Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha
I AM BACK FROM THE DEAD!
I really wanted to have this updated earlier, but school and college got in the way. I did finish my applications, but then scholarship applications needed to be done and I was too busy writing a million essays to write any fanfic. And then AP testing got in the way and I've just managed to drag myself out from that overbearing amount of stress.
This chapter is basically a filler because I had to bridge the gap between last chapter and the one after this (which will be uploaded VERY soon.) And I have some GREAT NEWS: the next three chapters are basically written (I went ahead and wrote the scenes when I was bored about a year ago).
And I do plan on working on NoRMaL next so (hopefully) that will also come soon.
And, before I forget, I would like to give a shout out to Saria Forest14 and her story Ashes. I have not gotten around to reading the latest chapters because of my schedule, but I plan on it. So if you're bored and looking for some good fanfiction, I would recommend Ashes.
Okay, now you can read.
-X-
Walking Tightropes
Chapter 15: Stop Running
"I give up," I conceded to Sango as I flopped onto the couch in the family room and snatched up the remote. Souta had an entire, one-hundred point project to finish tomorrow which meant he wasn't playing video games, giving me the chance to watch TV.
"The calculus homework wasn't that hard, Kagome. If you stopped staring at Inuyasha all class, you might actually know how to do your homework."
I rolled my eyes. "One, I don't stare at Inuyasha all class; two, calculus is that hard and you're just some math genius; and three, I wasn't talking about calculus. I was talking about trying to keep Inuyasha from kissing girls."
"Guilty conscience?"
"Exhaustion," I corrected her, turning on Asia's Next Top Model. "I put so much work into sabotaging the events only to fail epically. I feel like it'd be easier to quit."
"Quitters never win."
"Attempters clearly don't either." Sango laughed loudly. "Do you think Kikyo still wants to kill me?"
"When doesn't she want to kill you? I'm starting to wonder if you two are even really friends."
"Of course we are." Kikyo may have difficulty showing me her love, but I knew it existed—somewhere deep, deep, deep down in her heart. Sango snorted and I decided to just change the subject. "So, do you want to lend me your calculus homework tomorrow morning?"
"Did you do the world history outline?"
"Yep."
"Then I'll see you tomorrow morning to trade. Now I can go to bed at a decent time. I've been up until three for the past two nights."
"Isn't that because you were looking up that Korean boy band Chaeryn told us about?"
"They're all we listen to at work now. And Kagome." Sango let a moment of silence pass between us. "The bassist is too perfect. I think I'm in love."
"I'm sure." I had seen a picture of CN Blue and the bassist looked like a girl with his shoulder length hair. But he pulled back into a short ponytail—should have known he'd be the one Sango liked. "He looks a lot like Miroku."
"WHAT? Don't insult him like that. Miroku is okay, but this guy… he's like… Grecian god material. I love him."
"Wow. And people say I jump into relationships too fast."
"When it's true love, the only way to do it is by jumping in head first, fearless." I rolled my eyes. "I'm breaking up with Miroku tomorrow afternoon, actually. I won't have to go see his heartbroken face during school and he'll have the whole weekend to try to heal. Smart, right?"
"That's how I'd do it." Sango hummed in agreement. "But you're joking, right?" Sometimes it was hard to tell whether Sango was being serious or not.
"Yes, Kagome."
"Just checking. You two are perfect for each other."
"I'm perfect for the bassist. I'm settling for Miroku."
"You know you love him. You want to kiss him…"
"I don't like Miroku!"
"That only worked when you weren't dating. It's time to find a new excuse." The doorbell rang and I looked at the clock. It was 9:50. "Actually, you should just stop."
"It's a reflex."
I got up and walked to the door, putting Asia's Next Top Model on pause. "Who do we know that would come to my house at ten o'clock at night?"
"Since it's not me, Bank or Erin. Bank might have gotten locked out of his house again."
"Typical." I opened the door and Inuyasha was standing on my doorstep with his hands stuffed into his pockets. His head snapped up as soon as I opened the door. "Oh."
"Hey." Inuyasha smiled at me and pulled out season two DVD of The Office. "I figured I'd make time for The Office."
"Is it Erin? Is she alright?"
"It's not Erin." I stepped aside and motioned Inuyasha to come in. "I'll talk to you tomorrow, Sango."
"You're just going to ditch me like this?" Sango gasped. "It's Inuyasha. What exactly could you two be doing at ten at night?"
"Bye, Sango." I hung up and stored my phone into the front pocket of my hoodie and turned to face Inuyasha. "Do you just have a thing for surprise visits?"
"It's fun to see what people look like when they're not expecting you." He nodded at me. "You should wear your glasses more often."
"I don't think so." I led Inuyasha into the family room where ANTM was on pause, silently cursing myself for my attire. The glasses weren't bad, but I hadn't bothered to brush my hair after my afternoon nap and I wore pajama pants that I had from eighth grade that were two inches too short.
"Is your mom really okay with me being here?" Inuyasha asked, cautiously sitting down next to me on the couch and glancing around as if he expected Mom to pop out and chase him out of our house with a broom. "It's pretty late."
"If you were really worried about my mom you would have come earlier."
"I had to work tonight and I wasn't planning on coming in…" Inuyasha scratched the back of his head uncomfortably.
"So watching The Office was just an excuse for what?" I pulled my legs up to my chest and leaned back against the arm of the sofa.
"I wanted to talk to you, but I'm pretty sure you would have made up some excuse if I called ahead of time and The Office was the only good opening line I could think of. And I figured you'd let anyone with The Office on them in your house, no questions asked."
"A completely accurate conjecture." Inuyasha smiled down at his hands while I gathered my courage to continue the conversation. "What do you want to talk about?" I already knew the answer, but I figured I'd be polite and leave Inuyasha the honor.
"Why have you been avoiding me?" Inuyasha looked me right in the eyes—there was no beating around the bush with him. "We were really cool up until this week and then you started avoiding me after school, but pretending like everything was fine when we were in class together."
"Pffft." I looked at Inuyasha as if he was crazy. My motto had always been fake it 'til you make it. "I wasn't avoiding you. We had breakfast together in my car this morning. And we have three classes together; it's impossible to ignore you."
Inuyasha was unpleased. "Seriously, why are you avoiding me?"
"Considering we're sitting here on my couch right now, I wouldn't say I'm 'avoiding' you."
"You're avoiding the question."
"Are you a question?"
"Kagome," Inuyasha bit out through grit teeth. "Come on. I know you went with Erin to a church instead of stopping by Bean Café. What's up with that?"
Of course Erin had to tell Inuyasha everything.
"What's up with me wanting to talk to my Lord instead of eating pies and goofing off in an abandoned coffee shop?" I raised my brow at Inuyasha and he rolled his eyes. "I think you can figure that one out."
"I'm serious, Kagome," Inuyasha stressed and I bit my lip, sensing his irritation. "Just tell me."
My attempts weren't that bad, but the absolute stupidity behind them… Telling InuYasha about that would be the epitome of self-humiliation. And I would ultimately end up confessing how much I really liked him and, while that wouldn't be bad either (it would probably speed up the process), I never told any of my boy how I felt first.
"I just…" I growled at my inability to find the courage or words to just spill the truth. "I've just been in a weird mood this week. Sorry."
"Yeah, that's cool, but why did you have so many mood swings? That's what I really want to know."
I sighed, blowing my bangs off my forehead. Why couldn't we just move on?
"Why do you want to know so badly? I apologized for my behavior, you accepted it, let's watch The Office." I moved to grab the DVD from Inuyasha's hand, but he held it out of my reach.
"I want to know if there's a legit reason for dealing with this bullshit when I didn't do anything wrong."
I froze and stared at Inuyasha for half a second. This was the first time I'd seen Inuyasha this mad at anyone besides teachers and Kouga.
"I don't know," I snapped. "Why would I possibly want to avoid you after seeing you kiss a million girls? I have no idea what would have prompted my behavior."
Inuyasha gaped at me. "You asked me to do it."
"I wasn't expecting you to say yes!"
"Then why did you act like you were fine with it the whole time?"
"Threatening to throw girls into a pool is what you consider to be fine?" I asked him, raising a brow. "Seriously?"
"Well, you didn't say anything."
"Because I had to make a point…" Crap. I hadn't planned on revealing everything.
"What point?"
"I…" Inuyasha stared at me eagerly. "I'd rather not talk about it." Explaining that I pretended to be okay because I wanted to prove that we were just friends (a fact that was clearly untrue) seemed stupid. "I'm sorry."
Inuyasha shook his head. "I don't get why you'd run away instead of facing me and talking about it."
Ugh. Talking. Just thinking about it gave me an ulcer.
"I don't know." I shrunk back into the sofa. "That's just how I deal with things."
"Well, it's stupid."
"Well, it's me," I defended myself, glaring a bit at Inuyasha and he backed off. "I'm really sorry, though. It was kind of immature." Inuyasha looked like he wanted to say something, but nodded instead. "So are we cool now?"
"Are you going to hang around after the kickball event tomorrow?"
"Depends on how many girls you plan on kissing." Inuyasha's face fell flat. "Kidding. I can wait on you."
"Cool."
"Yeah."
"Yeah…"
We sat in an awkward silence while our conversation started sinking in for me. So I admitted I was jealous and Inuyasha handled it pretty well. He didn't try to subtly say we were just friends and he didn't run away; this could be great progress for our relationship. In fact, since we already got the ball rolling, we could just keep going and admit we like each other. That idea actually sounded very appealing.
Inuyasha looked around the room for something to talk about and his eyes fell on the time displayed on the cable box. "I think I'm going to go now. It's kind of sketchy if I stay here any longer."
"What are you talking about?" I asked, sitting up. I could not let this opportunity slip away when I was willingly facing the truth. "Bank spends the night almost every other weekend."
"Yeah, but your Mom knows Bank and there's a difference between me and him. You two are friends but we're—" Inuyasha cut himself off and his eyes grew wide and his cheeks turned red.
Thank you, God.
"Not friends?"
"Of course we're friends, but we're…" Inuyasha stared at me, hoping I'd get what he was trying to say and I did. I just wanted to hear him say it. "You know what I'm talking about."
"No, I don't think I do."
"Kagome." I tried to fight back my grin, but I was failing and Inuyasha laughed nervously and ran his hand through his hair. "I—"
"What," I jumped at the sound of Grandpa's voice and Inuyasha shot up from the couch, standing at attention. "Is going on here?"
Why do you tease me, God? Why!
"Hey, Grandpa," I smiled. He glared. "This is Inuyasha."
"Hi, sir." Inuyasha reached his hand out to shake Grandpa's, but Grandpa scowled at him. "I was… um, uh, about to leave."
"It's ten o'clock at night. You shouldn't be here in the first place. All I wanted was to come down and enjoy a nice cup of tea in the middle of the night, but instead I find some prepubescent teenager talking to my granddaughter in the middle of the night!" Inuyasha flinched and I tried not to laugh. "Do you have no respect for this family? Do you think you can just go out with my granddaughter without introducing yourself?"
"I—"
"Back in my day we had respect for women! We came over at decent times and met their fathers' first and asked for permission! You're going to give my granddaughter a bad rep if you keep showing up like this! What will the neighbors think?"
"I'm sorry, sir. I didn't mean to—"
"Well you did! You disrespectful heathen, get out of my house!"
"I-I—" Inuyasha looked at me for help, and I motioned for him to leave.
"Just go, Inuyasha," I encouraged him, moving in to step in front of my grandfather in case he decided to attack. I loved Grandpa with every fiber in my soul, but he was crazy. "I'll talk to you tomorrow."
"Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow." Inuyasha smiled at me and then bowed to my grandfather before running out of the house, slamming the door behind him.
"Aishhh," Grandpa hissed out as he hobbled towards the kitchen and I followed him. "I'm getting tired of running all these boys out of the house for you, Kagome."
"I actually didn't want you to run this one out."
"I heard you arguing and just assumed," Grandpa shrugged as he went to the cupboards to grab a tea bag and I went to fill the kettle for him. If we had an electric kettle, boiling water would take less time, but Grandpa insisted on doing things "old school". "And you just broke up with one of those boys, right. I thought he was harassing you."
"I broke up with Hojo," I informed him. "That was Inuyasha."
Grandpa sighed and shook his head. "There's a new boy every week for you."
Had anyone else told me that I might have been offended, but I understood that Grandpa genuinely cared for me; even though he might not use the best arrangement of words to express it.
Grandpa shuffled over to the cupboard and grabbed a mug for himself. "And why did you break up with Hojo? He was a perfectly respectable man. He brought an icepack for my swollen knee that one time. Do you remember that? He's a good man, Kagome."
"He's a jerk, Grandpa."
Grandpa clucked his tongue. "You have no taste in men, Kagome," he scolded, pointing his finger at me. "Let me pick out your husband for you so you can stop all this running around."
Considering how much Grandpa loved Hojo, letting him pick my husband would be the worst possible decision I could make.
"I don't run around with that many boys, Grandpa."
"You could dial it back some. You're too nice of a girl to let so many boys break your heart." Grandpa shook his head, watching the water boil. "It's just not right."
I smiled at Grandpa and went to stand next to him in front of the stove, leaning over to kiss his wrinkled forehead. He looked up at me and I grinned wider. "I'm going to be fine, Grandpa. Inuyasha's a good guy."
"They're all good guys at first." Grandpa shook his head, but patted me on my shoulder. "Just remember you deserve the best."
I smiled and gave him another kiss on the cheek.
I love my family.
-x-
While I truly loved my family, I hated Grandpa's timing. Hated. It. Had he waited ten more seconds, Inuyasha probably would have asked me out and I wouldn't have spent all night twisting and turning in bed, thinking about what had almost happened.
-X-
I am currently slightly frustrated with myself because this would have fit in just fine with the last chapter and I could be on to the carnival stuff already, but I didn't listen to hanmajo and I insisted on making another chapter which had a bunch of useless crap in it besides this scene. So I basically cut out everything I originally had planned for this chapter resulting in the reason why it's so short. But, I can PROMISE you the next chapter will be longer and come out VERY SOON.
And is anyone else completely ripped apart by the fact The Office had its last episode EVER last Thursday? I swear to God, I died inside.
Please review!
~Kimiko888~
We're a tough dynamic duo. Between finishing up school and dealing with personal lives, Kimiko and I have had little time to spare. So thanks for bearing with us, we know we can be awful with time. This chapter was a cute little bridge for the next so hopefully you enjoyed it.
~hanmajo