InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Lot About Love ❯ Making the plan ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter Two

Making the Plan

 

The sun was shining, bright and yellow as Inuyasha pulled into a small—very small—hotel; one of the many in the town of Ignacio.

 

Inuyasha parked the car, and stepped out. He headed for the small, brown office a bit off from the rooms he could choose to rent. Many of them were taken, surprisingly. Inuyasha wasn't used to seeing tons of people inhabiting rooms. Usually, seeing as normal people worked during the week.

 

It was funny, through this whole trip, Inuyasha had lost track of time. Not the daily time, but what month it was and such. He never thought it would be that easy to lose yourself in something.

 

“Hello.” A short, stubby man stood behind a desk that was obviously too tall for the man. Inuyasha stifled a laugh when he got a glimpse of a small stool below the man's feet.

 

“Yes, I'm here to rent a room for one night.” Inuyasha grabbed his wallet and opened it up.

 

“Okay, sir…” The man mumbled as he started to press buttons and knobs on a small computer to his side. “Your total is $12.95.”

 

The man's grin was unnerving, something about it made you feel like, even though he had a low rank job like this, that he was still superior to you.

 

Inuyasha smiled nervously back at the man before flipping through his black, leather wallet. Nothing. He had nothing. No money, expect a picture of Shippou and a few other family members back home.

 

“Having any problems, sir?” The man asked again with a grin.

 

“Is there any other way to pay for the room?” He asked cheekily.

 

“I'm sorry sir; we only accept…money here.” The man stopped smiling as if Inuyasha had just changed sexes before his very eyes. Disgust.

 

Just as Inuyasha sighed and started to walk out of the office, a man's voice stopped him.

 

“Excuse me, but are we having any problems?” Inuyasha stopped and turned around. His eyes locked with an elderly man, about eighty or so years of age, give or take a few. The man's eyes looked tired, like he never slept a wink anymore, but he could still see a certain joy to the eyes. Wrinkles covered the man's face, making him look quite older for his given age. An old, dark navy blue sweatshirt covered the man as well as a pair of blue jeans.

 

“This man doesn't have money for his room, Sir.” The short man told the elder. Inuyasha could tell he was the manager or at least owner of the small hotel franchise.

 

“Oh, and what are you willing to do for the room?” Inuyasha noticed the question was directed to him as he gulped and took a deep breath, thinking over what would be the right thing to say, before he blurted it out.

 

“I'd be willing to work for it.” The older man nodded and Inuyasha could tell he was caring, maybe even understanding, but he didn't want to push it and actually trust the man.

 

“Give him a night here.” He told the man at the desk. It was obvious that the man at the desk didn't like Inuyasha, but did as he was instructed anyway. “You,” He pointed to Inuyasha. “Come with me.”

 

Inuyasha nodded and followed the man through the door he had come from. He looked around, the door only led to a small hallway, only room enough for you to wave a hand about and no other big movements.

 

“So, where are you from?” Inuyasha jumped at the sound of the man's voice.

 

“Uhh, Tokyo.” He saw the man nod from behind.

 

“That's pretty far, ain't it?” Inuyasha nodded but noticed the man wouldn't be able to see him with his back turned.

 

“Yes, it is.”

 

“What are you doing way over here across the waters?”

 

“Not really sure.” It was true, he didn't know why he was over here in California instead of being back home with his family and friends.

 

“Oh, a wonderer are ya?” The old man chuckled.

 

“I guess you could say that.” Inuyasha answered, scratching his head.

 

“So, what do you know how to do?” Inuyasha raised an eyebrow in question. “You plan on working, so what do you know how to do?”

 

“Oh…I guess anything.” Inuyasha just shrugged.

 

“…I like you boy.” Inuyasha smiled. This just might be easy for once.

 

~*~

 

Nope, not at all. What made him think the guy would go easy on him?

 

Inuyasha growled.

 

Here he was, on the top of the roof, taking off old shingles so the old man could come up and replace them later.

 

Yeah, he knew how to get the damn shingles out, but no-o-o, he didn't find it particularly fun to do at the moment. He was tired, wanting to get out of this job and have a shower then watch something on the low-income cable.

 

Inuyasha continued to follow the man down towards what seemed to be a mini storage shed at the back of the office.

 

“Here; you have this to work with.” The elderly man handed Inuyasha a small pail, a chisel and a pair of small rubber gloves.

 

“What are these for?” Inuyasha asked as he hesitantly took the equipment from the man.

 

“You plan on working for your room, right?” Inuyasha nodded, still not getting it. “You are to use these and go up to the roof…your job is to remove the shingles so I can go up there and replace them later when I find the time to.”

 

Inuyasha gawked.

 

“Oh, and please have it done by the time you leave tomorrow, or whenever you're leaving…” Then the man left Inuyasha standing there with a pail in his left hand, tacky bright yellow gloves covering his hands and a chisel resting in his right.

 

“Hey up there.” Inuyasha glanced down to see a young man standing down on the ground.

 

“Hi.” Inuyasha smiled then continued to tear of shingles, hoping the guy would leave him alone.

 

“I see you're working for my father.” The man chuckled.

 

“Your father owns the hotel?” The man nodded.

 

“Yup, he's a good man, but a tad bit too harsh when it comes to tasks such as this…” The man scratched his short, brown hair and grinned back to Inuyasha. “Mind if I help?”

 

“Oh, you don't have to.” Inuyasha sighed, wanting the help, just not wanting to ask for it.

 

“Don't worry, I'd love to help…besides, I have nothing else better to do.” The man started climbing the ladder and sat beside Inuyasha.

 

As the man started pulling on the tiles, Inuyasha did an inspection. The man had short brown hair, bright blue eyes and a nice wardrobe to boot.

 

“What's your name?” Inuyasha asked as the man looked up.

 

“Oh, how rude, my name's Hojo, and you?” He held his hand out.

 

“Inuyasha.” The men grinned and shook hands.

 

“You're from out of town?”

 

Inuyasha nodded.

 

“Yup, Tokyo, Japan to be exact.” Hojo gawked.

 

“Wow, way out of town.” They both smiled. “So, how you liking America?”

 

Inuyasha smiled at the accent the man was giving off. It reminded him how different home was to where he was staying at now.

 

“It's great, just got out of high school, decided to travel the world.” Hojo nodded in understanding.

 

“Cool, I always wanted to do that…but couldn't.”

 

“How come?”

 

“Oh, family…my father's getting old; he wanted me to have this junk of a hotel.”

 

“That's too bad.” Inuyasha sighed.

 

“So, do you have any specific place you're heading to?” Inuyasha nodded.

 

“Sacramento, then I don't know where from there, maybe England.”

 

“Oh cool, never been there, but…I haven't been much of anywhere lately, helping an old man like my father really cuts into your personally life.” Hojo chuckled.

 

“Yeah…I was about to cut off this whole trip I had planned since my older brother wasn't into it much…but sometimes you've gotta do things for yourself.” Inuyasha shrugged.

 

“So, how long have you been traveling?”

 

“About four months now almost.” Inuyasha chuckled. “Yeah, a long time when you say it out loud. But it hasn't felt like that at all…my family keeps calling so I'm still updated in their lives…”

 

“That's good.” The men continued there job. Silence followed close behind as Inuyasha tore off the last shingle.

 

“Thanks for the help.” Inuyasha pulled the ladder off its post as he watched the man start to walk away.

 

“No problem, have fun in the real world Inuyasha.” He chuckled as he headed inside to get some much-needed rest.

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Inuyasha characters, anime of manga. Rumiko Takahashi does and I'm glad she had the imagination to create such amazing characters to play with.