{.x.o.} | Rapture's Remorse | {.o.x.}
{x| Chapter 3: Relinquish |x}
"Get the fuck out!" He hollered once more, yes he said that he'd suffer through her presence for one hundred and sixty eight hours but he did not think that meant she would literally be staying with him for every single moment of that. He would not be able to deal with that. It had really only been a few hours but it was far too long all the same. She was fiddling with all his things, trying to 'clean-up'. He had everything in a very particular order and though it was not orthodox it worked just fine for him and if she kept picking up his discarded clothes and everything else then he'd never be able to find a damn thing.
"No," she stated stiffly as she flung another one of his many white shirts into the pile she had already collected, "when was the last time you did laundry?"
"You are going to drive me insane," he hissed with a swift yank he pried her arms out so she'd drop all his things, "get the hell out of my place or I swear—!"
"You are not violent," she countered just as she pulled her hands from his grasp, "you wouldn't do a thing to me."
"How the hell do you know?" He countered; he wasn't even so sure of that. He'd been in fist fights, he'd bashed a few skulls in, never a girls but… who the hell knew? He wasn't right, there was something profoundly wrong with him, who's to say he wouldn't hurt her? "And, to top that off, why are you doing all this? Why do you care what I do with my life? Is it some pious thing, some rite of religious passage where you have to save a soul? Do you get a twisted bliss from waltzing into other people's business and reconfirming it to what you would prefer?"
She simply pressed her lips together for that and set her hands upon her hips, it was a fair question, she supposed. "This has just as much to do with God as everything else does, no more, no less."
That was a bullshit answer, she said something but it meant nothing. Even she had to know that so he grumbled and walked over to the living room area of his studio, "will you just leave? OK? I don't know you, I really can't imagine why you'd want to bother. Do you not have something better to do? Don't you have a job?"
"I'm a registered nurse," she stated with a shrug, "I'm in-between jobs right now, so I haven't anything else to do, I assure you."
"Is that why you are bothering me?" He muttered with a glare, "go find another addict, there are a thousand out there. Any one of them needs your help more than I do." He didn't… have a right to be saved; he was doomed to the fiery pits of hell. He was certain there was a special circle in the farthest depths that was reserved for people like him; he'd been assured of that a thousand times. He believed it.
He deserved it.
"You don't know me, I don't know you, let's just leave it at that," he demanded definitely. The next thing he knew her hands were banging against his shoulders enough that he fell back against the couch, by the time he could his senses she was on his lap and grasping his hand to place it on her left breast. His ambers widened to a record width at that, seriously? That's what this was all about?
Tick, tock, it took a bit but he found a way to talk, "my… my services aren't free, ya' know."
"You know this," she declared as she pressed his hand more onto her, "that's enough."
Puzzlement etched its way into his expressions; his gaze couldn't help but fixate on his hand, thus, her boastful breast. "I know your breast?"
"No!" She gasped, "you know this."
"Look, lady I do know that I'm not free," he swallowed as he glanced away. "Do you want me to squeeze?"
"What? No!" She shrieked as she did just that to his hand, "you know this."
It didn't change however many times she said it, he simply did not comprehend. "Know what?" He countered with a cocked brow, it was painstaking but he pried his eyes up to her determined features.
"This," she emphasized.
"Your big breast?" He mocked, "I know breast well, I can probably make you hornier than belief with just—"
"Shut up, you perv," she sighed, "what else is there?"
Slowly, his baffled ambers moved down her neck, her cross catch his brief attention before her square white colored shirt then where his hand was. "Your… shirt?"
"Other than that," she groaned.
"Your boobs?"
"You are not this dense, are you?" She awed while her head fell back and rotate around before she dropped his hand and jumped off of him. Never mind, if he didn't get it then there was no point. Seriously, how could he not understand what she was getting at? Dense boys were the bane of every girl's existence. Herself included.
"I don't get it!" he called out as she picked up her sweater and headed towards the door with a roll of her eyes and a shake of her head.
"I'll see you later, OK?" she glanced at him as she opened the door; the most dumbfounded gaze was plastered across his agape face.
"Was that your way of trying to hit on me?" he jabbed all the same, he'd been trying to get her to leave for hours but now that he actually had the chance… well, he couldn't give up the chance to make fun of her of her miserable attempt. Though, it did get his lower extremities full attention all the same.
"No," she scoffed with a narrowed gaze, "I'm a devout catholic, have you already forgotten that? You were having such a jolly time making fun of me for that earlier."
"So you're a virgin?" he chuckled, there simply was no way someone that looked like her had never had sex. Particularly if she was truly old enough to already be a registered nurse, the very idea was outrageous yet she remained ever so silent as she stared at him firmly. His golden gaze grew grand, no, she… "you are?"
"I refuse to have sex until I get married," it was a straightforward statement and absolutely absent of any shame. His mouth fell open all the more. "I will see you later; please do not do anything dangerous over night. And don't worry," her shine returned to her smile as she sung, "I'll be back."
Somehow… he honestly didn't doubt that.
"What a weirdo," he muttered after he locked the door behind her, both of the bolts and slid the chain into place before he pulled out the red container in his pocket and popped out a pill. If having to suffer through that girl wasn't a good enough reason to use, he didn't know what was.
Then again… well, he didn't need to think of the logic behind his ways. He was ever so skilled at crushing the pill in a strong stone bowl, what many called a mortar, and the club-shaped utensil, a pestle, until the once whole white chunk was a fine dust. He jiggled the powder into his cup of instant coffee and drank a large sip right away.
It was like a lightning bolt, right to the brain. A buzz of electricity shot through his head and every worry, every nagging naughty thought, everything faded just like that.
He'd only relish in the feeling for an hour at most before he shot himself up with his other friend, his only real friend. The liquid that countered the solid, that made everything slow down… that allowed him to sleep without a dream.
[...]
"You seemed… distracted," Kaguya cooed as she traced her fingers up the center of his stomach, to his chest, all the way to his neck and back down, all the way down.
"Did not," he countered calmly, he gave just as much effort to his actions as he did all other times and that was saying something, because he worked harder for Kaguya than all others. It wasn't until after that he had time to lament over how his day had unfolded. She,that stupid girl, had showed up at his place, pounding on the door, at a god-awful hour. Who in their right mind is up at eleven? The world was ending if he ever bothered to roll out of bed before noon, let alone eleven. It was still in the a.m. for God's sake! He tried his best to pile enough pillows over his ears so that her constant shouts and slams didn't bother him but after a half hour it was useless, she wasn't going away. So he pulled on boxers—he preferred to sleep in the nude, he always got so damn hot at night—and yank the door open to a pissed girl, a bag upon a cup holder that held two to-go mugs in one hand and the other fixated upon her hip.
"The drinks are cold now," she sassed as she stormed past him and set the food upon the counter. "I noticed you didn't have anything to eat, so I bought some bagels on my way over. These are better for you than that cereal junk you have. Do you know how what high fructose corn syrup does to your body?"
He'd never passed up free food before, so why change it that time? His coffee was cold and she was lurking around him at all times so it took quite some effort to evade her eyes long enough to crush a pill and mix it into his drink—he had to go to his bathroom to do it! It was his place, why couldn't he do as he pleased in the open like usual? It was kind of a new record for him, an hour had gone by since he got up, he was currently fully stocked, and he hadn't downed a drug filled beverage. He didn't enjoy the experience and the jolt he got after the first sip made that agony go away.
Still refused to leave his all day, she just lingered about trying to coax this and that out of him. Trying to get him to change his mind about her, and trying to clean his goddamn place up. He was going to kill her, honestly, if she didn't stop that. He liked it as it was, he didn't want it clean. Nothing about his was clean so why should his place be any different?
He was dirty, inside and out.
She threw herself a little tantrum when he said he had to go, it probably wasn't hard for her to guess he had a job to go to. "It's not even dark," she grumbled. "We don't always work at night," he countered cockily before he pushed her out of his studio, locked up, and pretty much ran down the stairs and out of the place without her following him. The very last thing he needed was her bothering him at work. It was Kaguya who wanted to see him, too. He wanted to go as much as he ever did; it wasn't like it was that fat cow lady or some annoyingly clinging person.
She was probably his favorite, she understood there was a line that was never meant to be crossed and it probably never occurred to her to do so. He did his job well, she got her pleasure out of it, it was as simple as that. Nothing more needed to be added, nothing needed to be subtracted.
"If you say so," Kaguya's lull of a voice brought him back to the present as he turned his head to see her bright blue eyes right there. "You out of your candy, Shin-kun?"
Candy, he had never tried to deny his life's number one enjoyment to her. She figured it out the moment they met, it was his eyes, she told him, they were tainted from his use. It didn't matter to her, she didn't judge him, 'to each their own' she had assured him. Whatever got him through the day, if it was drugs, splendid for him, it was sex for her. Mind-fucking, body-numbing, bliss-bring organisms.
"That's good for me," he had joked and she had smirked, that's how he knew they'd get along.
"Nope," he retorted, "I'm fully stocked."
"Ah," she muttered as she rested her chin against his chest, "Shin-kun, you know mixing uppers and downers is a bad idea, don't you?"
Now, she' never judge him, but God forbid the woman doesn't give her opinion on just about anything.
"I've heard," he murmured back.
"You are going to fuck up your system beyond belief someday," she shook her head as she sat up and reached for her discarded bra. "It'll be a tragedy; I'll have to find a new boy-toy."
"That's the plan," he whispered to himself as he crawled out of bed to recollect his clothes and slowly put them on. Another bonus about being with Kaguya was the sweet, sweet, fact that she had already paid Kagura her portion of his proceeds so the hanyou didn't need to go see the bitch.
"I hope that pays the rent," Kaguya jested as she nodded towards the bulge in his pocket, his well earned reward.
"Oh, it is," he assured. Two sessions with Kaguya and he had the rent for the month collected, the only truly decent thing he could think of in all his life was rather pathetic. He'd never been able not to pay for rent since he moved into that studio. It was the small things in life that were meant to matter the most, wasn't it? "See ya'."
"Not for a while, Shin-kun," she taunted with a wink as she slid on her lace panties, "I'm afraid I'll be going overseas on business."
"That sucks," he sighed, she was truly the only one he consistently enjoyed seeing.
"It does," she pouted right on back, "but I'll call you up the very night I return, I assure you. For the entire night, too."
He grinned as he slid his shirt on, that was good. A whole night equaled a lot more cash, which meant he'd have enough money for his next fix. That is, if that stupid mummy man didn't jack up the prices again.
He liked the hotel they met at, too, it was pretty damn high class and most of the staff knew what he was and would always give him that look as he walked in to meet Kaguya in the same suite as always. He just grinned his cocky smirk to them all the same. It was the very place he never belonged…
"Oh my, you take forever," he cringed instantly, stopping in the dead center of the lobby with clenched shut eyes. That wasn't… that couldn't… he rigidly turned to see a bored Kagome sitting on the round bench in the center of the elaborate entrance.
"How…?" he gawked.
"Oh, please," she sassed as she sat up straight and crossed her legs, "she's the one I have a picture of you with."
"You creepy little stalker," he grunted as he shoved his hands in his pocket and headed out, he wasn't shocked at all when she caught up to his side.
"Do you really like doing your job? She's pretty, that lady, but I can't imagine all of them are—"
"Stop," he sighed, "I don't feel like it right now, alright?" He felt like crushing a pill and possibly snorting it, that was a straight-shot to his brain, or taking a nap. The former seemed far more pleasurable than the latter.
She pressed her lips together and looked ahead as they walked the crowded streets of Tokyo; the sky had shifted to a fading orange with hues of purple. "I'm hungry," she stated bluntly before they got too far. "You must be famished, eh?"
"Not really," more to the point, he didn't want to spend his new money on anything but the rent… or a new red bottle. His clear joy would be good in a few days with the way he was going, too.
"Come on," she seemed to completely disregard him as she grasped his arm and pulled him towards one of the many restaurants and straight into one of the higher classed ones, "a table for two."
"I said I'm not hungry," he grumbled to her under his breath. He didn't even have to bother to look at the hostess to know that she, too, was giving him that look. The 'you surely shouldn't be here, mutt' subtle glare.
"The wait will be a while," the hostess assured sweetly.
"Really? Because from here I can see a few tables open and cleaned," Kagome countered as she glanced behind the elegant looking girl, she was probably a failed model.
"Those are… on reserve."
"Really?" Kagome kept up once her hazels snapped back to the obviously blonde dyed girl, "should I talk to your manager? I mean, we could make this easy, you could just seat us or I could just make a scene and believe me when I say that I can make one awfully big scene. I'm sure the people in the streets might even hear and who would have thought such a fine restaurant would discriminate against any paying customer but if you'd rather I do that—"
"Hold on one moment," the hostess plastered on her phony smile as she slipped away from her black podium and headed over to an elder man in the back.
"Seriously, let's just go," Inuyasha urged in a hush but Kagome only shoved his shoulder and ignored him until the hostess came back and picked up two menus.
"Right this way," she nodded before she led them to one of those empty tables. Her faultless fake façade faltered when Kagome's sweet smile did not flinch a bit as she sat down, took the menu, and opened it up even going so far as thanking her for showing them to their seats.
"Why did you do that?" Inuyasha harshly whispered to her form across the table, he hadn't even bother to open the menu. This place was far too expensive; surely he had better things to spend his money on.
"Why did I do what?" She hummed as her hazels moved about the thick, black, two paged menu. Why'd they have to make it look so fancy why they didn't have much of a selection to start out with?
"Don't play stupid," he hissed, "we didn't need to come here, Miss Expensive Tasted."
"I would rather have an expensive tasted than a taste for drugs," she murmured to herself almost low enough that it got passed his ears, almost. "Anyway," she chimed to stop his sure to be rude retaliation, "it's not fair at all for them to judge us. No one has a right to judge others, in any manner, particularly a condescending one. In the end, God's the only one that can decided what will become of us, whether we were good or bad, whether we deserve to be praised or punished. That lady hadn't any right to blatantly deny us entry just because we don't look like the normal customers. It just bothers me so much when I run into people like that. I couldn't help myself, I'm sorry if it was embarrassing."
Not once did she bother to look away from her menu as she said that and her calm of a tone never altered, either. What got him the most was the mere fact that she continuously said 'we' and never 'you', she looked like the proper crowd to be in there, he did not. She knew that, too, she had to.
"I'm paying," she remarked after she glanced up to see he hadn't bothered to examine his menu. "Eat something, you are far too slim, you obviously do not eat enough. Consider it charity."
"I hate charity," he grunted.
"Well, you are going to eat food. If I must order for you so be it," she said in a highly matter-of-fact tone as she shut her menu and sat it down to meet his glare openly.
"I don't like you," he grumbled bitterly.
"I don't care," she pleasantly proclaimed.
"I don't get you," he muttered.
"I don't care," she said all the same while she turned her head to greet the waiter, "two teas and two waters, please."
"Of course," he replied with a bow of his head and promptly turned on his heels to go away.
"I don't drink tea," Inuyasha declared as he leaned back in the chair.
"You should, it's good for you, and how can you be oriental and not like tea?" she teased.
"Keh," he heard that often but it didn't change the fact that it tasted like leaves, and who wanted to drink something that tasted like a tree? Now coffee was a grand western tradition that he openly accepted, not only did it give him an energy boast—on top of being a drug addict, he had become a devout caffeine junkie—but it also was the best host from his white powder friends.
"You're… proud," she seemed to agonize over her choice of words as her eyes wondered over his body, "most people… like you, wear long sleeves all the time, it's cold enough to do so for certain and you do own sweaters, I saw them in your closet yet… here you are, in a short-sleeve T-shirt showing all your marks as if you are not ashamed at all."
All his rewards from his loyal years of independently medicating himself, the dots that would never go away on the inside of his elbows… what she didn't know, what he could never confess, was that he needed to be medicated. He needed to have his nasty needs surprised and if no doctor would do it, then why not save humanity at large and do it himself? If it weren't for the glaring fact that he hated to talk to people that he detested people sticking their nose into his business and if he felt he deserved saving, he might have admitted himself to a mental institute long ago.
There was something twisted and wrong about him, there was something that made him the monster all those he ever cared for declared he was, wouldn't a place like that be able to fix him?
He didn't warrant forgiveness, he didn't merit being fixed.
"What do you want me to say to that? Sorry?" he retorted as he folded his arms upon his chest, "cause I ain't."
He didn't even notice the return of the waiter or that he had already placed the glasses on the table, he just barely caught the end of what Kagome was saying before he smiled, said 'yes, ma'am,' and left once more.
"Of course not," apparently, she heard him all the same, "you needn't be ashamed, many of the same problem. Let me help you."
"No," he muttered, "I like my problem, leave it be."
She pressed her lips together before she sighed and lean back in her chair, "then… when this week ends—"
"I'll tell you 'no' and you'll be out of my life," he grinned for the first time since the entered the overly romantic atmosphere.
Her petit lips turned down to pout, "I was going to say, just let me stay."
He cocked a brow at that, stay?
"I won't try to 'fix' you but… do you have any friends? Wouldn't you like one?"
"Keh, I'm not stupid, lady, you are just going to pretend to be my 'friend' and try to 'fix' me all at once," he gripped.
"No, if I truly became your friend it would be my duty to help you. It's sad you're all alone…"
"I'm perfectly fine with it."
"Then that's worse," she countered while her brows bent to create unnatural wrinkles upon her head, "everyone should have someone."
"I'm better off without," and he meant that, truly, from the depths of his wrecked soul. If no one was close to him, if no one was around him, then… he couldn't corrupt them, he couldn't warp them, he couldn't be the one to pave their road to damnation. If this girl stuck with him, he'd do all of that and more. She wouldn't fix him, he'd just break her. And how ease would it be to corrupt someone with such candor innocence? It wouldn't even take effort, not that he ever meant to…
"I don't believe that," she mumbled, "no one is meant to be alone. God created Eve so that Adam would not have to suffer such a fate."
"Stop it," he scowled, "I don't believe in anything in that stupid book, so don't even try it."
"In a literal sense, neither do I," she relished briefly in the shock that cascaded across his façade, "I do not believe we are all descendents of Adam and Eve, I do not believe that every story in the Bible is the truth. I believe they are all meant to be interpreted, I prefer to think against the common Catholic conscious and say it should be interpreted independently. That the church hasn't really a right to tell us how we should understand the Bible. To me, they are just moral guidelines, but I think what's important about the tale of Adam and Eve is just that. No one is meant to be alone; God has created someone for everyone, just like he did for them. Eve was created for Adam, and Adam was meant for Eve."
He… could not argue with her, if she didn't truly believe that everyone was somehow descendents of just two people then he hadn't anything to ridicule her about. If he wasn't such a stubborn bastard, he might have actually taken what she said to heart—after all, even to him, it made sense.
"I ordered for you, I hope you like it," Kagome adorably smiled as a fancy meal upon a clean white plate was placed before Inuyasha just like one was for her, "please eat."
She started in on her meal right away and he couldn't die that it smelled good and he was hungry, Kaguya always took all of his energy.
"This is actually good… what is it? What type of restaurant is this, anyway?"
"It's French," she stated, "and that's Foie Gras."
"That doesn't help," he grunted after another fork full, "what type of meat is this?"
She waited for him to have another bite, her smile growing all the more, "it's duck liver."
Just like she expected his eyes almost bulged out of his head and he automatically spat whatever was in his mouth out into his napkin, a joyful giggle broke out of her then. "You little bitch!"
"Please don't do that," she requested in between her fits of laughter, "liver is so very good for you, and you said it yourself, it taste good."
"You little," he growled again all the same with tightly clenched firsts.
[...]
"I don't want to go out," Inuyasha grumbled as he tugged away from her hand but she had quite the grip for such a small thing, he couldn't seem to free himself and she was working awfully hard to pull him forward.
"We already out," Kagome countered with another yank, "you said you'd give me a week, tomorrow's the last day, you should just allow me to do as I please!"
"I said I'd put up with you for a week, I did not say I'd do shit with you," he countered coarsely. Again, again, she followed him to work and was waiting in the love-hotel's entrance for him to come out. How the hell did she keep finding him?
"You're crude," she sighed, finally allowing him to free his hand and halt. "Look… if you put up with my antics for today I'll let you off a day early, alright?"
"You mean tonight I get tell you to 'fuck off' and you'll listen? I'll never have to deal with you again?" He grinned at the very thought and at her simple nod of an answer, "fine, deal."
She shook her head ever so slightly as she spun around, clasping her hands behind her back as she began to walk for and, reluctantly, he followed.
"Don't you have a date for today or somethin'?"
"No," she replied as she tilted her head just so she could barely look back at him, "I'm not very familiar with Tokyo, I'm from Nikko. I just recently moved here so I don't really know anyone here. Big cities can be so lonely; I don't know what their appeal is."
"Why'd you move here if you don't like cities?"
"Why indeed," she muttered to herself before she stopped at a sidewalk café, "I'm thirsty, how about you?"
"I could use some coffee," and his special pick-me-up in it, too. They each ordered before she picked a seat for them, he couldn't help but notice how her hazels were glued to her tea and little else.
"I'm not a fan of valentine's day," she confessed while her eyes slowly moved up to him, "our version is better than the western one, I suppose. Girls only have to give guys chocolates and such, it would be far worse if both sexes were meant to exchange gifts and be all lovey-dovey."
"You seem like the type that'd like that 'lovey-dovey' shit," he retorted after his second swig of his ever so special coffee. It had gotten awfully difficult to find any time during the day when she was lurking around so he had to endure popping the pills whole into his mouth while she was distracted and that simply did not do, not only did he feel like he had to use more to get the same affect but it took forever to kick in. Only last night did he figure a way around that, he had crushed up a few pills, tore open portable one-serving sugar packet and replaced the actual sweet powder with his preferred version. All he had to do after that was glue it shut again and he was good to go, he could just pretend to be pouring sugar into his coffee. She'd never know the difference.
She simply sighed, "I guess I'm just jealous of all these couples. I probably would love the holiday if I had a boyfriend."
He loved the holiday in general; he'd seen four clients, two last nights and two that morning. People without a lover to share the day with were always miserable and those that usually wouldn't would break down and call in people like him to service the needs that they otherwise wouldn't be satisfied with. When he got back to his studio complex he could pay the landlord that month and the next's rent in full. What a relief.
"You're a pretty girl," he stated, it wasn't like it was meant to be a compliment or anything, "you could get a guy. Besides, men freak out over virgins."
"Stop that," she whispered harshly as her cheeks flushed, "you are so crude."
"I'm just sayin', it's not hard, let it slip on the second date or something that you're a virgin and the guy will go all gaga over you."
"Stop it," she repeated as she shut her eyes. "Let's put that aside."
"Fine," he couldn't help but grin all the more, she'd been making his life miserable the past six days, it was the least he could do to make her uncomfortable. "Why do you want to spend today with me so damn bad?"
"I don't know," she sighed as she lifted her cup to take her first sip, "I just figured since you don't have anyone to spend the day with and since I don't then…"
"This isn't a date, right?" he cringed.
"No," she retorted with a glare, "can't you be nice to me for once?"
"You're the one who came barging into my life, why should I?" he countered cruelly, "for all I care, you can shove that precious necklace of yours down your throat."
Her fingers automatically glided up to her simple golden chain with a small matching cross, somehow instead of snapping and yelling at him like he had figured she would her eyes only softened on him, "you wouldn't want me to do that."
"Believe me, I kinda do."
She didn't reply to that, her eyes just moved down from his to his clothes. A red zip-up hoddie—one he apparently wore nearly every day—with a white shirt below it—another everyday occurrence—and a pair of rather worn jeans and sneakers. She got the feeling that if he could walk around barefoot, he would. If he made so little that that's the type of thing he had to wear? Why'd he do what he did?
"I don't think I'm ever going to get married," she randomly muttered midway through their session, he had already finished his coffee while she was only half-way done with her tea.
It had been a while since she said anything and still her fingers refused to stop fiddling with her necklace. It had to be because of the day that she said that, the ever so 'romantic' time of the year it was meant to be, "then you'll die a virgin? That's a downer."
She rolled her eyes, "why's it always 'sex' with you?"
"Fine," he grunted, "then why do you think you'll never marry?"
She pressed her lips and shook her head before she let her gaze wonder up to the tall buildings that surrounded him.
Fine, if she didn't want to answer, he didn't care, "don't worry, life fucks us all so no one really dies a virgin."
"Crude, again," she murmured.
"It's true," he stated all the same.
"Life is not fair, if that's what you mean, then I agree."
"Really?" Suspicion coated his words bluntly as he narrowed his gaze on her. Miss Happy-Dappy didn't seem so pleased today, did it really bother her that much that she was boyfriend-less on the couples inclusive holiday? "Why do you say that? 'Cause you don't have a boyfriend?"
"No," she retorted as she looked back to him, "I could probably get a boyfriend if I really tried. I just say that because… well, isn't it obvious? Bad things happen to good people every day, how is that fair? Child are orphaned, good people get conned and lose everything, bad people get to become rich CEOs, lovers are separated and forgotten…"
"So then how can you believe in God if you know all that's true?"
"What does God have to do with any of it?" She replied a bit blankly, "he gave us free will, all the bad in the world is a consequence of that. I do not know if He has a plan for all of us and I wouldn't dare say I know how He works. So how can you?"
"Stupid girl," he sighed with a shake of his head, "were your parents catholic?"
"Yes."
"No wonder, you were brainwashed to believe all that," he muttered with a fold of his eyes.
"Even if that's true…" she finally let her fingers fall from her necklace, "I would rather have faith than be like you."
His brows furrowed in retaliation.
"I would rather believe there is more good than bad, I would rather believe that when life is over we will all find peace. It's important to me to believe in a blissful afterlife that makes up for any suffering we went through during our lives. I… I would be lost without faith; wouldn't life be empty if there was no heaven or hell? How miserable would it be if this was truly all there is? That once we die that's it, we're no more. I want to believe in a soul. It gives me peace."
"Too bad," he grumbled, "I'd rather think this is it."
"Why?"
If there was a heaven and hell, he'd be doomed to the latter. "Just 'cause."
"I have something for you," she chimed, completely changing the subject as she leaned over to pull out a small red square box from her purse and setting it on the table. "Seeing as you are one of the few males I know in Tokyo and this is Valentine's Day, I figured I should give you chocolate. I know that it's better if girls make it ourselves but believe me, you don't want me cooking you anything."
Her laugh caught him just as off guard as the gift she slid him, chocolates. How long had it been since he got chocolates from someone who wasn't a client? Not since… no, he didn't want to think about it.
He wanted those fading memories to finally disappear.
"Thanks…" he muttered regardless as he picked up the small container, "I'm not really a fan of sweets but… thanks anyway."
"Really?" Kagome awed, "but the way you bombard your coffee with sugar, I just thought…"
'Sugar', right, "no, it's alright. I… thanks," he didn't really know what else to say.
"You are welcome," she replied with her sweet smile that could make angel's sing. "I don't really have anything else for us to do… so, if you want, I could leave. You could be free from my 'nagging'."
His ambers moved from her to the red box, it was probably a real trick for her to give him it right then. He'd have to be a true bastard to tell her to get lost now… well, if it was a ploy, it worked.
"I don't want to be fixed… I don't want your help," he stated and she nodded as she slid her purse onto her shoulder, her eyes avoiding him all the while with the smallest of frowns, "but… if you swear you'll stop trying to clean my place, you can come around every now and then."
"Really?" She gleamed as her eyes snapped to him, "you mean it?"
"If you don't touch my stuff," he grunted, "then I'll allow it."
"OK, it's a deal," she laughed, "I'm so happy, thank you, Inuyasha!"
Somehow, he felt he was going to regret that decision… but for a moment, he allowed himself something akin to a happiness he hadn't felt in ages. Even a devil deserved a chance, right? Just one… what could go wrong?
A/N: Thank you for all the reviews, they are wonderful :)
I don't want to say it... I'd hate to ruin anything but I'm going to nevertheless, this story will become rather twisted, very, actually. So you've been warned.
Also, if you haven't taken the poll on my profile please do so, it's once again at a tie. It'll take you less than a minute and I'd be very grateful. Thank you for reading and I hope you continue to enjoy R&R. This has become my favorite story to right thus far, I'm so excited for it.