InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Bookends ❯ Egad! ( Chapter 2 )

Bookends.

A/N: Aha! Chapter the Second! Revised! (And they said it couldn't be done).

Rating: PG-13 for (gasp) rather blatant innuendo!

Look out, the word 'sex' appears in this work about four times…er, I guess that counts as five. Come on, folks, we all like to pretend we're adults, here! (Eyes thirteen-year-old fangirls). I'm watchin' you…

Disclaimer: Dude, I'm a freaking fanfiction author. Why would I write about anything that actually belongs to me?

*~*~*~*~

"You know, I hope you're not deluding yourself into thinking that I'm going back already," she said to him, trying to dig her feet into the damp ground.

He scoffed, "Of course not."

"Oh," she said, almost disappointed at losing the chance for more banter. "That's…mature of you."

"Are you always so bitchy when you're around your loved ones?" he commented, throwing open the door of the well's shed. He then led her down the steps.

"Perhaps," she sniffed. "It depends on whether you're annoying me or not."

He rolled his eyes. They stood before the Bone-Eater's Well, the wood damp from the rain. It was dark, for the clouds had passed over the moon again. Inuyasha dropped Kagome's hand to put on the top of his haori, carefully tying it in all the right places and smoothing the sleeves.

"Am I annoying you?" he inquired, nonchalant as he pulled one of the red sleeves past his wrist.

She stuck her hands on her hips. "Yes," she said. "You're keeping something from me."

"If I thought you needed to know what that something is, I would have told you," he retorted haughtily.

"As if you're judgment's ever been good," she retorted.

They stood glaring at each other for a few moments.

"I'll miss you," she said quietly, looking down at her clasped hands.

He smiled, stepping forward so his feet touched the tips of her shoes. His hands grasped her own. "When will you be back?"

"Three days. They're all leaving."

His ears perked up. "What?"

"Seems the family needs to go to some convention about the business of owning a shrine and such in Hong Kong, of all places. And since they don't have another ticket and I'm never around to take care of the shrine anyway, they're all going off without me," she shrugged. "I might as well come back."

"I see," he murmured, somewhat to himself. Then, he looked up at her and squeezed her hands. "All right. Stay out of trouble." He tapped the vial of shards around her neck. "And don't loose those."

"Oh please," she said. "It's as if you don't trust me."

"It's fate that I don't trust," he replied.

She laughed, and he wondered why. Fate was definitely something to be wary of. But then, the people of her era were much too full of themselves to believe that fate could control them. Sometimes she acted invincible like that, though he liked to believe that she was brave, not foolish. Numerous times over she had proven herself to be the former, but she had her moments.

Kagome hugged him, whispering in his ear, "What were you talking about?"

"I'll tell you later," he responded, restlessly pulling at the hem of her shirt. "It's too…awkward…."

"Oh my God," she gasped, turning pink. She pulled away and covered her face with her hands. "You were talking about-sex!"

"What?" he cried, his face also becoming a vivid shade of red.

"Oh, that must be it," she was mumbling. "What with no one to ask…."

"I know how to do it!" he shouted. "For God's sake, woman, why do you think I have to throw you down the well every time you go into heat?"

Upon realizing what he had just said, he slapped his hand over his eyes.

"Stop shouting!" she exclaimed, still blushing. "Someone will hear you!"

"Just for the record, that was not at all the topic of our conversation," he said, pointing a finger at her. "Like I would ever discuss that with someone…"

"…You sure?" she asked.

"Yes," he mumbled.

"Well, as long as you're sure…"

"I am."

"Good then."

Silence overtook them again, Inuyasha silently fuming to himself and Kagome silently being embarrassed.

"I am never going to pry ever again in my life," Kagome vowed solemnly.

Inuyasha snorted.

She smiled and stepped forward shyly. "To prevent from shaming you further, I think it's best we say goodnight."

She kissed his mouth, and then deftly pushed him down the well. Kagome smirked at the look on his face: surprised, annoyed, and vengeful.

"Bye, love!" she called after him before skipping back to the house.

* * *

"Kagome!" her mother exclaimed as she walked in the door. "Come in here for a moment."

"What is it, Mama?" Kagome asked. Her mother was busy washing a ceramic mug in the sink. The dishwasher had already been put up. Her hands made even circles over the smooth glaze of the mug, spreading the soap bubbles into every pore.

"I heard you unsuccessfully trying to weasel an answer out of your betrothed," she said, turning on the faucet. She dried her hands with a towel.

Kagome turned pink for the second (but most certainly not the last) time that evening. "Oh, Mama…"

"I heard some sort of yelling, in any case."

Kagome lowered herself into a familiar kitchen chair, seated across from her mother. "I had meant to tell you before," Kagome murmured guiltily.

"I believe you," her mother replied, reaching across to hold her hand. "I'm just curious…"

"I couldn't tell you. I've never been…proposed to before," she answered sheepishly. "I didn't know what to say or how to say it."

Her mother sighed, resting her cheek against her palm. "I wish I'd realized sooner that I raised a ninny."

"Mother!"

"Hiding things from an old woman, you sneaky teenager, as if you can't trust me. After all, if he could come talk to me then why on earth couldn't you?"

"He did? …And you let him?"

"What? Why wouldn't I?"

"I thought you didn't like him!"

"With ears like that? Where on earth would you get such an idea? It's all because you're never home long enough…"

And so the conversation went, as conversations tend to go amongst teenagers and their mothers: insightful, argumentative, and long. A light could still be seen from the kitchen even after all those around it had been extinguished.

Kagome's face hurt from laughing, so happy that she could be with her family for the first time in a long while. For hours she strained to keep her eyes open, just to fit in one more sentence with her mother, until at last she declared it was time to go to bed.

Regretfully, she stood up from the table and embraced her mother. "I've missed talking to you, you know."

"I'm glad to know I'm missed," she replied, "But sorry that you grew up without me."

Tenderly, she touched Kagome's chin and looked into her eyes.

"Promise me that you'll tell me when something big happens."

Her daughter nodded solemnly.

Kagome turned to leave, but her mother grabbed her hand.

"A last bit of advice from an old wife to a bride." She looked gravely into her eyes.

"If he tries to get into your pants, shoot him. It's not worth the aggravation."

* * *

"Have a fabulous time in Hong Kong without me," Kagome said forlornly. They stood on the curb, watching the taxi driver fit suitcases in the trunk of the car. Up in a tree, a hidden figure was sitting and watching the exchange.

"Stuff it," Souta replied. "It's only fair."

"Fine, leave me all by my lonesome, abandoning me to the wolves," she sniveled.

"Now Kagome," her mother interjected, "I had thought he was a dog demon."

She had been having fun the past few days, making all sorts of comments designed to make Kagome blush and Souta all the more curious as to the subtlety of women's talk. Her daughter was rather quick to embarrass and her son naturally inquisitive, and she had not failed as of yet.

The personage in the tree quirked an eyebrow.

Kagome turned pink, and eyed her mother. "Just what are you implying?"

"Whatever you think, dear, (not now Souta)," she replied brightly. "We'll only be gone a few days, and we expect you to be here when we get home. Don't think you can get out of visiting us that easily."

"I would never think that," Kagome smiled. The taxi driver honked his horn. They ended their goodbyes with final hugs, and Kagome waved to them as they drove off towards the airport. She turned back to the shrine, unbeknownst of the figure in the tree waiting for night.

* * *

That evening, Kagome watched the Styrofoam cup spin lazily in the microwave. The low, electronic buzzing it emitted seemed loud in the quiet kitchen. She had never realized how many noises populated the background of modern life. Not like the feudal area. There were no washing machines or TVs to pollute the atmosphere with their whirring din. She wondered how Inuyasha could stand it, what with his sensitive hearing.

She shined her spoon with the cuff of her sweatshirt. She brought it up to her face for further inspection, tilting it this way and that and watching her reversed reflection change and elongate.

Good God, she was bored. Without any dysfunctional personalities around to cheer her up or beat her down, all she could do was sit and watch the ramen spin.

The microwave dinged, and she got up to get her soup.

She wanted to leave her home and go back to her home away from home…or was it, leave her home away from home and go home? It was so hard to tell nowadays.

Kagome leaned against the counter to ponder this. What was her real home? Her real family? …Could she even answer that? she thought as she licked the broth off her spoon.

How utterly ridiculous, she chastised herself. After, all what was a "real" family or a "real" home, anyway? She could have two, like divorced kids had two. She was perfectly content with her lifestyle, idiosyncrasies and all. It does no good psychoanalyzing things if you were already happy. That was for miserable people who wanted to know why they were miserable, poor bastards.

True to all human beings, she felt remarkably pleased at herself for creating a problem and solving it in less than a span of twenty minutes. She swallowed the last drops of her soup, and went upstairs to get her backpack. All too excited at the prospect of seeing Inuyasha (and company) again, she bounded into her room and….

…Was extremely shocked to find him already there.

Inuyasha was sitting very placidly on her bed, looking as if he had been there some time waiting for her.

"You're late, wench," he said, turning to her.

Kagome stood up against the door, looking like a guiltless prisoner before a firing squad. There were a million things she could have said to him, but what came out was the very clever: "Wha?"

He grinned and crossed the room to greet her. She returned his embrace only half-heartedly, for she was too distracted trying to figure out why he was in her bedroom and why he had such a devilish look on his face.

"What're you doing here?" she asked his shoulder.

"To see you," he replied. "There're…things we need to do."

He reached under her arm and very slowly turned the lock.

A small voice at the back of her head was telling her that that was certainly a nonsensical thing to do since no else was home, but it was drowned out by a much louder voice telling her that he was trying to send her some sort of signal.

"I've been thinking," he began, tugging at a loose strand of her hair, "How long are we going to put this off?"

"Put what off?"

She felt his hands at her waist, and his mouth on her ear. "Something we only get halfway started on before-"

Kagome gasped and tried to back away, but couldn't, pressed against the door as she was. "You're─you're here to sex me up!"

Inuyasha sighed. "Can't fool you, can I?"

"B-but," she stammered, befuddled, "I'm…I'm…too…what…how…I'm not going to let you take me without a fight!" She screeched this last bit, soundly slapping Inuyasha on the cheek. She held her fists out in front of her.

This did not faze him, but it did confuse him profoundly. He held up his hands. "Calm down. You know," he said cautiously, "It's not like I could force you."

She lowered her fists. "You couldn't?" she asked.

He rolled his eyes. "Feh! As if I could properly hold you down long enough."

"What! You horrible-" she began angrily, but then she realized he was laughing. He fell back on her bed, holding his forehead.

"You crazy virgin," he smirked, sitting up and holding out his hand to her. "Come 'ere," he beckoned, still smiling. Warily, she joined him on the bed. He held her back against his chest and enveloped her crossed legs with his.

"Why now?" she inquired crossly.

"All your prudish talk earlier made me want to ruffle your feathers."

She looked positively aghast. "If I had only known…I would have kept my big mouth shut."

"And," he continued, not deterred in the least, "Now that I have your mother's permission, I'm legally allowed to take you."

"Darn her."

"I hardly think it would be that awful," he sniffed indignantly. He pinched her leg lightly, and she gave a small squeak. "That didn't hurt."

"Don't tell me what I feel," she quipped.

"Quiet woman, this is serious," he said irritably. "If you're really not ready, then why'd you even say 'yes' in the first place?"

She scoffed. "I'm afraid of sex, not marriage."

He sighed again. "Okay," he said solemnly, enticingly drawing circles on her leg with his fingers, "But that's the only thing keeping us from being married, you know."

She huffed and crossed her arms.

"Can't say I didn't try," he said, mostly to himself. "You'll just be an old maid forever, then."

"Oh, shut up," she pouted. "Just because I'm not used to putting things down there is no reason to make fun of me."

"Crazy, temperamental woman," he grumbled. "Don't take everything so seriously."

"Sorry if I do," she snapped.

He frowned, but stroked her hair. "You know," he said quietly, "If you really don't want to, we don't have to. Not today, that is."

She didn't reply, but continued to sulk.

Inuyasha heaved another sigh and leaned against the headboard, closing his eyes. Absentmindedly, he played with the edge of her skirt.

Kagome stared off into space. She thought about things, like why she afraid of sex but not of crazy monsters, what her mother would think, how distracting Inuyasha's current ministrations to her thigh were, if her grandfather would have a heart attack when he found out, and how pointless thinking about thinking was.

Suddenly, she had a sort of revelation. She wasn't afraid of sex, per se; she was afraid of change.

At first, she did not believe it. She was no weenie; she was an adapter, a trekker. She could handle change.

Except…she hadn't faced any change in the past few years, not since Inuyasha came out and told her he loved her. Her life had fallen into a certain routine: look for shards, fight monsters, go home, study, go back, fight more monsters… She had thought that being betrothed to him would make things different, but it hadn't. Not really. This would make them mates (a most definite change).

Just when she had some stability (shaky as it was) in her life, Inuyasha decides to get horny. Stupid male.

What am I, spineless? she thought. I will not fear change-I'm a real woman.

Filled with new courage and determination to prove herself wrong, she sat up and poked Inuyasha in the ribs.

He opened one puzzled eye.

"You," she turned around she jabbed her finger in his face. "Take off your clothes.

* * *

The day had started off quite nicely. Birds chirped gaily in the trees, and were barked at by dogs. The paperboy had delivered the news on time, and the loud thunk it had made against the shrine's door stirred the noisy birds from their branches. One story up, sunshine peeked in through the shades, spreading its warm light into the bedroom and announcing the dawning of a new day. It rudely awaked the dozing Kagome, who irritably glared at the sunlight and pulled the covers over her head. Inuyasha groaned and threw his arm over her shoulders. Vaguely, she wondered what he was doing in her bed and so…devoid of clothes.

"Oh, that's right," she giggled slyly to herself.

Inuyasha grumbled against her neck, "Did you forget again?"

"I might have," she said unabashedly. "Does that injure your masculinity?"

"It makes me wonder," he admitted touchily. He lightly traced the healing youkai mark above her breast. "Just goes to show, you're not a morning person."

Besides the fact that Kagome kept forgetting where she was every morning, it had been a nice three days. Goofing around, ramen, enjoying the time to themselves… Yes, very nice. So nice, in fact, that Kagome forgot that the other people who lived in her house were actually going to return. After all, how could she think about her mother when she was too busy failing at making Inuyasha keep his hands to himself?

That was why the sound of the front door opening came as such a shock to the young couple.

"What are all these newspapers doing here?" they heard Grandfather say from downstairs.

Kagome and Inuyasha looked at each other in dismay.

"Inuyasha, I want you to get out of bed, put on your clothes, and hide in the closet," Kagome ordered as calmly as she could, which was not very.

He yawned and propped his face up with his hand. "Why bother, mate? You can't hide it from her forever. When the pups come-"

"This instant!" she cried somewhat hysterically. She roughly shoved him off the bed with her foot. "Go!"

"Feh," he growled, but he did as he was told. Kagome also managed to find her nightshirt under her pillow and hastily pulled it over her head.

"Kagome!" her mother's voice carried up from the hall.

"I think this would be a rather rough way to break it to her," she said to her closet.

Inuyasha rolled his eyes from behind her sweaters.

Kagome was about to reprimand him just as her mother opened the door.

"There you are. Why I'd almost think you weren't glad to see-" She looked around the room. She looked at her wide-eyed daughter.

"Kagome…why are there clothes everywhere…?"

"Er-"

"And why is Inuyasha standing in your closet?"

"Oh, well-"

"And why is your face so red, and-" She stopped abruptly in realization.

Kagome quickly burst in, "Hey, mom! Guess what…"

*~*~*~

A/N: Weirdest foreplay. Ever.

You know those demons and their weird mating habits!