Chapter Three
Inuyasha tapped his foot impatiently as he listened to the ringing phone. He was in the sun room at his mother's house waiting to take her to Arisakawa. "Hello?" she finally answered.
"Kikyo!" he exclaimed. "Don't hang up."
"Only if your calling to propose," Kikyo replied.
"I thought you loved me," Inuyasha said.
"I do, but—"
"No buts," he interrupted. "Either you do or you don't. I told you from the beginning that we could never get married, that my demon side wouldn't recognize you. You said you didn't care, that you'd be with me no matter what."
"I know what I said," Kikyo snapped. "But what do you expect me to do; be your mistress for the rest of my life? How can I be happy like that? And how do you know your demon side won't accept me? You haven't even tried."
"It is said that youkai will recognize their mate immediately. Our eyes will be drawn to them, their scent will entice, their voice to us is like music to the wild beast, and we will long to touch, taste, and possess them."
"How poetic," Kikyo said dryly.
"That's Mom's interpretation of Dad's explanation. A mate is everything to youkai. But I'm hanyou. Just because the demon part of me accepts someone doesn't mean that my human side will too. My heart will always belong to you," he swore.
"Then why not just forget about finding a mate and take me as your wife and mate?"
"Because marking someone who the demon in me doesn't recognize means death for that person. And I don't what will happen when I find my mate, but I'm sure if we were married you wouldn't like it."
"That goes both ways," she reminded him. "How do you think your future wife/mate will feel about you being with me?"
"I don't care," Inuyasha said immediately. "You're the one I've chosen; you're the one I love."
"Inuyasha," she sighed.
"I love you Kik," he murmured. "No one but you. You believe me, don't you?"
"Yes," she said after a long pause. "I believe you." She laughed a little. "I've really missed you. Can we get together, today maybe?"
"That would be..." he trailed off when his eyes set on the folder from the school and remembered the woman with the intriguing scent that his mother didn't want him to meet. "not possible," he continued. "Mom's going to tour some school she's interested in and I told her I'd go. I have no idea how long it might take."
"Alright," Kikyo said disappointed. "Call me later then. Love you."
"I love you too, bye." He hung up just as his mother walked in.
"Who was that?" Izayoi asked.
"No one you know," Inuyasha answered. "Are you ready?"
"Yes, let's go."
88
Kagome was striding down the hall toward her office when the walkie-talkie/cellphone clipped to her belt chirped. "Hello," she said briskly.
"Higurashi-san, your 10:45 is here."
Kagome blanked for a moment then swore under her breath. "Show her into my office. I'm almost there." She replaced the phone on her belt and sped up. "Izayoi-san," she said bursting into her office. "I'm sorry but—" she stopped abruptly when she realized that instead of Izayoi there was a silver haired golden eyed man in the chair in front of her desk. "I—ah, you are not Izayoi-san," she said stupidly.
"Over here, darling." Kagome turned to see Izayoi standing in front of her bookcase. "It's lovely to see you again," she said as Kagome crossed over to her. "But you look a little bedraggled."
"Hmm?" Kagome glanced at herself in the mirror on the wall and had to fight the urge to bury her face in her hands and groan. Her hair was falling out of it's once elegant bun and sticking to the sweat on her face and neck. Looking down she saw that her feet and the bottoms of her black slacks were damp and slightly muddy. She wondered where her shoes were then remembered she kicked them off in the chaos. "Uh," she let out an embarrassed laugh. "Today's not the best day for a tour. I believe I mentioned that Arisakawa accepts both human and youkai students?" Izayoi nodded. "Someone has declared war on a pair of demon brothers who tend to bully others. Between you and me they probably deserve it, but things are getting a little out of hand."
"How so?" asked the man at her desk, startling her. Kagome had forgotten he was there and now that she remembered she wanted to sink into the floor.
"This is my son Inuyasha," Izayoi introduced belatedly. "Inuyasha this is Higurashi Kagome."
They both mumbled polite nothings. "Well, one of the brothers was pinned to the floor with a statue while the offender removed the few hairs he had on his head. Hair that he was quite proud of. Then he tried to bust a pipe over the head of the other brother but ended up drenching a neko youkai who hates water and preceded to go on a rampage. Now the entire first floor of the middle school building is flooded, Manten is still trapped, there are crying mushrooms everywhere and now one can find the culprit. Who, I'm prettty sure, is an elementary student by the name of Shippo." Kagome crossed over to her desk and sat down with a sigh. "In any case I'm at my wits end and today is just not the best day for a tour."
Inuyasha sat back in his chair and studied the woman in front of him. She wasn't very remarkable. She did have rather striking eyes but other than that she was ordinary. His mother's description of "quite lovely," was stretching it. At best she was pretty and definitely didn't compare to the rare beauty of Kikyo. So why hadn't he been able to keep his eyes off her since she entered the room? And that scent, it was simply extraordinary. Inuyasha had to fight the urge to take deep gulping breaths of it. "Maybe I can help," he found himself saying. "If you have something of the boy's with you."
Kagome looked confused but Izayoi brightened and clapped. "Wonderful idea Inuyasha," she said. "Inuyasha is half Inu youkai. He could track the boy's scent and find him for you."
"Really?" Kagome asked skeptically. Inuyasha nodded. "I wouldn't want to impose," she said. "But it would be a really big help. Are you sure?"
"I offered didn't I? Do you have something of the boy's?"
"Um, I confiscated a spin top from him earlier today. Will that do?"
"Yeah," Inuyasha grunted. Kagome grabbed the toy out of a desk drawer and walked around the desk to give it to him. He took it without touching her and gave it a tentative sniff. He easily separated her scent from that of the boy's sweet mossy scent. "Take me to the building where he last was."
"Okay, right this way." Kagome led the way out of the building to a golf cart. "The campus is so big that a lot of us use these to get around. She explained. She got into the driver's seat while Inuyasha insisted his mother take the seat next to her. Then he climbed onto the seat in the back behind Kagome, angled sideways so he could see out of the front of the cart. As they rode the wind sent her scent streaming back at him and he couldn't resist leaning forward to sniff the back of her neck. When he did he noticed how delectable the skin of her neck looked. He didn't even realized he'd leaned even closer and was about lick her until they drove over a bump that brought him back to reality. He cleared his throat and asked, "Are we almost there?" He didn't know how much longer he could take being buffeted by her scent before he'd have to touch her.
"What?" she asked.
Sighing he leaned close to her ear, "Are we almost there?"
"Oh, almost," she said pitching her voice so it would be heard over wind. Truthfully she'd heard him the first time, but she couldn't help but wonder how his breath would feel on her ear. It was warm and moist. And his voice, it was already amazing, but hearing it that close made her shiver. She pulled up at the middle school building. "Will water hamper your tracking? It's pretty flooded in there."
"It might, is there anyway to avoid it?" Inuyasha asked.
"Well someone reported seeing someone jump out a second story window, but..."
"Is this Shippo kid human or Youkai?"
"Youkai, he's kitsune," Kagome answered.
"Then he could have gone out a window."
"Okay, I can take you to the classroom in question. You may want to roll up your pants. The first floor is flooded." Inuyasha looked down at his khaki slacks and expensive shoes. Then he sighed and rolled up his pants and took off his shoes. He wasn't wearing socks.
"I think I'll stay here and guard the cart," Izayoi said glancing down at the dainty heels. "You two run along."
"We'll try to be quick," Kagome promised. She was nervous at the prospect of being alone with Inuyasha. When the entered the building Inuyasha could see that there had been chaos. The hall lights were out and the only light came from the open classroom doors. There were a few students with mops and buckets half-heartedly swishing the water around while other splashed and ignored their scolding teachers. Many of the lockers were deeply dented and a few of the doors hung on their hinges or lay in the water.
"What happened to the lockers?" Inuyasha asked.
"Nari happened," Kagome said dryly. "The neko youkai that got drenched," she explained when he looked puzzled. "This way." She led the way up two flights of stairs and down a hall to a classroom. "Forgive me for interrupting, Akitoki-sensei," she said poking her head in the doorway.
The teacher looked up from the papers he was reading. "Ah, Kagome! My student's are at lunch. You're not interrupting."
"Good," Kagome walked in with Inuyasha behind her.
"Isn't he kind of familiar," Inuyasha muttered.
"We're childhood friends," Kagome explained. "This is Akitoki Hojo," she introduced. "Hojo-kun this is Takahashi Inuyasha. He's going to help us find Shippo."
"That's great," said Hojo standing to shake Inuyasha's hand. "School is no place to be barefoot, Higurashi-san," he scolded teasingly. "Where are your shoes?"
"Somewhere on the first floor," Kagome laughed. "Angry Nari, wet floors, and heels just don't mix."
"Rough day, huh?" Hojo reached up and brushed some hair away from her face. Inuyasha squashed the urge to growl possessively and cleared his throat instead.
"Which window was it?" Kagome asked.
"First one on the right," Hojo answered. Inuyasha walked over and gave the window a few tentative sniffs. There was still a bit of the candy moss scent lingering. "What is he doing?"
"Tracking Shippo's scent." Kagome sighed and leaned her head on Hojo's shoulder. "I don't know what I'd be doing if he hadn't offered to. I was running out of ideas." Hojo patted her cheek in sympathy and Inuyasha actually felt a growl starting before he stopped it.
"He was definitely here," Inuyasha said.
"Wonderful," said Kagome straightening. "I guess we can go back down and you can track him from outside."
"No need," Inuyasha said holding a hand out to her.
"What do you mean?" Kagome asked hesitantly putting her hand in his. An electric current seemed to run through both of them at first contact.
"We'll go out the way he did, come on." He pulled her closer and knelt. "Get on my back."
"Wha-what?"
"Hurry up, we don't have all day."
"Um, okay."
As soon as she was on his back Inuyasha knew it had been a bad idea. But he could tell that the Hobo guy had the hots for Kagome and for some reason that bothered him. He couldn't resist the urge to bait the little twit. After making sure her legs were secure around his waist he climbed on to the windowsill and, sending the shocked teacher a rakish smirk, he jumped. Kagome screamed, she couldn't help it. Inuyasha just flattened his ears to his head and enjoyed the free-falling sensation. He landed with a solid thunk bending his knees to absorb some of the impact. Izayoi clapped from where she stood beside the cart.
"I give you a ten," she called. Inuyasha waited for Kagome to climb off his back then bowed to his mother.
"I'd give you a hundred," Kagome said wobbling a little unsteadily. "I never want to take the stairs again." Inuyasha put a hand on her shoulder and grinned down at her. She smiled back and for a moment he was lost in her eyes. "We should, um, go now," Kagome said.
"Yeah," Inuyasha looked away and shook his head to clear it. He closed his eyes and breathed deep but only smelled Kagome. "Could you move away from me, all I can smell is your perfume."
"Perfume?" Kagome said confused. She raised one shoulder and sniffed it. "I'm not wearing any."
"Just back away a few steps."
"O-okay." She backed away.
Inuyasha took a few more deep breaths and finally caught the scent. "This way," he said. Kagome followed him to the back of the building and toward the gymnasium. Every now and then he would stop and sniff again. They went into the building and into the main gym. Inuyasha stopped beside a pile of soccer balls. "He's in here somewhere. Hey, I bet I can hit the far wall with one of these balls."
"What?" the sudden shift in topic caught her off guard.
"Watch." He pulled back a foot but before he could follow through there was a pop and the ball became a boy with reddish brown hair. He tried to run but Inuyasha steeped on his tail making him cry out.
"Takahashi-san, what are you doing?" Kagome exclaimed. She gave him a push and bent down to scoop up the crying boy.
"He's not hurt," Inuyasha scoffed. "I didn't even put any weight on him."
"Still, that's not how we treat students here." Kagome turned away from Inuyasha then held Shippo at arms length. "Well, what do you have to say for yourself?"
"They deserved it," was his answer. Kagome continued to stare at him until he looked away guiltily. "Manten has a fox pelt and Hiten said that it's my father and they killed him."
"Shippo," Kagome sighed. "I understand how that would upset you, but you handled it the wrong way. You should have told an adult. Now I'll have to call the orphanage director—"
"Don't," Shippo whimpered.
"I have to. Manten's been pinned in one spot for an hour now, you terrorized Nari, and you've caused a lot of damage to the school."
"Please," Shippo pleaded.
"I have no choice, Shippo." She set him down. "Now we're gonna go free Manten and then straight to my office. If you run off again you won't like the consequences." Shippo's shoulders drooped and he began slowly walking.
"Is that it?" Inuyasha asked her in an undertone.
"There's not much else I can do," Kagome replied. "Billing the orphanage for the damage wouldn't do any good, and neither would expulsion. He will be punished, I'll probably assign him community service work. I wish I didn't have to call the orphanage. There's something about the director that I just don't like." They followed Shippo out and back to the middle school building. "Shippo go free Manten then come back here. Make sure a teacher is present." She and Inuyasha went to the golf cart where Izayoi waited. "Thank you very much, Takahashi-san," Kagome said bowing deeply. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to give you a tour Izayoi-san."
"It's fine," Izayoi answered. "What will you do now?"
"Well, I have to call the orphanage, then I'm going to go home so I can change clothes and get some shoes."
"Have you had lunch?"
"Not yet, that's on the agenda too."
"Why don't you come to lunch with us?" Izayoi said. She turned to Inuyasha. "We could go to Myazawa's sandwich place. We haven't been there in a while."
"Whatever," Inuyasha shrugged. Inside he was struggling to be annoyed with the thought of spending even more time with Kagome.
"I don't know," Kagome hedged.
"Please?" Izayoi batted her lashes. Kagome laughed and nodded.
"I guess I can take a short lunch. If you'll give me directions I'll—" she stopped and sighed.
"What's wrong?"
"My car's in the shop. It won't be ready until school lets out."
"We'll drive you," Izayoi said immediately.
Before Kagome could protest Shippo walked up carrying a pair of black heels. "I found your shoes," he held them out. "I hope their not too ruined.
"Thank you Shippo," Kagome took the shoes and inspected them. "They should be fine once their dry," she lied. The shoes were completely ruined. "Everybody in the cart," she said getting into the driver's seat.