InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ On a Leash ❯ Bending the Rules ( Chapter 20 )

A/N: Don't worry so much about Inu's predicament. -laughs- He'll live. Besides, it's only if he wants to escape into the outside world. There will be much fun going on, oh yes. I'm starting to see that I have to listen to my Lord of the Rings CD when I'm typing this. (It's the one from "Return of the King".)

For the record, all I really know about Japanese New Year I learned from Takahashi's "Maison Ikkoku". So, that's not much, so a lot of this might be a bit of stuff that came off the top of my head. Just…I'm an American! And I currently don't have internet and can't check online so…just think of it as a Westernized New Years celebration….

"Whoever renders service to many puts himself in line for greatness-great wealth, great return, great satisfaction, great reputation, and great joy." -Jim Rohn

Chapter Twenty: Bending the Rules

"'I'm sure Kagome can take the collar off again…' Keh! Easy enough for him to say."

"Do you mind, Inuyasha? You've been at it the last three days." Kagome flipped lazily through the channels. "Just drop it ok?"

Inuyasha grumbled but piped down from his perch on the couch.

Kagome could understand his distress-having to be put into a curse he had endured for fifty years because of some sort of weird safety issue had to be even more torturous, but she had begun to carry the collar in her pocket just in case she ever had to use it all the same, which so far had not been once. Nevertheless, her hanyou had only been in his real form for about five days and six nights-if excluding the night of the new moon. Still, complaining about it wasn't going to help any.

Sighing, the girl was vaguely aware that the ten second countdown for the New Year was in about forty-five minutes. Right now people were watching for some giant ball to drop, the clocks to change, parties to start, or for the end of the world to come. Mama, Souta, and Gramps had gone ahead to enjoy the celebration with their fans, kimonos, and money.

Mama had felt awful leaving the pair behind while the rest got to enjoy ringing in the New Years. Everyone had worked equally hard today as so many visitors came during the open hours of the shrine and said prayers, and bought trinkets and fortunes. It had taken some persuasion, but Kagome had managed to get her mother to have fun-that she and Inuyasha would be fine by themselves.

With much reluctance in his voice, Inuyasha had told her she could go with her family, but Kagome wouldn't hear a word of it. She had simply stated she was going to stick beside him and keep him company-Buyo couldn't possibly be that enthralling. He had probably thought she couldn't see him, but she had caught the look of relief that crossed his face.

For the last two hours or so, the strident whistling of fireworks erupting in the distance hummed in the still air of the living room between Kagome and Inuyasha. There had not been much to speak about. To be honest, they cleared up a lot of mixed up details the night they met with Sesshoumaru, and neither was in a particularly chattering mood at the moment.

Buyo was curled up on top of the TV, while Kagome remained bundled under her favorite galaxy-patterned fleece blanket on the floor in front of Inuyasha. Said half-demon was still muttering to himself with his hands joined behind his head and pillowing it as he stretched out.

"I can't take this any more!" suddenly burst Inuyasha, flying forward into a sitting position.

Kagome whirled quickly. "Can't take what?"

"The fact that until we get the deed from my old man's grave, I have to play coward while the rest of the world is free to do whatever stupid shit it may. I'm stuck hanging around the house like a prisoner." He slumped back into the couch, livid.

"Inuyasha," the girl shut the television off, "getting angry about it and bemoaning the fact isn't going to make it go away. Sesshoumaru doesn't want you to get hurt or killed and have Naraku take hold of your family's land. Is that what you want?"

He snorted. "No. But I don't wanna be cooped up like a jailbird, either. I've had enough of that."

"I'm sure you have. It must have been really hard…" her voice drifted off, quietly, almost as if she had vicariously experienced his woes through the amber eyes that beheld them. "It's just so you can be safe so no one sees you."

Inuyasha was quiet for a moment, and Kagome turned around again, staring at the blank screen. "You know, Kagome, it's hard to see things when it's dark." She could hear the smirk in his voice.

"Yeah, and your point is?"

Rolling off the couch, he replied, smirking as she thought he would be, "It'll be really hard for anyone to see me well. So…"

Kagome peered at him when he crouched beside her. Waggling her head incredulous at the crazy idea that came to her mind, she posed her thought to him. "You're not saying we should sneak out…are you, Inuyasha?"

"Well, I wouldn't call it sneaking." He stood to his full height. "It's more like enjoying the last hour before the New Year. Come on, let's go."

"No way!" She leapt to her feet. "Inuyasha! We can't just leave like that!" She snapped her fingers in front of his nose to emphasize her point. "What if one of the people working for Naraku sees you? No, we can't risk you doing something that scatterbrained. There's too much at stake."

Leveling a glare with her, Inuyasha folded his arms over his torso. "Fine then. Stay home if you're chicken."

"It's not a matter of bravery, stupid!" she exasperatedly bickered back. "It's a matter of using your brain!"

"So you're scared then."

"I am not. I just don't want something bad to happen. Let's just stay and watch the countdown on TV."

"You don't really wanna spend a New Year at home, do you?" He gave her that penetrating look, the kind that forces you to tell the inalienable truth.

Kagome squirmed uncomfortably, yet kept her unyielding stare on him. "I am willing to stay home if that means you won't get hurt, Inuyasha."

"Heh." The half-demon smirked once more. "I won't get hurt. Come on. I can tell by your scent alone that you don't want to be here. You'd rather be having some fun, too."

"Leave my scent out this-that's personal property, but…" she paused thoughtfully, "it is dark…." Kagome shook her head vigorously. "No, Inuyasha, and that's that."

Peering at her for a second, Inuyasha shrugged his shoulders. "Suit yourself then. I'm going out. See ya." He made for the entryway where his coat and shoes awaited.

"I-Inuyasha!" Scrambling over to him, Kagome grabbed hold of his forearm as he stuffed his feet into his sneakers. "You can't go out by yourself," she scolded, hearing that oh-so-familiar big sister voice come out of her mouth.

"Then get your stuff on and let's go." Inuyasha turned to her. "It'll only be until the New Year rings in, then we'll come home--simple as that."

"W-well…" Kagome was sorely tempted, and it would only be for less than an hour. "I suppose if it's just this once, and it will be dark…but as soon as the next year comes, we have to come right back."

"All right!" the hanyou cheered with a proud smile. "Hurry up." He grabbed her coat and tossed it at her.

"Hey!" She caught it and balled the gloves together and tucked them into the side pocket before putting it on. Kagome waggled a finger at Inuyasha, looking to him sternly. "We're not going to be doing this all the time. I'm only going to turn a blind eye this once, so this is my bad deed from this year. I don't want the next year to start off with bad karma." She snatched Souta's oversized baseball cap from the peg. "Wear this."

Inuyasha only smirked as he slid the door open.

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The snow had melted away quickly like every short-lived snowy winter in Japan. Puddles of water collected in the depressions of the stone courtyard from where shrine-goers had tramped up and down for over five hundred years. It was a bit nippy, like autumn, but undeniably still winter; until the spring equinox, it would remain that season.

The pair scooted to the street, able to duck passed the people milling about the sidewalk. Some of the folks were wearing traditional kimonos, while others were donning Western clothes.

Inuyasha had jammed the cap on his head, complaining that it tickled the finite hairs on the inside of his ears, though it did help to muffle the screeching fireworks bursting in the air.

After the initial bout of anxiousness, Kagome had only been plagued by the remnant culpable nerves that twanged as each minute ticked away. "Where do you want to go?" she asked as they paced down the concrete walkway. "Mom, Grampa, and Souta went to some festival over by the park.

"Guess we can just walk around until we find something interesting," Inuyasha said with a shrug.

"I don't want to get too far away from home. Shouldn't we leave a trail or something?" Kagome glanced back nervously. She was seriously starting to get second thoughts about this. Maybe this would carry over into the next year and bite her in the rear…

"Oh, sure, Gretel," he sneered, tucking his hands into his pockets, "we can leave a trail of breadcrumbs and hope a hobo doesn't come by and eat them beforehand."

"Just shut up, Inuyasha."

With a chuckle, the hanyou continued to walk along with a fidgety miko-in-training at his side.

There was so much excitement that Inuyasha felt like a little kid in a candy store (though he wasn't making himself out to be Hansel). To be honest, he wasn't sure what to check out first. For the first time in fifty years, he was not only hanyou, but outdoors amongst the populace and to be honest he really was thrilled. Maybe a bit cautious, but still very much tickled.

A posturing gang of teenage guys were setting off some firecrackers on the tarmac while a couple of girls made pouting faces at them.

Kagome and Inuyasha both rolled their eyes distastefully as they passed by.

"What a bunch of losers," he muttered, kicking a burnt-out bottle rocket off the edge of the curb.

"What'd you say?" one of guys shouted, his lighter in hand.

"I called you a loser, loser."

"Inuyasha," Kagome tugged on his arm, whispering urgently, "don't…"

He ignored her.

The guy that spoke stood up. Judging from the spikes that protruded from his arms, and the scales at the base of them, he was some form of reptilian demon. "You want to fight with me, pup?"

Inuyasha snorted. "I normally don't like to fight infants or ignoramuses, and you happen to be both."

He sniffed once, tongue tip darting out slightly, and then exhaling sharply. "You hanyou bastard." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a chain of firecrackers. "Shut the hell up." He lit the fuse and threw it at the couple, having an open shot.

Snagging Kagome around the waist, Inuyasha jumped them out of the way of the explosives, hearing them bang into the ground with loud pops. Landing on the other side of the street, the hanyou tucked his fiancée behind him. "Wait here, Kagome."

"Inuyasha…" She tugged on his sleeve; so far this was turning out badly for their little covert excursion. "Inuyasha, please, just leave it alone. This isn't worth your time."

"Are you saying I'm worthless, bitch?" the guy asked, approaching them. His buddies remained in the middle of the street, looking as intelligent as they were acting--guffawing boisterously.

Kagome swallowed, voice locking up on her. "I…" she stammered weakly, peeking around Inuyasha's elbow.

"Well, bitch?!" he barked again, his foot just stepping onto the curb of their side of the street.

Inuyasha ripped away from her and charged the demonic youth. "Leave her the hell out of this!" Faster than an eye blink, he'd rushed over and slugged the boy with a strong right hook.

The reptilian demon flew rearwards and struck into a streetlamp with a sound thud. His friends and the flirtatious girls gaped in awe as their pal fell face-first to kiss the blacktop, and then to Inuyasha.

Straightening up, Inuyasha leveled them all with a brazen glare while Kagome trotted up next to him, just as wide-eyed. "Are you crazy?" She shook his shoulder before grabbing his wrist; she glanced rearwards, seeing a pair of uniformed officers heading their way. "Let's get going before you really get into trouble…"

Allowing his molten gaze to linger on the group just long enough to make them writhe, he let Kagome lead him away. When they were finally far enough away from the shell-shocked minute crowd, he asked, "Why didn't you just let me continue to wail on his sorry ass? It's not like his little friends were going to challenge me."

"Even so," she said levelly, turning a corner, continuing to drag him along like a small child, "what if that guy had a gun on him or something? You could be really messed up, you know. You sure have some nerve, Inuyasha." They finally came to a rest in front of a closed florist shop, the huge screen from downtown Tokyo flashing eleven forty-four. Kagome stared him down the same way a wife does to her husband when he does something she finds incredibly stupid that made her worry. "If you cause too much of a stir, Naraku might hear about it and that's the last thing we need. Now, don't pick any more fights."

"I didn't pick a fight," Inuyasha argued. "That guy started talking shit to me!"

"Only after you started saying stuff about him! Use your brain and knock this off!"

"Hmph." He turned his head away. He could hear her teeth grind slightly, even amongst the din of pyrotechnics coming from the baseball stadium.

After counting to ten, Kagome released a long breath. "Let's not start off this year badly. Let's just go find a place to watch the fireworks, ok? That was why we came out here to begin with, wasn't it?"

Inuyasha faced her again. "I guess. It's not like we can go many other places, right?"

"Nope."

"So, where do we go…?"

They had been mulling over it for a while, and it was about to prove pointless, when Kagome snapped her fingers with a smile and a giggle. "I have the perfect idea."

"What's that?" Inuyasha continued to peer through the window glass at the geraniums in the window.

"Well, you can see most of Tokyo from the rooftop of my school. Why don't we sit up there and watch the fireworks? No one would be able to see us very well, so we could watch the countdown for the New Year, and be able to get home quicker than everyone else."

He nodded, finally tearing away from the florist shop window. "Sounds like a plan. How far is your school?"

"Um…" Kagome looked to and fro, trying to remember her way around. "About three blocks from here. It's right down this street."

"Get on."

"Huh?" She looked to the spot where Inuyasha had stood, and panned her gaze down to where he crouched. "What?"

"Climb on, girl. It'll go faster this way. "

Kagome clambered on. "Sure this won't hurt your back?"

"Keh. You don't weigh that much." He rose a bit. "Hang on tight."

"'k." Before Kagome realized, it, they were moving at a swift pace, and their surroundings melted away. Kagome had never moved this quickly before and it was such a spine-tingling thrill, the wind rushing her hair in an after-current and her skirt rustling wildly.

It wasn't long before Inuyasha came to the fenced schoolyard. He stopped running for a brief moment, then leapt up to one of the brick pillars and vaulted over. He used the metal fire escapes as stepping stones up to the rooftop and touched down gracefully in the center of it.

"Have fun, Kagome?" he inquired, a haughty smile on his face at the overwhelmed look on the girl's countenance.

"That…was so cool…"

Inuyasha continued to grin as he leapt up and on the structure that protected the staircase. He got to his haunches again and let her off prior to flopping to his rump, feet hanging off the edge. "Looks like we won't have much longer to wait for the next year."

Kagome gingerly sat down beside him. "Anything you really hope for, any resolutions?"

"I make a resolution to never make a resolution."

She shook her head laughingly. "Sounds good to me. Maybe I'll make it mine, too, this year."

"What do you resolve to do usually?"

"Not to pick on Souta."

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh, so you must be giving up on that one."

"Hey," Kagome shoved him, "I'm not that mean to him. He does deserve it most of the time." She playfully scowled as Inuyasha chuckled. "But for my hope, it'd probably be that we get the deed soon and that the bad doesn't offset the good."

From the heart of the city, the cry of "ten…nine…eight…" could be heard, as the final seconds of the year waned.

"To next year," Inuyasha murmured, feeling very cynical. "May it be far less fucked up than the last."

Seven…six…five…

"Inuyasha, you never said what you hoped for."

Four...three…two…

"What I hope for…

One….

"…that it goes better the second time around."

"Inuyasha, what do you mean-"

Zero…

"Happy New Year!" Tokyo screamed as the fireworks soared into the air, breaking into beautiful bursts of passionate colors that glittered in the sky like the stars that no one could see.

"Welcome to the New Year, Kagome." Inuyasha peered at the sky.

Kagome smiled, question forgotten. "Happy New Year, Inuyasha." Leaning against him, she watched the fireworks fly, just as her hopes and anxieties reflectively reached peak in his eyes.

They sat there for a while, loathe to moving from their wonderfully pleasant spot. Tokyo continued to cheer and glisten, while they remained exalted above, like a fated couple who were too lost in the stars in the others eyes with a passion just as rare as the night sky in this impacted city. Yet, even so, it was nearly ten minutes into the New Year and they had to get home.

Inuyasha had dived from the very top of the school and alighted nimbly before bounding from the schoolyard over the fence to the deserted sidewalk. He landed a little heavier than he anticipated, yet managed to not tip over.

"Oh, no!" Kagome whimpered from behind his head. "My gloves." Her balled-up gloves had bounced from her pocket to the street. Sliding off Inuyasha's back, she trotted over to get them, while the shrill shrieks of the pyrotechnics continued. Crouching down, Kagome grabbed them.

Then, whipping from around the corner, came a set of headlights, and Kagome's body went rigid.

The lights were coming closer, coming faster.

"Kagome! Move!"

Kagome stared as her pupils contracted and then suddenly everything went dark and the world spun in crazy ribbons of light.

A heavy, sickening thump followed by the screech of tires burning hotly as they sped over the pavement without even stopping, without looking back…

Opening her eyes with a moan, Kagome looked from where she faced the gutter to where she heard the thud. Oh no…

There he was lying, on his side, unmoving-blood pooling around him.

He'd pushed her out of the way…and now…

"INUYASHA!"

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A/N: Eek! Look what I did! And right after my wonderful 17th b-day party stuff, too! I suddenly felt evil…though I'd been planning this for a while. *pulls the fire rat fur haori over her head* I'm staying safe with this, and it won't come off! Please don't hate me! Just…just bear with me, ok?! My birthday was good, and kind of crazy, and I promise that Inuyasha will be fine.

~Moonlight Shadow