InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Bishies Without Shirts ❯ The Price of Sleep ( Chapter 20 )

Chapter 20: The Price of Sleep

Before heading upstairs, Inuyasha made a quick stop off in the backyard to grab his clothing. As he pulled them off the line, he looked at Sesshoumaru's kimono hanging beside them and debated on whether or not to bring them inside as well, or just shred them and leave the ribbons hanging on the line, dancing in the breeze. Finally, he decided that it might reflect well on him in Higurashi-san's eyes if he brought them in, so he reluctantly pulled the silken robes off the line and, rolling them into a ball that he hoped would wrinkle them beyond all recognition, stuffed them under his arm. When he walked back into the house, Higurashi-san was sleeping on the couch with her back to him. 'Damn it!' he thought, 'Here I go and do something nice, and she's not even awake to see it!' Reverting back to his already foul mood, he trudged up the stairs to Kagome's room where he changed out of the filthy t-shirt and sweat pants and into his clean, comfortable, well-worn and greatly appreciated kimono. He debated burying the soiled clothing in the back yard for a few minutes, then decided against it and threw them underneath Kagome's bed, never to be seen again…or so he hoped. He was about to sit down on the bed when he spotted the bundle of clothing that belonged to Sesshoumaru. For a second, he considered throwing them under the bed as well, never to be seen again…but then decided that he had probably caused enough problems in his brief stay at the shrine house. Grabbing up the bundle, his nose lead him to Souta's room where Sesshoumaru lay catching up on some sorely missed sleeping.

"Oi! Sesshoumaru!"

"Go away." he mumbled drowsily, "I'm not supposed to go anywhere near you…"

"Since when do you care what a ningen woman says? I don't know why, but I brought you your clothing." he said, chucking the bundle at Sesshoumaru's head. It bounced off his shoulder and hit the floor, unnoticed. "Anyway, Higurashi-san wanted me to apologize to you, but I'm not going to because you're an asshole and I hate you. But if you don't want me to rearrange what's left of your face, you'll tell her that I did if she asks, you got that?"

"Fine. Now go away, I'm trying to sleep…" Mere seconds later, he was snoring softly again.

"Hey!" Inuyasha barked "Wake up, I'm not finished!"

"Don't you ever sleep?"

"When I feel like it." he shrugged. "Listen, my guess is that you're supposed to apologize to me, too, so I want to hear it!"

"You didn't apologize to me." Sesshoumaru yawned, rolling over and pulling the covers over his head in a desperate attempt to escape Inuyasha's voice.

"Yes I did if you want to keep your pretty face!" Inuyasha reminded him, smacking his fist into his palm.

"Oh, right…" Sesshoumaru mumbled from beneath the Pikachu sheets. "Well then, so did I."

"What? No you didn't!" Inuyasha cried. "I really want to hear it from you!"

"If I do, will you go away?"

"If I feel like it." he snorted.

"Alright…why am I sorry again?"

"Damn you Sesshoumaru! For saying that you slept with Kagome!"

"I already told you, Oto-chan. I didn't sleep with the Wegome. We stayed up all night fu-"

"Ok, stop right there." Inuyasha interrupted, stuffing his arms into either sleeve of his haori across his chest. "I know what you're trying to do here, and It's not going to work this time. For one thing, I don't smell anything in this room that smells like the stale, left-over smell of mating. You're just trying to make me lose my temper again so I'll get thrown out."

"Well what do you know? You do have a brain after all."

"Stop it. Besides pissing me off, you're also insulting my bitch and her family, not to mention the fact that you've made my life a living hell for the past twenty-four hours, and the past sixty-seven years before that."

"Please, you were asleep for most of those years." Sesshoumaru yawned disdainfully. Speaking of which…" he trailed off as he began to doze again.

"WAKE UP!" Inuyasha yelled.

"INUYASHA!" Higurashi-san's voice called harshly from downstairs. "You'd better not be talking to Sesshoumaru!"

"I was just apologizing, Higurashi-san!" he called back. His voice was sweet but his eyes were smoldering, and they never left the pile of blankets that hid Sesshoumaru's body. "And he's about to apologize to me, isn't that right onii-chan?" Inuyasha prompted with a soft growl.

"Oh I'm sorry, all right…" Sesshoumaru muttered bitterly, drawing the blankets more tightly around his body. "Sorry I didn't strangle you when you were born. I could be sleeping in peace."

"Bastard…" Inuyasha growled. "It would kill you, wouldn't it?"

"Why should I?" Sesshoumaru said, his voice taking on a drugged quality as he fought half-heartedly with consciousness. "No real harm has been done to you. The wegome is still untouched, at least by me, though I can't say what she does when you're not around…" The rest of his sentence was lost as Inuyasha, having heard quite enough and on the verge of losing his temper again, turned on his heels and stomped back to Kagome's room.

"That bastard never changes!" he grumbled under his breath, flopping down on the soft pink bed. His eyes burned holes in the ceiling as he listened to the airy sound of his brother lightly snoring in the other room, separated by a mere few inches of plaster. Flattening his ears against his head, he did his best to block out the noise before it drove him insane with rage at the fact that Sesshoumaru felt no remorse and had somehow managed to avoid an apology. He tossed, he turned, he held a pillow over his head before finally admitting defeat and leaving the bedroom altogether. He descended to the living room where Higurashi-san was still napping on the couch. He watched her for a moment as she slept peacefully, blissfully unaware and mercifully silent. She didn't snore at all. In fact, he found the light sound of her breathing to be rather comforting. The room was warm and still, and little particles of dust danced in the sunbeams that shot in through the window to land on a particularly inviting spot on the ground near the couch where her head was resting. He loved sunbeams…and maybe he was a little tired… Approaching the sleeping woman quietly, he hunkered down beside her on the ground and leaned his back against the couch. He folded his arms in his lap, closing his eyes as he rested his chin on his chest. As the warmth of the sunbeam wrapped itself around him like a thick blanket, the soft breathing of the woman he desperately hoped to someday call 'mother' lulled him to sleep.

She wasn't sure where she was, some dark room somewhere that was somehow both familiar and foreign at the same time, that may not even have existed in any real time or place, but at the moment she didn't care about the room or the darkness or where she was or even who she was, because at that moment, his eyes were on her skin and his hands were in her hair and he was KISSING her, and she couldn't breath but she didn't care about that either because his hands were warm and his fingers were long and she couldn't see them but gods could she feel them and that was more than enough as they blazed a trail down her spine, slicing away layers of clothing to contact with bare skin as they made their way down, down…what was that noise?

Kagome awoke with a start, her head popping violently off the desk as the deafening bell that signified that changing of the classes came to an abrupt halt. She looked around her in disbelief as the other students in the classroom got up and brought their papers to the front of the room. Looking down at her own paper, she was horrified to see wet spots were she must have drooled on in her sleep. Looking past the spots was more terrifying, however, as she read off what she had put down for answers before she had dropped off into oblivion.

"Reeks of wrongness?" she whimpered to herself. "What was I thinking?!" There was no way she was handing this test in. Disgustedly crumpling it into a little ball and throwing it to the bottom of her backpack, she snuck out of the room through the back entrance. The whole morning had been a total waste. She'd have been better off staying at home and sleeping in her own bed instead of embarrassing herself in front of the entire classroom. She could only hope that she hadn't made any incriminating sounds that might have given away the content of her dreams…

"Higurashi!" a familiar voice called from down the hall.

"Houjo-kun!" she exclaimed, turning around to meet him. He ran up to her, something neon-yellow in his hands. 'oh no, not more lizards…' she thought, hoping that no one she knew was watching at the moment. But as it turns out, he was not gracing her with another of his bizarre home remedies, but rather returning the shirt he had borrowed from her the day before.

"See?" he said happily, offering it up for her inspection, "I brought it back in perfect condition. My mom even washed it. Go ahead, smell it!" Glancing around to make doubly sure that Eri, Yuka or Ayumi were nowhere in sight, she quickly brought the shirt up to her nose, then quickly down again.

"Mmm… lovely. Arigatou, Houjo-kun." Turning on her heels, she made a beeline for the cafeteria doors, hoping to get lost in the shuffle. She wasn't fast enough.

"Wait, Higurashi!" Houjo called, his long strides catching up with her short ones easily before she made it to the double doors.

"Nani? What is it Houjo-kun?" she asked, trying to keep her voice pleasant despite her frustration.

"Well, you remember yesterday when we were talking about the dance next Friday?" She shook her head sadly in anticipation of what he was going to say next.

"I'm sorry, Houjo-kun, I don't know what my friends have lead you to believe, but I already have a boyfriend."

"Oh…you do?" he said softly, looking a bit defeated. "Do I know him?"

"Oh, no…" Kagome stammered, "He goes to a different school."

"Well, he's a very lucky guy, to be dating Higurashi exclusively. He must be very nice. I'll look forward to meeting him at the dance."

"Oh, no! He doesn't dance!" she said quickly. "We won't be going."

"But Higurashi, it's our first formal! I'm sure any boy nice enough to win your heart would be happy to go just for you."

"Ummm…" she said nervously, backed into a corner.

"Kagome-chan!" Yuka shrieked, popping up suddenly from behind Houjo. "You DO have a secret boyfriend! Oh, you have to get him to go with you to the dance! We're dying to meet him!"

"Yuka-chan, I really don't think it's a good idea!" Kagome said through a forced smile.

"Don't be ridiculous, Kagome-chan!" Yuka said, smiling right back. "You aren't hiding him from us, are you? It's not like he has a tail, is it?!" she laughed.

"No, no…he doesn't have a tail!" Kagome laughed as well, only nervously, the whole time thinking 'No, that's his older brother…'

"Then please, Kagome-chan? Pretty please with sugar on top?" Yuka begged in a high pitched voice, clasping her hands under her chin.

"Um, I'll see what I can do." she lied. 'I can always fake an illness when the time comes…' she thought, a little disappointed despite herself. 'I'll probably be in the sengoku jidai next Friday, getting attacked by some horrible monster, no doubt. Especially if that horrible monster happens to be my boyfriend…' A loud clanging sound interrupted her train of thought. "Oh there's the second bell! Don't want to be late!" she exclaimed as she rushed away from Yuka and Houjo. Once they were out of sight, she walked out the nearest door, heading for home. 'I'm getting out of here before anything else happens!' she thought desperately as she headed for the subway.