Disclaimer: The characters are trademarked and the plotline of the series Inuyasha is copyrighted by Rumiko Takahashi.
Author's Note: I stole a line (sort of) from in a reviewer – thank you, SeruleanOrbs! Your guess was completely right!
A Distant Promise - Mini-Chapter # 30
A blue dress.
The most gorgeous and yet simple, lovely and elegant, and of course, blue dress. Part of Kagome's mind wanted to squeal with delight over this thoughtful gesture. Sesshoumaru had asked her to a business conference and he obviously knew she didn't have the right kind of clothing to attend, nor could she afford to buy it, so he solved the problem without emphasizing this embarrassing fact. But the other half of Kagome's mind was unsettled by the gift. Surely, this was more than she deserved.
After all, it looked rather… expensive. It was modest, too, covering her shoulders and chest fully. Plus, the dress was surprisingly well-fitted, not too tight, not too loose. It made her wonder how the taiyoukai had known her tastes without asking.
Perhaps he had asked Shippo. The fox-demon knew what sort of clothing she liked, because she had told him in the past, and besides, it was far simpler to envision her kitsune friend doing effeminate things like estimating tag-sizes or shopping, than it was to imagine someone like Sesshoumaru doing those same tasks. Yes, Shippo had probably assisted in this endeavor. It was the only idea that made sense.
Sitting on Kagome's bed, her roommate dug through the package that had just arrived. "Oh my gosh," her roommate gasped excitedly, "Is that a diamond?"
She looked down to see a jewelry box resting on her roommate's palm. For all intents and purposes, her roommate Mariko was enjoying the impromptu present more than Kagome was. The maddening girl had been needling her for thirty minutes now to try on the dress, tell her where the party was, explain about the guy who gave the dress, admit that they were getting married… and so on, and so on, until the priestess just wanted to snatch a lock of her roommate's hair and pull as hard as she could. Instead, Kagome snatched the jewelry box with a glare.
"Of course not," she replied, looking down at the silvery chain and pendant in the box. "It's blue."
"Diamonds can be blue," encouraged Mariko, clearly focused on the specific outcome that she wanted to achieve.
Not giving in, Kagome added, "Glass can be blue too."
The optimism of her perky roommate refused to surrender either. "Or sapphires!"
"Topaz," Kagome countered, picking yet another gemstone, cheaper than her roommate's personal desires.
Thankfully, the gemstone name-picking war ended soon. Unfortunately, the other girl turned her sights to even more sinister plans then. Eyeing her roommate greedily, Mariko decided that Kagome should try on the dress and model it. Practice made perfect, or so people said. Thus, it was important to habituate oneself to any new article of clothing before appearing in public wearing those garments.
The priestess only rolled her eyes. Maybe she would try the dress before the weekend came. But she certainly wasn't going to let her nosy roommate spoil a perfectly good occasion with prying questions or demands.
"It can wait," she decided. Bundling up the dress and the pendant and returning them to the original package, she stuffed the entire set into the bottom of her traveling trunk, firmly locking them inside. Not that she thought Mariko was a thief, or something – it was simply easier to avoid thinking uncomfortable, unanswerable thoughts when the present was out of sight.
But with Mariko shadowing her every time she made a move toward the trunk beneath her bed, after a day or two, she knew she would have to take drastic measures to escape with the dress and her dignity intact.
So, she called Shippo. From the dormitory mother's phone, downstairs, to make sure that she would not be overheard. At two hours to midnight, just to make sure no one else was in the commons area. No, Kagome was not paranoid about her roommate, at all.
Finally, on the fourth ring, he picked up. A tired sounding voice answered, but cheered up immediately when she announced her name. "To what do I owe this pleasure, Kagome?" chirped her fox-demon friend. "Did you want to meet with Inuyasha, after all?"
Twisting the phone cord around her forefinger, Kagome stared at the wall. Honestly, she had almost forgotten about Shippo's offer, until he mentioned it. But no, that was not why she had called. Now, she was going to look like a complete jerk, asking for Shippo's help for something stupid like this, after forgetting all about Inuyasha. Darn it!
"Eh…" the priestess mumbled, "Actually, I was wondering if you could come over tomorrow and distract my roommate long enough that I could pack my things and get away from her for the weekend without her asking any more awkward questions?"
As the words poured out, she realized she had trapped her entire hand in the phone cord at this point, through sheer nervousness and twiddling fingers. A moment of silence met her request, and she imagined the fox-demon gazing blankly at the phone in his hand.
"Awkward questions?" the kitsune echoed, confused. "I assume I should not ask what is happening, either?"
This brought Kagome to a full stop. She disentangled her hand from the phone cord, and shifted arms, cradling the receiver under her other ear. "No, that's okay," she amended, "You already know."
"Know what?" continued the kitsune, growing steadily more and more puzzled.
"About the dress…" began the priestess tentatively. When this met with no more reaction than her earlier comments, Kagome pressed further. "… for the conference, with Sesshoumaru…"
She heard a sudden shriek through the receiver, then a muffled thunk, as though Shippo had dropped his phone. Hastily rewriting her assumptions in her mind, she understood that the fox-demon had not helped in purchasing her gift, after all. Crap! What was wrong with her? If Sesshoumaru had not told anyone else about his invitation, then there was probably a reason. Yet somehow she had convinced herself that Shippo had played a role in this, because she had not wanted to believe… to believe…
…that the taiyoukai could actually do something nice for her, all on his own.
It wasn't that hard to believe.
Really, what was wrong with her?
Dimly, she realized Shippo was speaking to her again. Before she could take back her original request, he hung up the phone, promising to meet with her on the morrow.
Gah! Kagome moaned internally, I'm such an idiot!
