InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Chronicles ❯ Apology ( Chapter 13 )

~~Chapter 13~~

~Apology~

 

InuYasha sighed loudly as he tapped his claws on the ruffled pink bedspread.

 

“Shh!”

 

He wrinkled his nose and frowned. “Aren't you almost done?”

 

“Nope.”

 

“Keh!”

 

“Shh!”

 

He rolled off Kagome's bed and stomped out of the room. With a sigh of relief, Kagome continued entering the answers to her exam on the computer. To alleviate the trouble of her ever-increasing absences, Mrs. Higurashi had signed Kagome up for online schooling. She could turn in her assignments via email and only had to make sure she was online in time for the exams. `Thank kami for technology,' she thought wryly as she keyed in the last answer. She took a moment to double check her answers before she hit, `submit'.

 

She clicked the mouse button and leaned back in the chair to stretch. She had exams in all her classes this week, and though InuYasha wasn't happy about it, he had offered to come with her. It had surprised her. Then again, he'd been acting a little different toward her since he'd started reading her diary. Not for the first time, Kagome wondered if she had made a huge mistake in allowing him to read the book, but she'd given her word. She couldn't go back on it now.

 

What did surprise her is that he actually hadn't read much of it. He seemed to be reading only one entry at a time, and while she was glad because it put off the inevitable, he didn't say what he thought of her entries, either.

 

She sighed and dragged out the English textbook. Her exam in that was first thing in the morning. She sighed. Nothing frustrated her more than having to cram for exams. Every time she promised herself that she would take more time in the evenings to study, something seemed to come up that always seemed to make it impossible. Lately InuYasha had been the greatest distraction. When she had gotten out the calculus textbook last night to do some last minute studying, he had actually growled at the book.

 

She grinned. She couldn't complain too much about him, though. As frustrating as he could be, she had to admit that she felt a lot closer to him since the last time she had been home.

 

Her gaze fell on her diary. InuYasha had read up through her first entry after Shippou had joined them. She grimaced. Shippou had been so sad that they were both leaving again so soon that she had promised him extra treats. Scribbling herself a note on the Post-It pad beside the computer, Kagome added a few extra things to the list. `Body wash for Sango . . . energy bars for Miroku . . . .' Her smile widened. `Ramen for InuYasha . . . and if he's really nice, maybe I'll get him some potato chips . . . .'

 

“Oi, wench. Is that exam done yet?”

 

Kagome shifted her eyes to the side as InuYasha re-entered the room with a bottle of water. He flopped across the bed again. The bed groaned under the impact. Kagome stabbed him with a dark look. “If you break that, InuYasha—“

 

“Yeah, yeah, you'll say `it', I know. Hurry up and study, will you?”

 

Kagome turned in the chair and hung onto the back, resting her chin on her hands. “Why are you so anxious?”

 

“Keh! I'm not anxious.”

 

She knew better. Lying on his side with his left knee bent, he tapped his right foot as his claws scratched against the comforter. Ears perked up and moving around like little radars, Kagome couldn't help the smile that surfaced on her face. He caught her gaze and blinked. She felt her cheeks growing warm and whipped around to stare at her textbook. She just knew he was grinning.

 

After twenty minutes, she slammed her book closed with a sigh.

 

“Finally!” he remarked with a loud snort.

 

She stood up and pulled her list off the stack of notes. “Come on.”

 

“Where?”

 

“I've got to get a few things, and since you're not happy to stay here and be good, then we might as well go to the store.”

 

“Keh! `Stay here and be good, InuYasha. Stay here and be quiet, InuYasha. Roll over, InuYasha. Let me scratch your ears, InuYasha.' I'm not a fucking puppy!” he bellowed.

 

She hid her smile as she slapped a baseball cap over his ears. “Why, I never said you were, InuYasha.”

 

He yanked it off to readjust it as he snorted loudly in protest.

 

“Is something wrong, InuYasha?” Mrs. Higurashi asked as she breezed into Kagome's bedroom with a stack of clean laundry.

 

“Ask Kagome,” he grumbled.

 

Mrs. Higurashi shot Kagome a questioning look. Kagome shrugged and dragged InuYasha out of the room. She let go at the bottom of the stairs to struggle into her jacket. InuYasha rolled his eyes. “Pathetic human,” he muttered, holding the back of her collar as she glanced up at him.

 

“Thanks.”

 

“Keh.”

 

She sighed and opened the front door. “Come on, grumpy. I was going to buy you some ramen and potato chips but if you're going to be such a grouch . . . .”

 

His ears twitched as he grudgingly thought it over. “Ramen? Dried potatoes?” He hurried after her. “Oi! Kagome! Wait for me!”

 

“Was it something I said?” she asked innocently.

 

InuYasha shoved his hands up his sleeves and slowly walked beside her. “Can we get the ramen and dried potatoes first?”

 

She shook her head. “Nope. I promised Shippou extra treats, and I should pick up some things for Sango and Miroku.” She made a face. “I did eat all the energy bars I bought for him the last time, and I swear I hope I never have to eat another one again.”

 

She stopped abruptly and rounded to stare at him when he whined softly. “InuYasha?”

 

“Why can't we get the ramen and dried potatoes first?”

 

Kagome nearly choked at the blatantly pouting expression on his face---and she almost caved in, too. “If you behave yourself in the store, we'll get more for you, okay?”

 

He considered that. “How much more?”

 

She started walking again. “As much as you care to carry through the well.”

 

He was quiet for a moment before he nodded once. “I can carry a lot.”

 

Kagome laughed and dragged him into the small shop to buy Sango's body wash.

 

 

::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::

 

 

InuYasha forced his eyes open as he tried to read Kagome's diary. He'd re-read the same passage about a dozen times as she gently scratched around the base of his ears. `She's getting a little too good at this,' he thought absently. He leaned back, closer to her hands and forced his waning attention back onto the journal.

 

So far there hadn't been much about him, other than her initial impression of him hadn't been very flattering. He made a face. He'd be the first to admit that the two of them hadn't had the greatest of beginnings. Still, to see her so eloquently state his `faults' was a humbling experience, and since he'd read those first few entries, he'd tried to be a little less . . . well, any of them. `Baka had been used more than once, as had `jerk', `stubborn', `unbearable', `arrogant', `condescending' . . . had he mentioned `baka'? That had actually been the title of one of her entries: InuYasha no baka—complete with about twenty exclamation points after the sentence.

 

He sighed. This entry wasn't quite so bad. It was actually a little more interesting. `The first time I became human in front of her . . . the new moon . . . .'

 

She talked of his battles with the spider-head youkai. He couldn't help but feel a little proud of himself and the way she described him. In this entry, she called him `brave' and `heroic'. He didn't realize that she thought he was any of those things when he'd gone back to retrieve the jewel shards even though he was human at the time. She never said that to him before . . . .

 

`I was so frightened, when InuYasha got bitten by the old man. I thought I would lose him, not that he is mine. But after Myouga drew the venom out of him, and I cradled his head in my lap, he said some things. He said that he liked how I smelled, even though he had always said he didn't. That's got to be something, right? He is inu-hanyou, after all . . . .'

 

InuYasha stared at that passage for a few moments, tracing the words with the claw of his index finger.

 

`His voice was so awestruck when he asked why I'd cried for him. I knew his life hadn't been easy, but that . . . well, I suppose that drove it home for me. Poor guy. I can't imagine what his life has been like, and I don't think I'd want to. I want to make him smile. I want to make him laugh . . . .'

 

InuYasha closed the book and swallowed hard. He'd never known . . . . She cared that much back then? He'd never given her any reason to. Her previous entries had proven that. `InuYasha no baka!' Why?

 

Kagome stopped rubbing and leaned forward to peek over InuYasha's shoulder. “You're done?” she asked, surprised that he had already closed the diary. Her breath brushed against the thin, fine hairs inside his ears, and with a whine, he flicked his ear and rolled off the bed. “InuYasha?”

 

He pushed his feet against the floor to propel himself backward until he bumped into the desk, an odd look on his face. Kagome frowned. “InuYasha? What's wrong?”

 

He shook his head quickly and smashed his hands over his ears. Kagome sat up. “Did I hurt you?”

 

He shook his head again without uncovering his ears. She leaned back when he whined again. “Okay, you're freaking me out.”

 

“If I tell you, you'll do it on purpose,” he mumbled.

 

“I won't . . . what did I do?”

 

Another whine, another shake of his head. She scooted off the bed, landing on her knees, and she scooted toward him, reaching out slowly to pull his hands away. He resisted for a moment then let her but his ears remained plastered against his skull. “InuYasha?”

 

Finally he lifted his chin and glared at the door. Cheeks bright pink, and a marked scowl on his features, Kagome waited for an explanation. He sighed. “It tickled.”

 

“Tickled?” she echoed. “What tickled?”

 

“Keh! You breathed in my ear, wench.”

 

“Argh!” she growled, slapping her hands on the floor as she leaned closer to him. “I thought I had hurt you, baka!”

 

His chin rose proudly though his flush didn't diminish. “Keh! You can't hurt me! We've been through that, right?”

 

She stood up and stomped out of the room with a parting, “Baka!”

 

He rubbed his ears again and grimaced. It wasn't his fault. It had tickled. He was just getting used to letting Kagome play with his ears. To have them tickled . . . . He made a face. Touching he could stand. Rubbing he could tolerate. Scratching was nice. Tickling? `No fucking way.'

 

With a sigh, InuYasha got up and headed out of the room to see what Kagome was doing. He glanced back at the diary with a frown. Maybe he would read more of it later.

 

Kagome was in the kitchen puttering around while Mrs. Higurashi was reading the newspaper. “Hungry?” Kagome asked as InuYasha sank down at the table.

 

He blinked at her. She flushed. He ducked his head to hide his smile. `Blinking works,' he mused. `I'll have to remember that . . . .'

 

“Will you be home two weekends from now?” Mrs. Higurashi asked without looking up from the paper.

 

Kagome shrugged. “I don't know. InuYasha is supposed to be looking for something, and it's hard to say.”

 

Mrs. Higurashi bent the paper over to look from InuYasha to Kagome. “Well, the next time you think to chase after InuYasha to tell him you're sorry, I don't expect you'll be gone for nearly two weeks,” she remarked.

 

InuYasha's gaze narrowed as he turned his head to eye Kagome. “What's this about an apology?”

 

Her flush darkened. “Why were you wondering about my being home, Mama?”

 

“Keh!” InuYasha snorted at her not-so-subtle evasion.

 

“Oh, it's the annual antique auction. I thought if you weren't busy . . . .”

 

Kagome shrugged as she set a cup of ramen before InuYasha and handed him a set of chopsticks. “Oh, I love that! I can't make any promises, but I'll try.”

 

Mrs. Higurashi folded up the newspaper and patted InuYasha's arm then ruffled Kagome's hair before she left the kitchen.

 

InuYasha watched her go then dropped his chopsticks into the ramen. He sat back, crossed his arms, and stared at Kagome. “Apology?” he asked again.

 

She sighed and leaned back against the counter, ankles crossed and arms wrapped over her stomach as she stared at her feet. “I was trying to catch up with you because I felt bad about Kouga.”

 

“Damn right, you should.”

 

Frowning at his ready agreement, Kagome sighed and plunged on. “I didn't realize until afterward that he probably would have given up his shards, even if I had said no.”

 

“And?” he prompted when she stopped.

 

“And what?”

 

“Apology?”

 

Kagome reddened a little more and shot him a long-suffering glance. “And I should have listened and stayed behind you. I'm sorry.”

 

He nearly laughed at her disgruntled tone. He contented himself with eating his ramen instead.

 

“You could say you're sorry, too, you know,” Kagome grumbled.

 

“What for?” he challenged.

 

“You were a little mean about it,” she pointed out.

 

InuYasha shrugged, unwilling to relinquish the upper hand since he didn't have that nearly often enough. “If you'd have just listened---”

 

Kagome rolled her eyes and wrinkled her nose as she whisked the plastic wrap from the ramen cup off the counter and into the small trash can under the sink. “Oh, never mind. I'm going to go finish studying. Throw your cup away when you're finished, okay?”

 

InuYasha shoved a huge bite of ramen into his mouth before answering. Kagome stomped out of the kitchen just before the hanyou broke into a wide grin. “Keh.”

 

For some reason, being on the receiving end of an apology . . . it was a novel feeling.

 

 

 

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A/N:

 

For the sake of Kagome's diary, I'm opting to go via anime for the sequencing, since that is probably the better known of the two. While I tend most often to use manga reference when possible, I think it would work best here to deviate. Also, there will be references off and on to InuYasha movie 3: The Sword of World Conquest. I know, it isn't exactly canon, as far as being written by Rumiko Takahashi. But it is closer as a point of reference than the first two movies were, IMO.

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Blanket disclaimer for this fanfic (will apply to this and all other chapters in Chronicles): I do not claim any rights to InuYasha or the characters associated with the anime/manga. Those rights belong to Rumiko Takahashi, et al. I do offer my thanks to her for creating such vivid characters for me to terrorize.

 

~Sue~