Hello again! Here´s something to prepare you for what´s coming. I can´t wait to finish the next chapter, it´s a smutty one, in case you like that stuff. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy this chapter.
DISCLAIMER: All the characters from Inuyasha belong to the talented Rumiko Takahashi.
5- The kit
Two pairs of eyes were settled on her face, one pair of intense gold, as the midday sun and the other soft as a lavender field. Kagome´s sight traveled from one to the other, both beautiful creatures looking concerned at the moment.
"Where am I?" A look of confusion on her face, Kagome tried to sit to get a better look at the scene in front of her. Inuyasha, still kneeling by her side, grabbed her arm to help her and she shivered from the contact. She looked into his eyes, but he was looking away from her so she couldn´t tell if he noticed her reaction.
Now that she was sitting, Kagome´s head started throbbing painfully as if her body resented the change in her position. The girl scrunched her face in pain while both of her hands massaged her temples trying to soothe the ache.
"Your head is aching?" Inuyasha´s voice couldn´t hide his concern.
"It´s ok, it´s going away already." Kagome could finally meet his eyes and saw him relax a little after her answer.
"I´m taking you to see a doctor." His voice was firm despite the evident dread in his eyes.
"That won't be necessary, thank you. I just need to rest for a while."
"Do you want me to get you some water Miss?"
Kagome´s attention was drawn to the young girl now. Her pale features showing the same concern she had seen in Inuyasha´s eyes. She looked very much like the half demon, only her demeanor was different. She seemed sweet and kind, her aura so unlike the alluring, dangerous vibe she got from Inuyasha.
"That would be nice, thank you." Kagome smiled at her before she moved to a bar on her right. Leaving the little box she had been carrying on top of the bar while the girl bent to open a small fridge and took a bottle of water, she poured the content on a glass on took it back to Kagome.
Inuyasha had stood up from his crouching position in front of the couch and watched as she took little sips from the glass, the color returning slowly to her semblance.
"That would be all for the moment Shiori." He dismissed the young secretary and went back to his desk.
Kagome was even more curious now that she was feeling better.
"Can you please tell me what happened and where are we?"
"You fainted when Yura was bullying you, so I brought you to my office."
"Your office?"
Eyes opened wide, the girl surveyed the room around her.
It was big, bigger than Sakasagami-sama´s office. It faced the west side of the building through floor-to-ceiling windows covered by vertical blinds which allowed plenty of daylight through. Inside, the furniture was in shades of silver and grey and sparse, giving its owner freedom to move around. There was a huge desk on the left side facing the couch she was using and a coffee table between them.
"Is this really your office?" She tried to keep her voice flat, to avoid the rising panic menacing to make her scream. "So, you´re not a simple employee like Miroku or myself."
"Well, I am an employee, just not quite like you."
"You´re some kind of manager or director then?"
"Well, yes. And also, I hold some shares in the company."
"Ok, you´re a partner too." Kagome looked down at her now empty glass, the receding pain threatening to come back. "Great!" She thought, "as if wasn't bad enough that I made out with a half-demon way out of my league, he has to be rich and powerful to boot."
The girl stood up then, testing the strength of her legs while grabbing the back of the couch, just in case.
"I suppose you want an answer." She spoke as she scanned the room for her belongings and heading to his desk when she located her handbag there.
"I´d like to hear it."
Just as Inuyasha was bracing himself to fight the negative answer, she surprised him when she spoke softly, a kind smile on her face.
"I´m in."
"Oh... Ok. That´s good." Caught by surprise, he almost stuttered his reply, so he decided to stop talking and just smile back at her.
" I can´t seem to find my glasses, have you seen them around?"
"They fell to the floor and the glass was shattered into a million pieces."
"What? Oh, kami, I can´t catch a break." She sighed. "Well I´d better go to look for the frame, I hope it can still be of use."
"You are going to have breakfast first, then we are going to get you a new pair."
"But I can´t leave until six, I need to go to my cubicle now. Plus, I get terrible headaches if I use the computer without glasses."
"You are not working there anymore, you work for me now. Today all you have to do is replace the broken glasses and then we´re both going to meet Onigumo."
"Dr. Ikeda? Are we meeting him today?"
The hanyo just nodded the affirmative answer and was again surprised by her response.
"We should get going then."
The young woman was grabbing her handbag, her body already moving like it was already recovering. She was turning to the door when Inuyasha got up and caught her wrist.
"First things first, you are going to have breakfast before we leave this office. I don´t want you fainting again."
He was already half dragging her towards another door in the back of the room. When he opened it, Kagome could see a large table surrounded by several chairs and seating at the head of a table with several takeout containers, a young red-haired youkai boy.
Inuyasha stopped suddenly and Kagome almost bumped against his back.
"Shippo, this is Kagome, make sure she has a good breakfast. I have to take care of a few things before we leave." He spoke the last words as he turned to face the girl that was sheepishly standing by his side. "You two have breakfast while I finish."
Inuyasha left closing the door behind her and Kagome just stood there uncertain of what to do next.
"Hello, my name´s Shippo, nice to meet you."
The friendly smile on the boy´s face instantly made Kagome relax, she walked the last steps and sat to the right of the boy while extending her hand in greeting.
"Hello, Shippo, nice to meet you too. I´m Kagome."
The boy took her hand and shook it enthusiastically, a huge grin on his face. "Look, I got everything Inuyasha asked for: fruit, orange juice, some toast, and marmalade; and we didn´t know which you preferred, so I brought you both tea and coffee."
"Wow, you got everything I like, thank you Shippo. I usually have coffee in the morning, but today I´m not feeling so good, I´ll have some fruit and tea, please."
Shippo started fuzzing with the containers until he found what Kagome wanted and placed the fruit in front of her together with a plastic cup. He then put another container in front of himself and opened it producing a large sandwich and a bottle of orange juice which he gulped happily.
"I was waiting for you, Inuyasha said to buy a healthy breakfast for the two of us and watch you while you eat. I suppose he wants to make sure you are well fed."
Kagome swallowed a slice of cantaloupe and looked into his emerald eyes. "So, you always do whatever Inuyasha says. Is he your brother or something?" She couldn´t hide her contempt when the kit spoke of Inuyasha like he was his master.
"Oh, no. We are not related. I just work for him." Shippo didn´t stop chomping on his sandwich while he spoke.
Kagome, on the other hand, was frozen while chewing her fruit, unable to swallow as a sudden wave of anger rose in her throat. "That bastard! Taking advantage of younger youkai like Shippo and that lovely secretary. How could he?"
She forced the fruit down and drank a sip of her tea before continuing the conversation.
"And how long have you been working here? I haven´t seen you before, but then I haven't been on this floor before."
"That´s probably the reason. I´ve been working for Inuyasha ever since my mother died, almost two years ago. My father used to work with Inuyasha´s father when I was a baby. Then they both died, and I only had my mother. Now I have no family left."
"And that´s why you are forced to work for him?" Kagome had to look down to hide the loathing she was beginning to feel towards Inuyasha. Clearly, she couldn´t trust her gut feeling. It had happened with Kouga and now with Inuyasha. The inexplicable attraction she felt towards the hanyo suddenly made her sick.
"I´ll only be working here a couple months more." The kit kept gobbling on his breakfast without a worry. Kagome thought that it was probably because life had been too harsh on him and he had learned not to show his suffering.
"So, is he firing you? Are you trying to find something better?"
Shippo looked at her in confusion, as if she was asking about the weather on Mars.
"Who? Inuyasha? He wouldn´t fire me, even if he threatened to kill me sometimes, he just likes to talk, but I know he´d never hurt me." He swallowed the last mouthful of sandwich and reached for his bottle. "I´m going to Tokio University next semester. I´ll study software engineering, just like Inuyasha, so I can help him out when I graduate. He got me a scholarship. Well, actually, the company is sponsoring a scholarship for its employees or their children, we only have to work here a few hours every month to apply. Shiori´s got one too, we are both going to start together."
The young woman could almost hear her jaw drop as the young youkai´s hurled his speech completely oblivious of her reaction. Kagome inhaled through her nose while she remained silent for a few moments trying to recompose herself.
"Is Shiori an orphan too?" Kagome thought her embarrassment was showing in her voice, but the boy didn´t seem to notice.
"She still has her mother though. Her father used to work for Inuyasha´s father too, like my father. The three of them died during a fire. Maybe that´s why Inuyasha takes care of us." He was lost in his own thoughts for a couple of seconds before he resumed talking. "And what about you Kagome? How long have you been dating Inuyasha?"
The innocent look on his face told her he wasn´t joking, nonetheless, Kagome almost choked on her tea, spilling most of it on her blouse and trousers.
Shippo handed her some paper napkins to soak some of it but it had already stained. Kagome sighed and smiled at the kid.
"I´m not dating Inuyasha Shippo, I´m just working for him, that´s all."
After cleaning the mess she had made, Kagome sat back down and resumed eating the fruit.
"Shippo, can I ask why did you assume I was Inuyasha´s girlfriend? Do you always bring breakfast for the girls he dates?" She tried to sound casual, only sneaking glances at the boy in front of her.
"Ha! Inuyasha doesn´t date!" He snorted before going on. " Not since Kikyo anyway. I just thought it was about time he got a girlfriend and you just smell like him." The kit took some pastry from another container and gave it a big bite. "Youkai rely on their sense of smell much more than humans, and you definitely smell like Inuyasha."
"Well, that may be because he carried me when I passed out, don´t you think?"
"It could be, but the smell is not just from today, but is faint, so... maybe from yesterday, like you have been hugging or maybe sleeping together. "
"I did not have sex with him!" The young woman almost screamed, startling Shippo with her sudden outburst. She felt the color extending up her neck, turning her face an intense shade of scarlet.
"I didn´t mean sex, that smells different too, you know?. But you smell like you are comfortable with each other, that´s it." He smiled as if he had reached a brilliant conclusion.
The girl was too mortified to utter a word at the moment. She just realized that if she was working with such sensitive creatures she could kiss her intimacy goodbye.
"Anyway, the scent was stronger now, probably because of what just happened. Everybody was talking about how Inuyasha was carrying a woman around the building.
"When did you have time to listen to gossip?" Kagome tried not to sound offended by his comments.
"Just a few moments ago, when I returned with the breakfast."
He must have noticed the look on Kagome´s face because he continued his rant.
"I wasn´t gossiping, I promise. I just have better hearing than most people realize, they were just talking, I didn´t know who they were talking about. Inuyasha doesn´t like scandals either."
"Don´t worry Shippo, I won´t tell him anything about our conversation."
"Really?" He was visibly relieved to hear her words, Kagome noticed. "Thanks, Kagome, you´re nice, I like you."
"Aww, I like you too Shippo, we should be friends, now that I´ll be working on this floor. I´ll be seeing you more often."
"That´ll be great! You will be working with friends then, that will sure piss Yura off."
"You mean Miss Sakasagami?"
"Oh yeah, I don´t like her at all. I heard she was mean to a lot of people before you and she probably is very angry now that Inuyasha brought you here. She has been flirting with him for a long time, she must have lost it when she smelled his scent on you."
Great, now she knew why her boss hated her guts. And she was now the juiciest piece of gossip around. Kagome put her tea down, she had the feeling she would be having a hard time digesting anything today.
Suddenly, she felt his presence right behind her. It was the strangest thing, she hadn´t heard the door open or his footsteps behind her, but she knew without a shadow of a doubt that Inuyasha was standing right behind her. The intense pull she was feeling in that direction announced his presence, her body was fully aware of his, a feeling so new and at the same time so familiar.
"Are you two done?" She sighed hearing his voice anchoring confirming his presence and bringing her to reality. Kagome just nodded and stood up.
"I´m ready, let´s go."
"Ok." He was about to turn around to leave the room when he suddenly turned back. "Shippo, I need you to work on sales today. With Miroku still absent and Kagome not working there anymore they´ll need a little help."
"Oh, crap! Do I have to?"
"I´ll make it up to you." The hanyo promised.
Grabbing her handbag from the chair next to her, Kagome made a beeline for the door and was just about to cross it when she turned around to wave at the fox kit.
"Thank you Shippo, it was a good breakfast. I´ll be seeing you around."
"Bye Kagome, t´was nice meeting you."
They smiled fondly at each other before the girl turned around and the half-demon followed her not too far behind her back.