Black Ice and Blood Rain: (stare at the ground, guilty)
Black Ice: We feel like total asses.
Blood Rain: Seriously.
Black Ice: I mean...what the hell were we thinking? Pressuring you guys to vote for us just so we could get something?
Blood Rain: We're like the politicians of fanfiction.
Black Ice: And that's the lowest, crappiest title of all. We are ashamed, deeply, deeply.
Blood Rain: Thus, we ask that you disregard the A/N from the last chapter about that. 'Cause I'd be real pissed if we were somehow blacklisted by the IYFanguild for pimping our own story and begging for a nomination. We're better than that.
Black Ice: Yeah. It would be nice...but it doesn't determine our story content. What happens happens, you know?
Blood Rain: In any case, it's been deleted, so there's no more evidence on the Net. I'm telling you, I am going to be really fucking pissed if we get put on that Banned list!
Black Ice: (shakes head)
"Aw, damn it." Inuyasha grumbled sullenly, realizing that, in getting caught up with Kagome, he had forgotten to eat. "Look, you should really go somewhere else. I can't stand eating in front of people, and I would just hate to offend your delicate sensibilities." The sarcasm was evident in his tone, and she snorted.
"You obviously don't know me at all. I've done things that would shock even you."
"Yeah? Try me."
"Hell no! You just cheated me out of a goddamn secret, you digressing asshole!"
"What?"
"You said that if I told you about my father, you'd tell me why you hate being called feminine!"
Inuyasha huffed, crossing his arms. "Any self-respecting man should hate that. Can't you just be satisfied with that explanation?" The dry look on Kagome's face convinced him otherwise. "Fine. I'll tell you. But I'll also tell you this: I tend to get extremely irritant when I'm hungry, and damn it, I haven't eaten in days."
"Fine. But you have to share."
"Um, no!" Inuyasha was aghast at the very idea. "Because for one thing, you're not even my nyoubou, girl! And for another, you've already built up too high a tolerance. I'll be damned if your mother and father come after my ass with torches and shit just because you were too dumb to stay home instead of follow me. You know what they say: curiosity killed the cat." Kagome glared at him.
"I'm not a child, Inuyasha, nor am I a newborn. I think I'm mature enough to control an urge should the occasion rise."
"Trust me, you're not." Inuyasha shook his head gravely. "I know how your kind can get. As soon as you get a taste, you're hooked. That's why there are so few of you—it's been decreed that all halflings are to be put to death." Kagome's face went pale and she rasped, "WHAT?!" Inuyasha blinked, dread seeping into his gut.
"Oh...you didn't...know that?" Inuyasha smiled sheepishly, but now Kagome was too horror stricken to be angry.
"I knew my kind was forbidden—taboo, even, but..." She stared up at him, mouth agape as though she'd just had a revelation. Inuyasha sighed, not really realizing where her mind was going.
"See? That's exactly why I should've just kept my big mouth shut. You were living the cushiest life a half-breed could e—"
"YOU!" Kagome screeched, hysteria making her accusatory pointed finger shake uncontrollably. "So that's what this is about! You were sent to kill me!"
"What?!" Inuyasha's brows furrowed in offended annoyance. "Bitch, what kind of grass are you on?! Nobody sent me! I came here upon my brother's accord, and he doesn't even know you exist!"
"Bullshit!"
"Kagome, calm down!" Inuyasha yelled, exasperated with her.
"How the hell can I calm down when I can't even trust my next door neighbor?! God, this is—this is even worse than that voyeur movie from Lifetime!"
"Kagome." Inuyasha said firmly, grabbing her wrists. "Now, you know better than that. If I wanted to kill you, you know damn well I would've done it by now, and with the utmost pleasure, at that." Kagome stared suspiciously at him, trying to gauge his candor, then finally sighed, raking her fingers through her hair.
"Okay...I'll accept that as true." She mumbled. "Sorry, Inuyasha...I guess I'm just kinda paranoid. I mean...I'm not safe anymore."
"Now, that's bullshit." Inuyasha drawled, quirking an eyebrow. "Just because you're aware of it doesn't mean you're any more endangered because of it."
"But don't you see?" Kagome pled desperately, and a different hunger flared up in his gut than the previous one afflicting him. "If I know I'm not even supposed to be living, I'm going to be constantly looking over my shoulder. When I do that, I look awfully suspicious, so whoever the hell is trying to kill me will have an extremely easy time doing it."
"Let me reiterate. No kyuuketsuki worth his salt would scour this place just to find one elusive half-breed. It's not like you're a delinquent or something. They don't even know you exist!"
"You sound awfully amused at this."
"Because you're being stupid." Inuyasha sighed wearily, his hunger taking its toll on him. "And you won't go away and let me eat."
"So just why the hell can't I be around when you eat?" She demanded.
"Because throughout my time as a vampire, I've developed an eating habit that now, I'm not so proud of anymore." Kagome blinked, not getting it. "Augh! Don't you know anything?! Our kind are lustful creatures—don't you remember how you were when you were transformed?" She looked at him for a while, until it dawned on her, making her face flare red.
"Ohh..." She mumbled, and it became awkward between them. "Right...heh...I don't think I really want to be a part of that."
"Yeah, well, that's what I've been trying to tell you since I've been sitting here starving." Inuyasha intoned, then cleared his throat, glaring sideways at nothing in particular. "Look. I could walk you back to the complex if you want."
"Yeah, but the door's locked."
"Not mine." Inuyasha held out his silver apartment key and Kagome reluctantly took it.
"...Thanks..." She mumbled shyly, and Inuyasha shook his head, mostly in wonderment at the bizarreness of humans—or at least half-humans, anyway.
The two walked in uncomfortable silence some time later. Inuyasha said quietly, feeling annoyed at what he perceived as a semblance of piety on Kagome's part, "Look, I didn't choose the way I am, alright? My brother raised me through my rebirth, and he taught me that women are good for only three things: breeding, a quick fuck, and, occasionally, sustenance." Kagome frowned.
"That's...an awfully sexist outlook for him. And you, for that matter. Women aren't playtoys, Inuyasha. I thought you knew that." He winced; Gingitsune had said something along those lines as well, and now that Kagome had inadvertently hopped upon the bandwagon of reprobation, he was starting to think that there could possibly be some truth to these words. Initially, he believed Gingitsune had merely been rambling out of spite. Now he was no longer so sure of this.
"Yeah, thanks for reminding me. Apparently, it wasn't enough to hear it from Gingitsune." He muttered acrimoniously, and Kagome pinked, embarrassed.
"Oh...I-I didn't know...I'm sorry."
"You didn't know, right?" Inuyasha repeated gruffly. "Just drop it, okay?"
"Well...do you believe that thing about women?"
"I don't know anymore. After Gingitsune deserted me for that goddamned kentanka, I just thought all women were rotten, evil hags with ill intentions. But when we were friends, I often found myself challenging that. I think he only thought that because the woman he loved got killed by a devourer." Kagome, however, misinterpreted his last words, and cocked her head curiously.
"You loved Gingitsune?"
"I doubt it. Our kind are incapable of such emotion." Inuyasha corrected. Sesshoumaru would've been proud. "But I felt a strong affinity for her. She was the first female—honestly, the first person—I could call my friend."
"Personally, I think you loved her and just didn't know it." Kagome suggested, and in a rare moment of mental honesty, Inuyasha asked himself if his inexplicable fondness for his traitorous friend was truly love. Though vampires were by no means modest, they at least could rely on instinct to guide their way.
"No," Inuyasha finally shook his head, knowing he spoke truth. "I think I just craved a closed relationship than that I had with the women I considered nothing but outlets for my hunger and lust. And now that my best friend is gone, what's the point in abstinence?"
"You can't just let your fear, anger, and loneliness control you like that." Kagome admonished.
"I fear nothing." Inuyasha growled.
"You do. You fear rejection, one of the thing you have in common with ningen. Having wanton sex with women you barely know is a security blanket, if you will—you know they won't reject you, so you take advantage of that fact. You had your guard up before you met Gingitsune, but when you realized that she wouldn't submit to you so easily, you got intrigued, despite the warning bells going off in your mind."
Before she could go on with her psychoanalysis, Inuyasha cut her off curtly. "Stop presuming to know me, damn it!" He snapped, but Kagome seemed to be in a trance, her eyes blank and glassy as she continued to speak, not giving any indication she'd even heard him.
"She befriended you and you found yourself pining after her like a lovesick puppy, because let's be honest: you've been lonely your entire life. With Sesshoumaru always mysteriously disappearing and leaving you alone with nothing but your thoughts to keep you company, you jumped at the first chance you could get for companionship. You couldn't have a friendship with any other women because you either thought too little of them, didn't care about them, only wanted them for one thing, or ended up killing them in one of your lewd frenzies." Now her voice grew mystic, as if she were an oracle, and Inuyasha stared at her, stricken.
"W—what the hell?!" He spluttered, the cogs in his brain screeching to a halt.
How the hell does she know all that?!
"I'm sure you were thrown for a complete loop when she started drifting away from you, but you couldn't've been too surprised. After all, it was your fault she left you; Houjou had absolutely nothing to do with it. He just happened to be around when she left."
"Alright, that's enough!" Inuyasha snarled. "Now you're going too fucking far!"
"It was your lascivious ways that drove Gingitsune into his arms. You obviously lusted after the half-breed, then had the gall to try to take out your sexual frustrations on the neko. She may not be human, but--"
"KAGOME!" Inuyasha grabbed and shook her shoulders as hard as he could, and the glassy look faded. Kagome blinked, looking confused.
"What?" Her voice was back to normal, but Inuyasha was too furious to note this.
"That's what the fuck I should be asking! What the hell was up with that shit?!" He fumed, angered beyond belief. "You think that was funny or something?!"
"Do I think what was funny?" Kagome frowned. "Ow...my head hurts." Inuyasha gawked at her.
"Are...are you serious?"
"About what? Inuyasha, you're acting weird." Kagome sighed, rubbing her temples, and continued to walk. "Jeesh, we're still not there? Dude, you're gonna starve if you don't pick up the pace." Inuyasha's feet were glued to the pavement.
But...she...
Black Ice: Hmm. We really didn't wanna stop it here, but we didn't want to reveal too much too soon.
Blood Rain: My question is, what the hell was up with Kagome, for real?
Black Ice: Was she possessed?
Blood Rain: Was she trying to be funny or something?
Black Ice: Or was she just trying to confuse the piss out of our poor readers?!
Blood Rain: Eh, who cares? (Grins evilly)