InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ All But One ❯ Office Girl Fuji ( Chapter 14 )

All But One

Disclaimer? See my profile.

~~-~~~-~~~-~~~-~~~-~~~-~~~-~~~-~~~-~~~-~~~-~~~-~~~-~~~-~~~-~~~- ~~~-~~~-~~

Chapter 14: Office Girl Fuji

"Kagome, Kagome!"

"Woah, what is it?"

"Okay, first things first." Fuji was grinning almost maniacally, which was very disturbing. "First of all, we managed to fudge things so I'll be sharing an apartment-suite with Sesshoumaru at Wagamama-Newborg next year. In between the English and French sections."

"Wow. How'd you manage that?"

"Well, we're both native speakers of English, and fluent speakers of French, yeah? So they had to let us in, even if Fluffy's been there before."

"Don't call me that," Sesshoumaru interrupted. Kagome hadn't noticed him there.

"Whatever. They had to let us in. But… In between him being a senior and a FSMP mentor and me being lesbian and needing extra space for the religions project-thing lady Miru's going to have me working on, they didn't know where to put us. So we got the big apartment on the second floor, back of the dorm."

"That one? But that's huge!"

"I know, isn't it great?" She held up two fingers. "Second of all, wanna help me shop for conservative-ish clothing? I'm applying to be Inuyasha's office girl."

"What?" Sesshoumaru and Kagome said, almost at the same time.

Fuji turned and blinked up at Sesshoumaru. "Didn't I tell you?"

"No."

"Oh. Well, basically, Inuyasha's dad is making him work at his company over the summer, but is also giving him an office girl because he says he'll need one but doesn't deserve a secretary yet."

"Okay…" Kagome blinked a few times to sort things out.

""But it's not open knowledge yet, so I'm going to apply way in advance and get it! And then I'll be able to afford nice things like a refrigerator and an electric kettle and regular groceries next year. That is, assuming you'll let me stay with you over the summer, Sesshoumaru."

"I already said you could."

"Yay!" She latched onto him, which made him stumble a bit, which made her giggle.

"How much sugar did you have?" Kagome asked.

"It's not that," Sesshoumaru said, patting Fuji's back resignedly. "Or caffeine. She got ten hours of sleep two nights ago, and none last night."

"Ah."

"I admit to finding everything incredibly amusing right now," Fuji said, grinning as she let go of Sesshoumaru. "Wanna come? Please?"

"I have… class…?"

"No you don't. I know your schedule, darling. It's Friday, and you don't have any afternoon classes on Friday. Come on!"

And so Kagome and Sesshoumaru wound up trailing after Fuji as she ran around buying business clothing that came as close to her usual style as possible.

---~[]~---

Time passed. Kagome waited for her period, and started counting days when it didn't show on time. One day, two, three, four, five… a week, ten days, two weeks. She refused to let herself believe anything had happened until she missed her second period, but she was halfway there already, and beginning to feel panicky. She had trouble facing her friends, especially Fuji.

Fuji noticed, of course. She had been stupid to hope she wouldn't. Fuji also knew timing. So when Kagome left the bathroom, feeling queasy, Fuji pulled her into her own room, commented that the first class wasn't for a while and could be missed anyway, and made her sit down with her head between her knees and breathe deeply. When Kagome sat back up, she started rubbing her back.

"Feeling better?"

"Uh huh."

"What's wrong?"

"I missed my period."

"Completely? Or has it just been a few days?"

"Completely." Surely it would come out now.

"Oh. Well, I do that too, sometimes. It's because of the birth control."

"I don't use birth control."

"I see." Fuji was silent for a while, but she kept rubbing Kagome's back. "Is that part of what's really wrong?"

Kagome didn't speak.

"You're not acting like yourself, you know. You haven't been for a while. What's wrong? You can tell me, you know: I make a good confidante."

She'd have to tell her anyway. This was as good a time as any.

"You promise not to get angry?"

"I always make a point of seeing both sides of any argument."

That would have to do. "I slept with Naraku."

"Willingly?" There was just curiosity in the voice. It felt off.

"Yes."

"Go on."

"And… I didn't use birth control, and I've missed my period."

"Why didn't you use birth control?"

"My family wants me to have a baby."

"And you chose Naraku for the father."

Kagome concentrated, and straightened her face. "He doesn't care for me, I don't care for him, and I made sure he understood the situation before… doing anything. I was angry, I wanted to get my duty done with, have the child and give it to Mother to raise so I could follow my own path, be with the people I like for themselves, not that I choose for their bloodlines."

"It seems you've succeeded." There was a kind of wry humor in the words.

"Yes." She felt miserable.

"You don't sound happy about that. True, the father's a bastard, and you've got, what? Eight, nine moths ahead of you with something vaguely parasitic feeding off you and changing your shape, to be followed by the actual birth, but once it's over, you'll be free, right? Are you going to marry him?"

"Only at- at the end. And only for a little while."

"Just enough for legitimacy, then. Well," she sighed, "I can't say this news has made me deliriously happy, but I understand."

"You're mad, aren't you?"

"Not really, just… is adoption allowed?"

"I hadn't thought about it."

"Ah well. Nothing we can do about it now." Fuji shrugged. "What will be will be. Do you want to go to class, or would you rather stay here a while longer?"

"What were we supposed to learn today?"

Fuji reached over and picked up the syllabus. "'The coming of the black ships,'" she read. "Otherwise known as Perry vs. Tokugawa bakufu, round one. I know it, and we can copy notes."

"Then can I stay?"

There was a pause, and Kagome looked up. Fuji was watching her with an unreadable expression. "You can stay as long as you like," she said eventually. "And that includes forever."

---~[]~---

The second month completed, and Kagome still didn't have the courage to tell Sesshoumaru or Inuyasha, let alone Naraku. She did, however, learn that she would be in English section the next year, which cheered her a little. She would be near Fuji for the majority of her term, which was reassuring. Still, finals were coming up, and she knew she had to tell at least her close friends before the end of the year. They deserved to know the truth before she came back looking like a blimp and giving no explanation.

Fuji had gotten her job, Inuyasha was complaining about his, and Sesshoumaru had taken to watching her closely. She hoped she'd have the courage to tell him before he cornered her like Fuji did.

She didn't.

She looked up at a knock on the doorway, seeing that it was he, and smiled, standing to greet him. She'd been feeling so much better today for some reason, and his visit just made it all that better. "Are you looking for Fuji?"

"No, you."

"Well! Come in, then."

She sat back down as he entered, inviting him to do the same. He started to sit, then straightened again, walked to another chair, back again, then finally crouched in front of her chair and put his hands on its arms, effectively trapping her.

"You've been avoiding me."

"I have?" She was genuinely incredulous. "If I have, it wasn't consciously done."

"Why?" His expression was intense, and the way the light hit his eyes made them glow golden, the sunset sky giving his hair almost the same color.

"I… well… Fuji?" she called hopefully.

"What is it?" Fuji called back.

"Could you come here, please?"

She looked back at Sesshoumaru to find him puzzled, as if what he had expected hadn't happened.

Fuji came over with a pile of fabric dangling from one hand, a pair of scissors and a bobbin in the other, and a needle in her mouth. She paused, sat down, put the fabric on her lap and stuck the needle into it. The thread and scissors she set beside her on the bed. "Sesshoumaru, could you close the door, please? My lap is occupied."

He got up, still looking puzzled, and closed the door. The action seemed to bring him to a decision, because he leaned against it, black-faced, and watched them both.

"Duty," Fuji started. "It means that you have responsibilities, and you fulfill them whether you like it or not. Not so long ago, a young lady's only duty was to marry the man her family chose for her. Thankfully, these days it is not always so."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Sesshoumaru asked.

Kagome looked down at her clasped hands.

Fuji took up her needle again and resumed sewing. "As the possible heir to her family's shrine, it is one of her duties to provide herself with an heir of her own. Is this correct, Kagome?"

"Yes," she whispered.

"Furthermore, the father of this child must be as pure of blood as Kagome herself. In other words, he must be Japanese. `Foreigners are no good'. Is this correct, Kagome?"

"Yes."

Fuji spared a glance at Sesshoumaru before returning placidly to her work. "Mrs. Higurashi was displeased to learn of Kagome's closeness with us. She feels, perhaps that we are a polluting influence."

"Yes," Kagome said, this time without being prompted.

"Of course, once one's duty is discharged, one is free of it. Kagome must produce a legitimate, pure-blooded child, born of herself and one other, nothing more."

"I figured as much already," Sesshoumaru. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because Kagome would have started with the fact and you might not have let her get to the explanation. Briefly, then, in order to be free of her duty, she found a Japanese man willing to marry her for the child's birth only, and…"

She stopped sewing as she trailed off, and her gaze, deceptively mild, rested on the girl across from her.

Kagome swallowed. She looked at her hands, at the floor, at Fuji, looking back at her, and finally at Sesshoumaru. "I'm pregnant."

"By…" he prompted.

"Naraku."

She heard the click of needle on thimble, heard the slight noise the thread made as it was pulled through the fabric, heard the bed shift, heard their breath: Fuji's steady, hers shallow, and his fast. After a long pause, she heard the doorknob twist, and it opened. He was leaving.

Fuji spoke: "It will not be easy living together, if one of us forgives her while the other does not."

"You forgive?" he asked.

"Of course." She finished mending the tear and tied off. "I understand: I am, after all the last of my line, and if it is to continue, then I too must have a legitimate child." A snip of the scissors, and she shook out the skirt, folded it, and put it aside. "Besides, the sooner she gets this over with, the sooner she can be with us."

~~-~~~-~~~-~~~-~~~-~~~-~~~-~~~-~~~-~~~-~~~-~~~-~~~-~~~-~~~-~~~- ~~~-~~~-~~

I hate writer's block. Hopefully it's over now. Sorry for the wait, everyone!

lovin_sesshomaru_isnteasy - I wasn't sure how easy that would be to understand. Okay, know how Kagome's adopted sponsor group all lives on the same hall? The sections are kind of like that, but can be comprised of sophomores through seniors and don't have sponsors like the freshmen do. Depending on the popularity of a language, a section may be larger than a single hall, but it's basically a whole bunch of people with a similar lingual interest living near each other. How's that?

Inuyasha has not, so far as I know, applied to live in English section, so Kagome wouldn't be with him, supposing she got in. But the other two, yes. Somewhere nearby, at least. ^~

Arianna - I will have those claw-things… eventually. Their reaction is as you see, at least on the surface. Don't worry, there will be some more physical Naraku-bashing soon. Just wait for Tomo, alright? ^_~

fluffysprincess - nice summary, there. You're pretty much right on all counts, and what's different is what I haven't revealed yet. Thanks for the review!

Mistress Koishi - I like Naraku's laugh too. Votes noted, thanks. ^^

hglover2 - Sadly, Fuji and Inuyasha will never be together. The idea makes me go `gack'. I always try to update as soon as possible, and I'm sorry this one took so long.

moon princess - Woo! We have a convert!

sun goddess - Oi. I like that idea too. We'll see.

Lady Nerezza - Not in this story, I'm afraid, but I'll see what I can do in others. How's that?

Fujiwara Nanashi - … Sesshoumaru says that he likes your enthusiasm, but not the name. I like your name, by the by.