Aaaaaaand…WE'RE BACK! I hate it how I haven't put in any good Kagome/Inuyasha scenes…well, not for awhile at least. So that's why this one's in. And believe me, writing it was frustrating. Writer's block…
Well, enjoy!
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Chapter 13 - Lies
"Good night, Kagome."
She turned around and began taking out her ponytail.
"Ahem. I said, good night, Kagome. When I say that, I expect you to reply the same, polite way!" He stepped closer and turned her around, to show her that he was serious.
"Good night." She whispered sharply.
He brought his hand up and it collided with her soft cheek, causing a red mark to appear.
Suo left and slammed the door, not at all caring that Souta was asleep.
Kagome sat on her bed. A tear escaped her and she fell on her pillow. No. She refused to cry. Kagome shut her eyes and 'counted sheep' until she drifted off.
A dream is but a fantasy; a fantasy that one creates to drown out reality.
Kagome almost had a dream, that is, until a loud crash brought her springing out of her bed.
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Chapter 14 - Barbeque
She didn't know whether Suo heard the noise or not, but she couldn't take the chance. So, rolling up her sheets and bedspread and tossing it out the window after tying it to her bed post, Kagome slowly made her way onto the window pane.
She looked down and gulped. Her stomach was twisting and turning and she felt a sudden urge to throw up. Kagome never did like heights.
Closing her eyes, the teenager lowered herself down the makeshift rope, praying to the Gods the knot wouldn't untie and send her tumbling towards the dirt.
Lucky for her, the almighty ones were on her side that night and decided to unknot the 'rope' at 3 feet above the ground.
She landed with a soft thud and a small gasp. In a moment, she was back on her feet and heading in the direction of the smoke rising above the trees.
She wasn't at all worried about what Suo would think, it wasn't as if he would catch her. After all, her bedroom door was locked and her lights were off. And as for Souta, he was probably still asleep. Kagome shook her head and smiled as she turned the corner and ran past her school. Souta needed at least four alarm clocks set at full blast jut to wake him up, and then three or four more men to drag him out of bed.
She stopped at Hikari Park and looked up at the many lamps hanging from the trees. She loved this park; and it just occurred to her, too. She hadn't been here since…well, she couldn't even remember. She knew it was a few years back, when her father was still alive.
Kagome walked down the brick sidewalk. As she did, she stared at the colored stones she was treading on. So beautiful. This park was always so lovely.
The wind blew and the swings squeaked and swung. Kagome stopped and stared. She smiled a sad, yet happy, smile. One might think it to be a depressing memory coming back to the young girl, and they'd be half right. The memory was not at all depressing, but a happy thought of the simple times when she and her family were…a family. She and her mom, her brother, and; she closed her eyes; her dad.
He was a great man, strict, but great. She loved him more than she did anyone else, even her mother. Sure, she spent most of her time with her, and her dad was always at work, usually she wouldn't see him all day for up to 4 days at a time. But he was always off on weekends. And when he was, the young Kagome would be the happiest girl in the world.
They went to this park maybe two or three times a weekend. She would sit on the swings and he would push her, and sometimes the other way around.
Kagome looked up at the slide.
The slide - where all the magic happened. She shook her head. Right. This is where she got her first kiss, and where her dad fell unconscious. Little Hiro… Kagome shivered whenever that name came up. What a sick, twisted, devious little boy. He stole Kagome's first kiss on the slide.
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Flashback
6 year old Kagome sat at the edge of the slide. She hated this part of the park. She absolutely loathed it. It was too high, and Kagome didn't do well at high places.
"Come on, Kagome. You can do it, try! We can go out for ice cream, okay?" a man with a kind face said encouragingly.
"No, I can't, papa! I tried, but I think you have to come and get me." Kagome frowned and crossed her arms. She did want that ice cream though…
"No can do, Kagome-chan." He chuckled while shaking his head. If he helped her down, how would she get over her fear of the slide?
Kagome looked at him incredulously. "What? But- Papa, I-"
"So sorry, honey, but my arms hurt, and I guess that means no ice cream." He shrugged his shoulders and sat down on the swing.
"But…aw…" Kagome pouted and inhaled deeply. She prepared herself for the trip down. The wind blew harshly, as if telling her not to go down. She looked at her papa.
He was smiling and leaning on the edge of the seat, waiting for her to go down like he was a hungry man waiting for his dinner to cook up in the microwave. He was eager to have his daughter succeed.
"Here goes." Kagome mumbled as she closed her eyes and straightened out her legs. Just as she arched forward and began to push back, a voice called out to her.
"Higurashi!" A boy's voice, to be precise. And Kagome knew exactly what boy that was.
Hiro Kirazaki.
"What is it, Hiro!" she said it as more of a demand than a question.
"Kagome!"
She shivered, she hated it when he called her by her given name.
"Kagome?"
"What?"
"Turn around!"
'No.' She thought bitterly. "No."
"Aww, come on, Kagome! Please?" the little boy pleaded.
"Hiro," Kagome turned around rapidly. "I said, nmph!"
Kagome's eyes widened as Hiro's lips collided with hers. This was not good. Not good at all.
Kagome remembered her mother saying something about a woman's first kiss, and how special it was supposed to be. Like her mom, for example. Hers was at the Tokyo Parade, when the fireworks went off. And her best friend, Sango's mom's was on the New Year.
Kagome's was on top of a slide with a who she thought was the world's most annoying boy. She didn't think he was ugly. Of course not. He was pretty cute. Actually, very cute. But extremely annoying.
Mr. Higurashi watched in amazement as his little daughter was being harassed by a boy who took this as a game.
He stood and calmly pushed the child away from Kagome and frowned at him.
"Young man! How would you like it if Kagome did that to you?" He asked with his hands on his hips.
Hiro shrugged. "I'd like it I guess. Kagome's pretty."
The older man sighed. "Who're you here with, kid?"
"Hiro. And I'm here with my dad." Hiro replied, correcting him. He said this as if Mr. Higurashi was asking him what his favorite color was.
"May I speak with him?"
"Yeah sure." With that, the young boy climbed down the ladder and ran off to find his father, while a teary-eyed Kagome sat on the slide staring at her feet.
Mr. Higurashi put a hand on her shoulder. "Shh…It's alright." He soothed, but inside he was screaming. His poor 6 year old was stripped of her first kiss; her innocence in a way.
"You the guy who yelled at my boy?" A large, hairy man came up to Kagome's father.
"Wha? I didn't yell at him-"
"Shaddup, you bastard!" And Mr. Higurashi was out light a light bulb.
End Flashback
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But there were better things than stolen kisses.
The two would go fishing; but of course Kagome would never even think about hooking those poor worms. She had tried once, and started crying, for she was only 4 at the time and thought she could hear them screaming and crying.
They would go swimming at the river an hour away from their house; and one time, Kagome had been so upset that she couldn't go to a pool party with her friends, her dad had gathered their towels, buckets, shovels, a picnic basket and a blanket, and a cooler full of drinks, and drove hours to a beach were Kagome had the time of her life. They built sand castles, swam, had a picnic, and Kagome had a four scoop ice cream cone for the very first time. On the way back home at around sunset, they sang travel songs and played traveling games until Kagome fell asleep.
He would carry her up to her room and turn her night light on. He had smooth, soft, voice that he would put to use on singing Kagome lullabies if she ever awoke.
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Kagome sniffled. She was sitting on the swing, swinging back and forth slowly, her feet never leaving the sand. How she got there was beyond her, but she let herself drift off into her thoughts again.
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She was 4 years old and Souta had just been born. She smiled at how little he was and thanked her parents that she wasn't as wrinkled as her little brother. That entire week of Souta's birth, Kagome felt jealous of the infant. He was getting much too much attention and she was receiving hardly any. But her father had sat her down and told her that, no matter what, she was the best thing that ever happened to him, and he would always love her more.
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Kagome smiled and allowed a tear to roll down her left cheek. She giggled softly at how silly her dad was, he would always find a way to make her laugh or smile and turn her sad world into a place of rainbows and magic.
Kagome stopped mid-laugh and frowned. She closed her eyes and tried to forget. Tried to think of something nice, something helpful. Everything always went wrong after she thought of her dad. She just wanted to forget. She just wanted to erase that memory, that painful reflection of the past that so haunted her all these years. She couldn't stand it. And Kagome did what any other confused 16-year-old would do after they'd believed they committed a crime…
She cried.
Kagome sat on the swing with her head in her hands and cried. She cried out in confusion, sadness, despair, and most of all, she cried out in hope of forgiveness for what she had done.
Another crash.
Kagome gasped and nearly fell off of the swing. She forgot all about the smoke and the noise that woke her up. Looking around, she spotted more smoke floating up to the heavens, ever so slowly. And in some strange way, she felt hypnotized. There she was, standing in a park she hadn't stepped foot in since her fathers death, at night, alone, and with nothing on but pajama bottoms and a tank top, watching the silver smoke dissolve into the midnight blue background.
It was beautiful…if you don't take into consideration that it's polluting your only source of life.
Crash. Again.
Kagome quickly snapped out of her trance like state and rushed toward the source. As she crossed the bridge, she noticed a figure standing by some sort of black; but this wouldn't be accurate for sure, for everything was pretty much black at this time of day; object. It was tall and round. The object, not the figure.
As she inched closer, she felt her knees give away as something jumped in front of her and threw her off track. Her rear hit the grass and she looked to the side at the critter that caused her to trip.
Silly rabbit.
She gasped. Now the figure was looking at her, and coming extremely close…if 10 or so yards was at all close.
She froze, if there was a record for being most still, Kagome would have for sure beaten it. She wasn't moving, breathing, or blinking.
"Ka-Kagome?" The figure, man stuttered.
Kagome gasped as she recognized that voice. And with a push off the ground, she was running and in his arms.
"Inuyasha! You scared me! I thought you were some lunatic and I thought he would- I thought I was- Inuyasha…" She squeezed his neck tighter and he blushed as a result.
"Kagome…what are you doing out here in the first place?" He hesitantly wrapped his arms around her. Kagome blushed this time.
She moved away after realizing she'd been gripping onto him like he'd been a lifeline. "Sorry…" She mumbled, embarrassed.
"N-no problem." Another blush. "So, you didn't answer me. Why are you out here?"
"Why am I- Inuyasha! Was that you who was making that noise?" She demanded an answer with her glare, if he could even see it.
"Uh! What noise?" He covered the black object up.
"The noise and the smoke!"
"Sorry to burst your bubble, Kagome, but there is no noise or smoke." He nodded.
Kagome smirked. "Then what's that?" she pointed to a swirl of gray fluff emerging from within the black thing Inuyasha was hiding.
"Uh!"
"Inuyasha! Come off it! Just tell me what you're hiding!"
Inuyasha sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "Barbeque…"
"What?" Kagome couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"I said, barbeque!" Inuyasha turned away. He heard some stifled noises and turned back around, only to face a laughing Kagome.
"Do you honestly mean to tell me that you've been barbequing out here? What're you trying to cook? The stars?" She giggled again.
Inuyasha's face flamed as he pouted and turned away once more. "No!"
Kagome sighed. "Sorry." She wiped away a tear. "Uh, do you need help?"
Inuyasha hesitated again, but nodded nonetheless.
Kagome smiled and stepped up behind Inuyasha and in front of the grill. "Okay. First you need the liquid lighter fluid."
"Uh…here." He handed her a can of the said liquid.
Kagome blinked. "This is still full, what did you use?"
Inuyasha pointed down at three empty cans. "That, why?"
Kagome's eyes widened. "Are you serious? The whole thing?"
Inuyasha nodded, "Yeah. Why?"
Kagome chuckled. That explained the noise and the smoke. "Pay attention. You drizzle a little on the top of the coal." She stopped. "First you need coal…"
She reached inside a bag of charcoal, a nearly empty bag of charcoal. She sighed and shook her head.
Hopeless.
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After she taught him the basics, and then the cooking methods, they had some nice chicken and ribs grilling and on a platter.
"So…Inuyasha." She helped herself to a drumstick that Inuyasha made her eat to show his thanks. Kagome loved chicken. "Why a barbeque? Now, I mean."
Inuyasha sat next to her. "I got into a fight with my dad and ran down to the park. He said we'd go camping, but we never did. He decided to stay late at work. I said some things I probably shouldn't have, too…"
"Oh…" Kagome nodded, but disagreed inside. So what if he stayed late? It was just one promise broken.
"He'd been saying that since I was 12, but he always found something else to do." Inuyasha attacked his ribs, one by one, devouring all but the bone - leaving a lovely barbeque sauce mustache and goatee.
Kagome swallowed. "You shouldn't be so upset at him, I'm sure he has a good reason why…" She trailed off as she wiped off the mess Inuyasha had made on his perfect face.
They both blushed deeply.
Inuyasha nodded. "Right, sorry."
Kagome smiled. "Why are you sorry? It's your dad. I'm mad at Suo all the time!"
"But he's not your dad." Inuyasha stared at her, sympathetically, forgivingly, pitifully, she didn't know.
"Yeah, well, I was mad at my dad a lot… I wish I wasn't though." Kagome held back tears.
And again, this memory just doesn't go away, does it?
"You okay?" He put a hand around her and she looked up, blushing like crazy.
"What? Oh! Yeah! Fine! Great! Never been better!" she rambled.
Inuyasha raised an eyebrow, but smiled. "'kay." He let her go and resumed his 'eating'.
Kagome smiled. Inuyasha made her feel better and she was grateful. She took another bite and sighed contently.
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"Come on, I'll walk you home." Inuyasha stuck a hand out to help her up.
Kagome reached for it and stood, hands still entwined. "Thanks, but I can do it myself. Suo doesn't know I'm out. And we had a fight earlier. I don't want him to get even more angry with me."
She smiled reassuringly.
Inuyasha nodded and let her go. Kagome began walking down the path, but changed her mind and hugged Inuyasha from behind as he was putting out the fire. "Thank you, Inuyasha."
And she ran home.
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Eeeh! I'm so excited! ...Not really. This chapter turned out terrible. I was hoping for romance, but not as much, and not as obvious... :sigh: I'm such a picky person...
More coming soon:)
Dragon