Deceitful Time
Chapter Seven: Defend

All in all it would have been a better idea for her to have actually ate the food that Shiro had ordered for her at the restaurant earlier that day but she didn't know at that point that she was going to start up a silent protest of sitting right on top of the well she wished ever so earnestly to enter just once. She just wanted to see him… if she had known that Shiro was going to go berserk then maybe she would have done more than just hug Inuyasha goodbye. Nothing vulgar, mind you, nothing that Shiro would do. A simple, sweet, speedy peck on the lips would have been more than adequate.

Inuyasha, her Inuyasha, the one she grew to know so well and cherish, would have been more than satisfied—or was it shocked?—with just that. She highly doubted unsavory thoughts flocked within his thick skull. All the high school boys she'd ever met? Yes. Miroku? Oh, most certainty. Shiro? Shamelessly. But Inuyasha? No, she really didn't think that he thought about that even when he did catch her naked in a hot spring sometimes.

Oh lord, she shut her eyes and snorted out a sigh, look what Shiro's done to her. She never thought about such matters before he appeared … a shiver crept down her spine at the thought of that man. That horrid, hasty demon. What right did he have to seal off the well? OK, great, he waited five hundred years for her—she was sure under different circumstances she'd be grateful—but he barely remembered her and positively didn't love her. And, most importantly, he wasn't the right Inuyasha. People change, five hundred years would alter anyone, but that didn't mean she had to accept it.

As far as she was concerned they were two completely separate beings.

{xoxoxoxoxoxox}

The growling refused to stop so when the night gradually began to take the sky she slid off the cold splintering wood and walked back to her home. She needed a nice, relaxing, hot bath and a good home cooked meal to rekindle her ranging spirit. The chill had begun to nip at her an hour prior but her stubborn mind refused to let her give in even though Shiro had left after she threw a piece of wood at him for his improper comment—noonish, then?

"Mom, I'm home," she called out as she walked in through the kitchen's entrance and kicked off her shoes.

"Oh, Kagome," her mother replied cheerfully, "you have a guest."

"I do…?" She murmured before she looked up to the table. Right away her tired body tensed up and she was sure her brow began to involuntarily twitch.

"Hi, Kagome," Shiro greeted with a gentlemanly grin as he lifted his hot tea to her with a nod, all the while with her mother sitting right next to him with the most pleasant of smiles.

"He's been waiting all day for you to come home," her mother explained as she got up and headed towards the stove to take off whatever stew she had been working on, "what a sweet boy he is," she whispered to her daughter who had wirily walked over to get a cup of hot tea to warm her chilled self.

"Mom," she hushed. That stupid bastard had been there the entire time? Inside her warm home, drinking her mother's best tea and chit-chatting away with her while she nearly froze to death outside try to make a point? That was simply unforgivable.

"Shiro, will you stay for dinner?" Her mother beckoned.

"No," Kagome mouthed firmly with a swift shake of her head right out of the eye sight of her mom.

"I would love to, thank you," he contradicted with another charming smile, "you are too kind."

"Would you mind going to get Souta and grandpa for me?"

"Not at all," he assured as he got up before exiting the room.

He… he met her brother and grandpa? What the hell!?

"Kagome," her mother glowed like the sun on the brightest day while she placed her hand upon her daughter's shoulder, "I'm so proud of you!"

"You… are?" She choked; the gods only knew what nonsense Shiro had spouted to her. She could feel her stomach knot up at the multitude of dreadful schemes... what if he played himself off as some amazingly well off entrepreneur that wanted to wed her..? Eh, please no.

"He is such a nice boy," she kept up with a nod as she began to set the table.

"M-Mom! I'm not dating him or anything!"

"Oh, sweetheart, I know," her mother laughed lightly, "he's your tutor. I'm so proud that you took the initiative to get some help with your school work. I have complete faith in your abilities with the aid of such a smart and studious boy. It's so kind of him to be doing this as volunteer work, too, so it costs nothing. I didn't know your school had such a program. And to get a tutor who attends Tokyo U? He'll be able to help you with your college entrance exams!

"And you are going to start studying for them this winter break? I'm so glad, Kagome, you have no idea what a relief it is that you are going to take a break from going back to the feudal era… aren't you? Or did you schedule all of this with Shiro just to ditch him and return…?"

It was like the air stiffened into a wall and slammed down upon her already heavy head. That rat bastard had picked the perfect lie! She couldn't counter it, she couldn't tell her mom 'no, sorry, I'm content with failing all my course and never getting into a good college—if I can even get into any college' or 'wait, no, he's a terrible tutor' because he went to the top university in all of Japan! She couldn't break her mom's hopeful heart like that so she bit her tongue and forced a smile as she sat down at her regular seat. She would be the first in her family to attend college… she couldn't tell her mother she didn't want to or couldn't. Her parents had sacrificed so much for her throughout her life…

"No, mom, I decided to stay over winter break and study," she finally murmured.

"You have no idea how much that warms my heart," oh, but she did, she hadn't seen her mother radiate with such joy since...? Since she started making regular visits through the well. Her mom was... well, her mother, she couldn't like the idea of her daughter running around the anarchy that was the feudal era. She tried her best not to but she had noticed the new wrinkles written on her mother's face. Sleepless nights had to haunt her.

"Kagome!" Souta shouted before he ran into the kitchen and pulled up a seat next to her, "that Shiro guy's really cool. He can get to level ten on Armageddon in Stalingrad! He goes to Tokyo U, too!"

"Yeah, he's great," she grunted with narrowed hazel slits locked onto the supposed 'god-student' as he escorted her grandpa to his seat then, with a bit of a smirk he took the last open seat right next to her. "I hate you," she whispered low enough that only his superb ears could hear.

"For now," he corrected.

{xoxoxoxoxoxox}

"Seriously, Shiro, go jump off a cliff!" She ordered once they were safely in her room to 'study' for the college entrance exams.

"You can call me 'Inuyasha', you know."

"Never," she sizzled then harshly yet quietly declared, "you completely lied to my mom!"

"How so?"

"You are going to help me study for the college entrance exams? You are some tutor that's going to help me with all the classes I'm failing at? You," she laughed without humor, "go to Tokyo U?"

"None of that's a lie," he declared as he sat down at her desk and folded his arms upon his chest, "I can help you study for your classes and the college entrance exam. I didn't say I currently went to Tokyo U, I told your mom I attended it. It's her fault for misunderstanding that as 'I'm still there'."

"How could you help me study? How," she awed with shaking fists, "could you get ever go to Tokyo U?"

"I get bored so I enroll in school sometimes; I read a lot too, so it wasn't hard for me to pass the entrance exam. I only got a degree before getting bored of that place."

"A degree in what?" She mocked before plopping down on her bed and, finally, taking off the jacket he had given her that morning.

"Nuclear physics," he couldn't help but chuckle from the way her eyes budged at that, "kidding, kidding, it was something about history or folklores. It was a while back."

"You aren't funny, Shiro," she sassed, "I'm not going to study with you. I'm not going to see you ever again until you—"

"Aw, but, Kagome," he playfully pouted, "wouldn't that break your mother's heart? After I told her I would help you ever Tuesday and Thursday here and how you'd come to mine to study on Sunday?"

"I hate you!" She shrieked, "you, you, you—!"

"Brilliant and dashing man?" He guessed with such a grin, the type that only made her fume more as her hands clenched her covers into a ball, "just give up. I'll always win."

"This isn't a game! This is my life that you are just prancing all over!" She wanted to go see Inuyasha, she wanted to go back and forth between eras, she wanted to make sure her friends were alright, she couldn't just leave Shippou, and what if… what if something happened to them while she was away? What if she could have stopped it? Anxiety festered in the midst of her chest with each beat of her frayed heart.

"What if I die protecting someone I love?" She inquired, loosening up as she spoke with her eyes pinned to the ground, her lips half shut, "huh, Shiro? What if by dying I save someone I love? What if I'm not there everyone I love gets hurt or…"

"It's not like you're going to know, so I don't see why you should bother yourself by thinking like that," Shiro countered only to have a small heart-shaped white pillow flung into his face.

"You are heartless! How could you say that?! What if you die because I'm not there, huh?" She nearly sobbed. She was a crier, she cried when she was anger, sad, or happy but not too terribly often it was just… Shiro stressed her out too much and she had gotten an awful amount of sleep the night before and couldn't remember the last time she properly bathed—not to mention she was almost sure she got a cold from her futile protest.

"I'd rather die, then," he guaranteed without any sort of hesitation. That got her, not that he had meant for it to affect her in any way since he was simply stating a fact—seven hundred years of living was somewhere close to three hundred too many.

"Please… leave for tonight," she whispered, "I want to just have a peaceful night and rest up."

"Fine. Don't do anything stupid, Kagome."

{xoxoxoxoxoxo}

"Don't do anything stupid, Kagome," she mocked with a wrinkled nose. Her hands were clenched so tightly around her purse strap that it was sure to snap. She was just going to return the coat to him since, even though it was really nice, it was some woman's that Shiro had screwed with and not his to give away or hers to keep. She wasn't even going to go all the way up to his condo; she'd just leave it with the guy at the front desk. That way she wouldn't have to see him until Sunday… actually, she could just tell her mom she was going over to Shiro's and not—no, wait; Shiro would probably call and inquire about her whereabouts.

"He would," she grunted as her seething hazel stare continued to lock onto the sidewalk that became asphalt. That man… was the worst thing to happen.

"Oh my god!" A woman whaled within a symphony of ear-piercing cries, of course, Kagome only heard the first woman's scream before the shrieking skid of breaks became her entire world. Deer were dumb creatures, which was why they just stared blindly at the headlights that rushed towards them…

Did that make her stupid, too? Because that was all she could do as the car slid towards her.

Ebony eclipsed her sight as the wind was knocked out of her. Her body jerked backwards abruptly.

"Moron," a whisper echoed about her spinning head.

"Inuyasha…?" With her hands she whipped her waves out of her face to see the stunned looks that were all about her. Young and old all stood still to stare at the girl that had just availed the out of control car that smacked into the light pool.

"Kagome, Ka-go-me, Kagome?" He panicked as he shook her lifeless, bloodied, body in his arms. Her pretty face was smeared with mud that mingled with the dried red flakes, her head hung limply down, but little caught his attention more than the look in her once joyous eyes. It went beyond empty as the white haze overcame her hazels… slowly his golden gaze moved down to look at her tattered and torn body. Her stomach had a huge open gash that had ceased to bleed; her legs were bruised and scrapped viciously.

"No, gods, no… no!"

"Kagome," he hushed as his arms tightened around her waist that he had grabbed right in time to keep the idiotic girl from getting hit by the car she should have seen coming. He couldn't help but take the short lived opportunity that he had to reaffirm himself with her subtle scent…

"You… are so careless!"

"Shiro!" She sighed before prying his hands away from her so she could turn to stare him right in the eyes, "I'm nowhere near your condo! Where you stalking me!?"

"What?!" He growled back, "it's not stalking when it saves your life! Be grateful! You should be in my debt for this!"

Her mouth shot open right as her legs began to function enough that she could stand up and stare down at him, "your debt!? I wouldn't be out here right now if it weren't for your stupid jacket!"

"My—?" But before he could question her further a gray coat was flung in his face, "what's wrong with you!? I just saved your life!"

"You! Are! A! Stalker!"

"There's a difference between making sure you don't get yourself killed and stalking you!" He protested as he popped up to meet her heated hazels with angered auburns, "you should at least thank me!"

"Thank you for stalking me, Shiro! You perverted, weird, man!"

"P-Perverted?!" What had he done even remotely close to that? It's not like he was watching her bath or anything. He shook before taking a breath in and slowly taming his furry before sighing.

"How come I didn't notice you, huh? You are a demon and I can sense them," she stated in a matter of fact tone.

"I figured out how to mask my aura, obviously, you moron," he snapped back between clinched teeth, "let's take this conversation somewhere private, people are staring at us."

"What? You don't want people hearing that you are a stalker!?"

"Kagome, stop saying that!"

"Shiro—"

"This is the thanks I get for making sure you are OK?! For saving your goddamn life!? For worrying about you!?" He barked before shoving the useless coat back into her chest, "screw you, Kagome, I hope you learned your fucking lesson this time because if a car tries to kill you on your way home I will not be there to save you!"

It actually seemed like him might have slapped her if he hadn't tensed him and turned around, disappearing far too quickly in the stalk of staring bystanders…

{xoxoxoxoxoxox}

"Shiro!" She called out once more with the same three beat knock on his overly zealous front door, "Shi-ro! Shi-ro! Shi-ro! I'm going to start shouting embarrassing things if you don't answer this door!"

Still only silence surrounded her before she took a breath in, "Shiro, you did know I was under age, right!? I did tell you I was only—!?"

"Stop it!" Shiro beckoned after he finally opened the door, "knock it off! My neighbors already think I'm annoying with all the…" he cleared his throat before straightening his stance, "what do ya' want? If you are going to just yell leave."

"Here," she pouted before pushing a pink paper box in his chest. It took some time before he stopped just staring at her firmly fixed face after close to a minute and moved his gaze down to the box, reluctantly he took it from her and stepped aside so she could enter, "it's a 'thank you' gift. I was… in shock after that so… I might have been a little harsh…"

"Cupcakes," he observed after opening the top, "a variety pack."

"I don't know what type you like, I was kind of tempted to get you a box of ramen but I'm guessing you are prettying sick of that stuff, huh?" She smiled rather sweetly as she spun around to look at him, her hands folded behind her back, "I brought the jacket, too."

"I see that," he murmured, it was slung over her arm. At least today she finally wore something appropriate for the chilly weather; a pair of jeans, boats, and a red wool petticoat.

"I'm sorry I yelled but… you shouldn't stalk me, either," she kept up before taking a few steps forward; he met each of hers so they were only a few inches apart. "Apologize."

"What?" He scoffed, "for saving your life!? No!"

"No," she shook her head lightly, "for stalking me."

"I'm not stalking you," he countered.

Her soft smile never left her face as she leaned a little bit closer to him, "I suppose… I can forgive you," it was, after all, a very Inuyasha trait not to say 'sorry' when he should. A teasing smile lifted her lips together before she reached into the box of cupcakes and too a vanilla one with strawberry frosting. "You only do it because you care," she asserted with the cupcake in front of her mouth, "right?"

That's got to count for something... right?