InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Best Man Steals the Bride ❯ Inuyasha Will Decide It All ( Chapter 21 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, Dr. Pepper, Keebler's Crackers, Harry Potter or anything else I may be mistaken to own in this story. I also make no profit off of this fic either. Nothing, nada, zilch. Okey-dokey? Good, now you may move onto the fic.

The Best Man Steals the Bride

By: Msmelanie (Now being known as Fondest Desire)

Chapter Twenty-One: Inuyasha Will Decide It All

Authors Note: Thank you so much for hanging in there with me everyone. I'm very pleased that you are still there, and I really hope you are enjoying that ending.

Day: Thursday

Place: Inuyasha's place

Time: 6:40 P.M.

"Wow." Kagome commented as she looked at Inuyasha's living room. "Blanket, popcorn…this'll be better than the theatre."

Inuyasha didn't reply. He popped the first tape of Harry Potter in. "Don't hog all the blanket though, you've gotta share."

"I won't." Kagome humphed. "You're the one that hogs the blanket all the time."

"Yeah, yeah." He replied as he got into the blankets and grabbed a handful of popcorn.

"Share, share." Kagome reminded him. Inuyasha slowly passed the popcorn over to her.

As the movie rolled along, Kagome and Inuyasha got comfortable in their blankets. They forgot about reality until there was a knock on the door.

Knock:Knock

Inuyasha groaned. "Go away!"

Kagome elbowed him. "Press pause and go answer the door."

Standing there was Miroku.

"Snake? What the hell do ya want?"

Miroku shaked a tape knowingly. He knew that Inuyasha had Kagome over watching a movie.

Inuyasha crossed his arms. "Kagome asked, but Sango told her she did not know if she liked you or not. That's it, give me the tape." He growled.

Kagome came to the door behind Inuyasha. 'Hi Miroku." She pointed to the tape in his hand. "What's that?"

Miroku looked at the tape. "It's called 'A Nap Between Friends." He winked at Inuyasha. "It's quite good, would you like to borrow it?"

"No, she does not!" Inuyasha shouted. There was no way he would let Kagome see Miroku's recording of Inuyasha and Kagome taking a nap in her room. "Miroku, you better not test me." He muttered dangerously under his breath.

Miroku just laughed. "All in good spirit my friend, I assure you." He said before he started to walk off."

Inuyasha closed the door. "Pain in the ass."

Kagome frowned but shrugged her shoulders. Inuyasha and Miroku's friends was a complete mystery to her.

They went back to laying down on their blankets while Inuyasha unpressed pause on the DVD.

11:30 that night…

Kagome yawned as she buttoned her coat back up. "That was fun. Thanks for inviting me, Inuyasha."

"Yeah Kitten." Inuyasha replied. "Guess it's time you get home, huh?"

Kagome smiled. "Yep."

"Yeah, okay." Inuyasha grabbed his jacket.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome asked. "You've seemed a little sad through the night. Are you okay?"

"Sure." He replied simply.

Kagome frowned at him. "Don't think that because our reading is over, our friendship will be over." She winked. "I don't let my friends get away that easy."

Inuyasha just smirked.

Kagome just chuckled at his expression. "We should get back home before it gets colder."

Inuyasha just half-smiled behind her as she walked out.

Guess their friendship wasn't as fragile as he thought.

Day: Monday

Place: Literature Class

Inuyasha looked up from his reading. Everything was pretty much done for the semester. The only thing left was the final, so the Lit teacher was calling the students up one by one telling them how they did on their discussion papers.

The teacher was always a little easy on the heart. If the student did great, he would tell where, when, why and how they did well. If a student didn't do so great, he always told them to try a little harder next time.

Although he was easy on a student's heart, he wasn't easy on a student's grade. "Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha groaned but got up. Every paper he ever turned into the guy, he always got a C or a D, with the comment 'try harder'.

He stood by the desk while the teacher brought out the paper.

'Yep, the usual. Gobs of red marking.' Inuyasha thought. 'Get it over with'.

"Let's see…" the teacher began. "Well, I wanted to say that you have made great strides in your improvement. There were a couple typos, you might want to double check it next time you turn a paper in." he smiled at Inuyasha. "But I don't grade on grammar, I grade on the quality of the work. I must say this paper is quality work for you."

Inuyasha stopped and looked down at the paper. "Did he just say I did a good job?'

He looked over at Kagome who was smiling over at him. He didn't know what to do, so he just did what Kagome always did. He stared at the paper.

"Now, this part right here in your third summary was interesting and very detailed. And this…" he ruffled through the papers. "This part right here…and this was better than average…this part right here was pure genius."

Inuyasha's cheeks started to burn as he continued to stare at his paper. This was really weird to him, he wasn't use to this kind of praise.

"Taking evidence from the other books and predicting how the last book will end took some effort…" the teacher continued. He gave the red marked paper to Inuyasha, then pulled out a second copy of the same paper. "You've greatly improved on your reading habits and it shows very well within this paper. Even though I had my doubts about whether I should allow you to do your research over such a popular series, I am very glad you did. You've shown initiative and great quality throughout this paper."

On the other copy, he marked an A on the top and gave it also to Inuyasha. "Incredible job, keep it up for the years to come."

Inuyasha just looked at the papers in his hands and started to walk back to his desk. While he did that, Kagome winked at him.

Making his cheeks burn even more.

Later after Lit…

"You really got an A!" Kagome squeaked.

Inuyasha handed her the piece of paper with his grade on it. "It was weird. He called me a pure genius."

"I know." Kagome smiled. "When you do well on a paper, he lets you know where and how…after one great paper, it's hard to make a bad paper because you don't want his views of you to change." She chuckled. "I think that's why a lot of students keep doing well once they get a good paper."

She looked down at Inuyasha's paper. "Wow. An A. It's amazing, all I've ever made was a B on my papers."

"A 'B'!" Inuyasha shouted in surprise.

"Yeah." She waved his paper. "So trust me, you really earned this grade." She laughed.

"Wow. I got an A and you didn't." Inuyasha spoke nonchalantly. Then he grinned wickedly. "I got an A and you never managed to get one. I wonder what that's saying about us?"

"Don't rub it in." Kagome frowned.

Inuyasha ruffled her hair to her annoyance. "It's okay, you're still smart enough to hang out with me."

"Inuyasha!" Kagome scolded as she stepped on his feet.

"Oh! Oh! Such pain!" Inuyasha laughed. "All right Kitten, I give up. You're almost as smart."

Kagome just elbowed him playfully. "You did a great job, Inuyasha. Don't forget to show your mom." she teased.

Although happiness was reigning in front of the Lit. building, there was nothing but agony and anger coming from someone hiding behind it.

'Look at them.' Hojo snarled. 'Laughing and smiling and…and…'

He watched as Kagome gave Inuyasha a great big hug.

"Congratulations." She smiled as she hugged him.

'That's it!' Hojo looked away. He couldn't take anymore. 'I thought they were so close because they read so much, but they are not doing that anymore!' He fisted his hands together. 'They still see each other just as much! Too much! WAY too much for just friends!'

Miroku saw the painful expression on his friends face. It had to be done though, he could not have Kagome when she was in love with someone else. Not when it was with Inuyasha. Everyone would end up being miserable. "I am sorry my friend, but it just happened." He crossed his arms. "Neither of them expected this to happen."

Hojo looked angrily at Miroku. "So you did know?" He turned his head away. "Some friend you are."

Miroku didn't know how to react exactly. "Inuyasha and Kagome still do not realize their own feelings." He just shrugged his shoulders. "It just happened. Maybe this is the way it was supposed to be." He said as he watched Inuyasha and Kagome walk away.

"No, it's not!" Hojo yelled angrily. "It was NEVER supposed to be like this! Kagome was supposed to be my bride, and I was supposed to be her groom! And all that cheating asshole of a friend was supposed to be was the best man! That's it!"

Miroku sighed.

"His job was just supposed to be, to wait by my side while Kagome walked down the aisle." Hojo said softly before kicking the building and yelling. "It wasn't supposed to steal Kagome's love away from me!"

He sunk down to his knees.

Miroku patted his shoulder. "Hojo. I have no doubt that you care for Kagome very deeply and that you believe you love her."

"I do love her!" Hojo yelled.

"Nevertheless." Miroku frowned. "I am sorry my friend, but she does not love you."

He tried to steady his friends shaking shoulder. "As for Inuyasha, he never meant to hurt you. He still does not even realize his feelings for Kagome." Miroku sighed. "And his love does not seem unrequited."

Hojo hit the ground. "It wasn't supposed to be this way. It wasn't supposed to be this way!"

Miroku did not know what to do. "Perhaps you'll find someone special one day."

"I won't have that long, you know that!" Hojo cried out. "Don't you get it? I'm going, I am leaving! I won't have TIME to find someone else!" Hojo looked at the ground and made his hands into fists. "I don't have the time, I just want to spend the rest of my life with someone kind like Kagome. Someone who is caring, who is loving like Kagome." He looked over at Miroku. "Why is it so wrong?"

Miroku just stared at his friend. "Because granting your last wish, will ruin her life. Don't you see that?"

"Why…" Hojo muttered to himself. "Why Inuyasha? Why does HE deserve her? He's never treated any woman with respect, he's never gone out with one for more than a week, he's…he is not GOOD enough for her."

Miroku didn't know what to say. He knew Hojo did speak the truth, but there was a difference. "Inuyasha was never in love with any of the others. He has nothing but the best intentions with Kagome." He sighed as he looked at his friend. "It's best to let them find each other instead."

"FUCK Inuyasha!" Hojo shouted. "If he really deserves her, if he really LOVES her, then he would do anything for her!" He stayed quiet for a moment. Then, he looked at Miroku. "You said that he believes that Kagome is dying, not me. Right?"

Miroku shook his head yes.

Hojo looked at the ground. "Then if he truly loves her, he won't let her marry me. No matter whether she is dying or not, he would want to spend the rest of his life with her." He turned quickly to look at Miroku.

Miroku watched as Hojo stood up, seriously.

Hojo stared at Miroku. "Alright, I accept this. I accept Kagome may not ever love me, and love Inuyasha." He stared at his fists. "I don't trust Inuyasha to make her happy though."

Miroku shook his head. He understood what Hojo was saying. He stared at his friend.

Hojo truly did care for Kagome. "What are you planning?" Miroku asked with a raised eyebrow.

Hojo crossed his arms. "I don't like this. I don't see why she had to fall for him. He's so unlike her, he's so…" he sighed. "He can only have her if he makes her happy." He frowned at Miroku. "No more of this 'we're only friends' shit. If he wants Kagome, he will deal with it like a man!" He looked at the sky.

Miroku listened intently as Hojo explained his plan. It did make sense, to a point. "Do you really believe it'll work?"

Hojo crossed his arms. "If it don't, then Kagome will be happily married to me." He smiled. "Then, at least someone will be happy." He frowned. "And if it does, then at least Kagome will…"

Miroku smiled. He was right, Hojo did really care for Kagome.

Inuyasha cared for Kagome. Hojo cared for Kagome. Kagome cared for Inuyasha…

Miroku shook his head. In the end, Hojo was doing his best to make Kagome happy. "…you truly are dying, aren't you?"

Hojo didn't reply, but the answer was obvious. He put his hands in his pockets. "Inuyasha will decide it all."

Miroku watched as his friend walked away. Before, he had never been 100 sure that Hojo was dying. He figured it was a ploy, a ruse to get Kagome.

But, it was obvious. It was clear. Hojo wanted to be with Kagome, but at the same time, he wanted to make her happy. Miroku slowly walked, thinking. Hojo had never put his friends before himself. Ever. Yet, he was giving Inuyasha a chance to have Kagome. A chance to take away the one woman Hojo wanted to be with 'til the end.

'Hojo is really dying.' Miroku thought sadly.