!
Disclaimer: - Me? Own Inuyasha?...Pfft! Yeah right!
Tech Savvy
V
Washing Machine
"Inuyasha…"
The grumpy hanyou looked up from his previous activity of staring moodily down the bone eater's well and grunted in acknowledgement.
The monk sighed; this was getting quite pathetic, "What are you doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing you lech?!"
"I'd prefer if you told me yourself" Miroku answered calmly, Inuyasha wasn't getting rid of him that easily.
"I'm waiting for the wench to come back!" the half demon barked out.
"You've been sitting in that same position since this morning" the monk stated, and at Inuyasha's blank stare he specified, "Since Kagome went back to her time"
"What's your point pervert?"
Miroku sighed again, honestly, for someone with such amazing senses, the hanyou was unbelievably dense, "Why didn't you go back with her? We don't really have anything to do here considering Naraku has been defeated and the jewel put back together and sealed. You could have just gone with Kagome if you miss her so much"
Inuyasha turned beet red, "W-who said I-I missed that bitch? I just don't have anything better do is all!"
The monk raised an eyebrow, that was a complete lie. Kaede had more than once asked Inuyasha to dig up the weeds in her herb garden, and not eliciting any such response from the hanyou, she finally settled on Sango to help her. Even Shippou had been nagging the older demon to continue with his training which Inuyasha had so generously volunteered to help the kitsune with…after much persuasion from a certain miko. Why Miroku himself had called the half demon to take a walk with him and Inuyasha had turned down all such activities with a grunt and a glare.
Miroku's staff jingled as he made his way toward the hanyou and sat cross legged next to him on the grass covered ground, "Inuyasha, drop the tough guy façade for a minute and tell me honestly, are you really satisfied with the relationship you and Kagome share now?"
The hanyou narrowed his eyes at the monk, "I don't know what you mean. Stop talking shit."
"Do you just want to be her friend? Is that enough?" Miroku continued, not deterred in the slightest by Inuyasha's rude reply, "Do you think you can watch her fall in love with someone else, get married?"
Inuyasha flinched.
The monk smiled fiendishly, "Have babies?"
The hanyou snarled, "Shut up!"
Miroku dropped the teasing and a serious look adorned his face, "You need to tell her how you feel Inuyasha"
"Keh" Inuyasha turned to look back down the well, "How could you know how I feel?"
"Oh come on!" the monk rolled his eyes in exasperation, "It's only about the most obvious thing in the world"
A rather loud shuffling sound caught their attention as both men turned to look at the source. A couple of bushes on the outskirts of the forest seemed to be moving, then stilled and everything became quiet again.
"You guys seriously need to find more innovative hiding places" Inuyasha commented, his nose twitching from the familiar scents that assaulted it.
"Sango and Shippou?" Miroku asked, trying to pass off his snickering as a cough.
"Kirara and the old hag as well" Inuyasha scoffed, "Do you guys have no lives at all?"
"Now Inuyasha, you know it's because we care, we want you and Kagome to be happy"
The hanyou stared at Miroku for a good few seconds, "Do you really think that would make her happy?"
Miroku sighed again, but in relief this time, Kagome's happiness, those were the magic words, "Yes. We all do. She has feelings for you as well"
A rustling of fire rat furs was heard as Inuyasha stood up and placed one clawed foot on the rim of the well, "Don't think I'm taking you seriously or anything!" the half demon snapped, "Your all just way too annoying!"
And with that final insult, Inuyasha jumped into the bone eater's well, disappearing five hundred years into the future in a flash of blue light.
Miroku smiled at the spot Inuyasha had previously occupied before standing up himself and making his way toward the bushes, they'd want a detailed recount of the conversation.
'I wish you good luck, my friend'
"Kagome!"
Kagome scrunched up her nose in irritation, "Yes mama!" she called back, rolling herself on her back on the bed.
"Can you come down for a minute dear?!"
The teenage miko sighed, she closed the book she was reading before picking herself off her cozy, pink comforter clad bed and making her way downstairs.
"What is it mama?" she asked. Mrs. Higurashi was bustling around in the kitchen and looked up on hearing her daughter's question.
"Oh Kagome, I need a favor" her mother said, "I was going to make egg rolls and boiled vegetables for dinner but we don't seem to have enough eggs or the right vegetables so I need to run down to the supermarket. Can you do the laundry for me please?"
"Uh…" Oh man, now she wouldn't be able to finish her book, she had another book report due for extra credit, "Sure mama, no problem"
"Thank you honey" Mrs. Higurashi kissed her daughter on the cheek, "The clothes are in the laundry basket in the basement. I'll be back soon" and with that, Kagome's mom slid the front door shut and footsteps could be heard descending the shrine steps.
"Right" Kagome sighed and headed toward the door leading down to the basement, "Well, the sooner I start, the sooner I finish"
When Inuyasha jumped onto the floor in Kagome's room, the object of his affections was nowhere to be seen almost making said hanyou hyperventilate, 'Where the hell is she?! Why does she always do this?'
"Kagome?"
No answer. Inuyasha's nose twitched, her scent was still fresh so she must have been here recently, he couldn't catch any other scent so she couldn't have been attacked. Then where was she?
"Kagome!" he called again. Maybe she was at that evil school place. No, today was one of those 'Saturdays' she kept looking forward to; she said it was the weekend so there was no school.
He made his way toward the door and went downstairs to investigate the miko's strange disappearance. Had she gone out with those nosy friends of hers? Inuyasha could honestly not understand how those three loud, obnoxious, giggly girls could be his Kagome's friends. She was so sweet and kind and caring. It defied all the rules of logic.
He decided to have a talk with her about it later, "Kagome?" but he needed to find her first.
Right then his ears caught the sound of someone humming; it seemed to be coming from a room next to the staircase. Inuyasha pushed the half open door only to find another staircase leading further down.
A secret chamber? He didn't know Kagome's house had secret passages. Did this lead to another time dimension too? Did Kagome know about this?
He growled at the thought, only he was allowed to share that with her. Heck, he was the only one allowed to share anything with her!
But all the hanyou's musings and assumptions were proved false, because all the second set of stairs seemed to lead to was another room. Well, at least he didn't need to look for Kagome anymore.
"Oi"
"Gah!!" the miko cried out in surprise and threw the shirt she was holding over her head and spun around to face the half demon, "Inuyasha! Don't do that, you scared me"
She stared at him for a few seconds before cocking her head to the side, "Why are you wearing that shirt on your head?"
Inuyasha growled and ripped the offending garment off his head and tossed it to her, "You threw it at me wench!" then added as an afterthought, "and I don't think attacking people with cloth is going to do much damage"
"Sorry" Kagome said, "You shouldn't have snuck up on me like that"
"Keh, it's not my fault humans have such dull pathetic senses" he muttered just loud enough for her to hear.
The miko rolled her eyes; she didn't want to start that argument again, "What are you doing here anyway?"
"What's it to you wench? I can come here if I want to!" Inuyasha snapped, then blushed and added, "Those jerks were getting on my nerves"
"Right" Kagome dismissed the matter; she knew it was futile trying to figure out the workings of her hanyou's mind. She dropped the shirt Inuyasha had tossed to her into the washing machine and went to get more clothes from the laundry basket.
"Hey" Inuyasha was watching her every move like a hawk, "What are you doing?"
"Doing the laundry" the teenager replied simply before catching herself, "I'm washing these clothes"
"How can you be washing them?" the hanyou asked quirking his eyebrows, "There's no river or stream in here"
"It's very hard to find a clean river in the city Inuyasha, so we use this" Kagome dropped the clothes she was holding into a big white box type thing and patted the side of it, "It's called a washing machine, from the name you can probably guess that it washes things, preferably clothes"
"Uh…." Kagome could see from the look on his face that he was finding that very hard to believe. Guess it was time for another tutorial lesson in the workings of modern technology.
"Come over here Inuyasha, I'll show you" she gestured for him to stand next to her and after he complied she started explaining, pointing at the respective parts as she went along, "See this place where we put the clothes, it spins around and this thing sticking out in the middle spins in the opposite direction, that helps the soap we use to wash the clothes, form lather and that cleans them. The machine is connected to a pipe and that's where the water comes from, it flows through a small opening inside. All we have to do is pour the soap on the clothes, close the lid and set the speed and other necessities and then push the 'start' button". Well it may have been kind of sloppy, but hey, she never claimed to be an expert on these things.
The hanyou just stared at Kagome.
"What?" she asked him defensively.
"So…you do all that…just to wash clothes?" he asked her incredulously.
"Well…yeah"
"You humans are crazy. Why the hell would you want to complicate such a simple chore?" he shifted his incredulous stare to the washing machine.
Kagome sighed. Well, at least he wasn't trying to attack this gadget too. "We're not complicating it; this makes the whole thing so much easier. The machine washes the clothes for us" she tried to explain.
"If you say so" Inuyasha said, looking doubtful.
"Ok fine" Kagome snapped, getting annoyed at his disbelieving tone, "I'll show you"
She loaded the rest of the clothes into the machine and tampered with the settings until she was satisfied with them. Inuyasha watched her with fascination. His Kagome was so efficient; she could get things done so fast, both in his time and hers. She picked up the bottle of soap but suddenly stopped and looked at him. She seemed to be mentally debating over what to do, before she gave the bottle to a puzzled hanyou and headed toward the stairs.
"Inuyasha, could you please pour the soap inside and push the start button, it's the big red one"
"Um…" the hanyou stared blankly after her.
"And don't forget to close the lid" she called before closing the door and ascending the second set of stairs.
Inuyasha looked down at the bottle of soap in his hand, and then stared at the washing machine, 'Did she do that on purpose?'
He walked over to the 'waste of space' as he so vehemently thought of it and looked at the pile of clothes inside. Kagome had said that the soap had to be poured on the clothes. But how much soap?
He shook the bottle, sloshing its contents around before deciding to use all of it. Kagome wouldn't have given him the whole thing if she hadn't wanted him to use it right?
Convinced with his reasoning, the hanyou proceeded to empty the liquid soap into the machine, sporting a satisfied grin on his face.
"Aah" Kagome sighed, closing the bathroom door behind her, "Thank god for modern plumbing". Using trees and bushes in the feudal era was getting sort of annoying, not to mention mortifying, especially with a pervert among them.
Now to go check on Inuyasha. But the sight that awaited her when she opened the basement door was horrifying. Soap suds everywhere! The whole place looked like some freaky water theme park. And right smack dab in the middle of all the chaos was Inuyasha who seemed to be…attacking the bubbles?
"What did you do?!" Kagome yelled, startling the half demon into slipping and falling flat on his butt.
"I didn't do 'nuthing" the half demon grunted as he tried to stand up, "It was this stupid machine!"
Oh right, blame the inanimate object, "Did you close the lid?"
"Of course I closed the damn lid, and pushed the start button just like you said!"
Right then Kagome noticed something floating at the base of the stairs; she went and picked it up. It was a completely empty bottle of detergent.
"You used all of the soap?!"
"You didn't tell me how much to use damnit!"
Oh right, blame this on her, wait…this was her fault. Stupid stupid Kagome!
She had to clean this place up before her mother got home. She steeled her resolve and stepped carefully on the soapy water, but being of a clumsy nature, the miko slipped and fell, "Gah!"
"Kagome!" Inuyasha lunged in her general direction with the intention of saving her from the bubble demons.
"No Inuyasha, wait! Ow!"
"Kagome stop squirming!"
"Inuyasha let go!"
"Iron reaver soul steal…!"
"Sit boy!"
Splosh! "Can't breathe…"
"Finally" Kagome sighed as she switched off the washing machine and looked around. The place looked like a disaster zone but at least the machine was turned off, now all they had to do was clean the place up. She looked down to find Inuyasha planted face first in the soap suds with one hand holding on to her leg.
Honestly, he was such a drama queen.
"I think we're almost done" the miko stated with satisfaction looking around. The place still looked a bit wet but the bubbles were all gone now. Everything smelt like detergent though, she hoped her mother wouldn't notice.
The clothes were in the drier, with all the soap Inuyasha had used, they were completely clean now. All she had to do was take them out once they were dry and put them in the basket next to the ironing board and the laundry would be done.
Right then, she noticed Inuyasha was staring at her with the strangest look in his eyes, they seemed to glow one second, then darken the next.
"What is it?" she asked him gently, almost afraid of his reply.
The hanyou was replaying the conversation he'd had with Miroku in his head. He'd said that his feelings for Kagome were obvious; did that mean Kagome could tell as well? She didn't look like she knew. But Miroku was right about one thing, he had to tell her how much he cared for her, how much he needed her, how much he wanted her to be his mate. He had to tell her before it was too late.
"Inuyasha?" Kagome called, growing worried at his silence.
"Kagome…" he started, but the hopeful, yet frightened look in her eyes deterred him, he couldn't just tell her like that. He needed the right moment. Kagome was always talking about the right mood, he needed to wait. But for now…
He smirked at her, "In what way was this easier than washing clothes the old fashioned way?"
The miko almost fell over. And here she was thinking he was going to spill his guts out to her or something. She would never understand guys.
"Oh shut up"
AN: - I had so much fun writing this chapter. I hope it showed. I think Inuyasha is starting to warm up to all these modern appliances ne?
Private messages have been sent to all the reviewers. You guys are the greatest!!
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Till next time...