InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Close Quarters ❯ My Baby ( Chapter 24 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

A/N: I've corrected the mistakes. Much love to my Patchcat for her infallible beta skillz!

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It passed even more quickly than she expected. The nurse came in, and Kagome could detect no visible signs of judgment directed at her. She was completely professional and was apparently very good at her job since Kagome didn't panic as she usually did when confronted with a needle. After that, the nurse said she simply had to wait until they called her. She left the room, scheduled her next appointment, and it was over just that easily, like ripping off a band-aid. The tension drained out of her body, and she realized that she must have been holding herself very taunt because her muscles felt tired like after exercising.

Her anxiety was replaced by excitement and relief. She walked back into the waiting room and flashed Inuyasha a radiant smile that seemed to confuse him she didn't stop to indulge the expression and walked on out of the door so that all he could do was follow. He was still shooting her questioning looks when they got into the car, and she was grinning like an idiot.

“So…?” he prompted as he eased the car out of the parking space.

“Huh?”

“What did the doctor say?” he asked as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“Oh! They drew some blood and said they would call me with the test results,” she answered as she was tuning the radio.

“That's all?” He must have been expecting her to find out right there in the office if their lives were about to change or not because he sounded a little let down Kagome was too busy pressing buttons to care.

“I love this song!” she exclaimed when she tuned to the station that always played American music.

Inuyasha had taken English classes in high school and had gotten some refreshers at work when it came time to deal with American clients, but for the most part he didn't know what the hell the lyrics were saying. He'd only caught the name Jesse and could make out the refraining words “my baby.” However, Kagome was singing the whole chorus perfectly while bouncing around in her seat. Normally he would have been happy to see her so carefree and might have even teased her a little but her mood had changed so drastically since the last time she was in the car that he was a little confused. Kagome couldn't care less. She felt so light like the weight of an elephant had been lifted off her shoulders. She had done all she could to solve the current problem and now she just needed to wait; and she was going to sing while she did it.

Kagome was so lost in the song that she was completely unaware of the fact that Inuyasha was staring at her, or all the other people staring at her for that matter. They were stuck in traffic again and in the boredom of the situation all the other passengers of the surrounding cars had turned their attention to the dancing girl in the Lexus. Some people were pointing, others were giggling, and the rest were just staring in disbelief. None of them were more stunned than the young man driving the car.

The song ended, and Kagome settled back into reality. That's when she looked around and noticed everyone watching her. Her face turned beat red as her audience started to laugh and, in some cases, applaud at her. Even Inuyasha was chuckling as she slid down in her seat in an attempt to escape embarrassment, but she was laughing. People were still watching as traffic started to move again, and Kagome had tears in her eyes from laughing at herself so hard.

“So you really like that song, huh?” he asked, still snickering.

“Even more than I thought, I guess,” she said.

“Well, you just made this the funniest traffic experience half of Tokyo ever had,” and they burst into laughter again.

“I didn't realize they were looking!” she yelled.

“No more American music for you,” he said.

“If they were listening to the song, they would have been dancing, too!” she said defensively, but her cheeks were still red.

“Just think,” he teased, “people are going to be telling stories about you all day…”

“It's a good song, and the guy who sings it is really cute.” If he could tease her in her most embarrassing moment, then she deserved some revenge.

“And how old is he?” he asked skeptically.

“He's only a little younger than me so we could make it work,” she said in a dreamy voice.

“Well, if it's meant to be, then he'll come looking for you after seeing you on the internet dancing to his song because I know someone had to catch that on tape!” He started laughing again.

“Shut up!” she said hitting him in the arm, but neither one of them could stop laughing.

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“Knock, knock”

The familiarity of the voice startled her because she hadn't expect him to show up at her job, but there was her boyfriend, looking as handsome as ever and carrying a couple of bags. She was buried in paper work that had piled up over her little vacation, strands of her hair had come down out her ponytail and she had pens and mechanical pencils stuck behind her ears, her left hand was sifting through papers while her right was highlighting on another stack, but, Miroku just smiled at her like she was the most adorable thing he'd ever seen.

“What are you doing here?” she asked and resuming her highlighting.

“I wanted to have lunch with you,” he said sweetly.

“You're not fooling me with that act, Miroku. Now, tell the truth; you came to check up on me.” He grinned at her and sat down in front of her desk.

“Perceptive as ever, my honey.”

“Shut up,” she said flatly. It always irritated her the way he seemed to disregard her obvious annoyance.

“Well, it looks like I had good reason. First day back at work and you already look like a human fax machine.” The seriousness of his tone bothered her, and the matching look on his face made her feel ashamed.

“It's not anything to be worried about I just have to catch up on some things. This is what happens when you're away from work; things pile up.”

“Where's Kagome? I was counting on her to keep an eye on you.”

“I don't know where she is. She didn't show up for work today so I had to team up with Kouga. I'm worried about her.”

“So she hasn't called you?”

“No, and I'm sure it has something to do with that problem she was having.”

“Well, I'm sure that if it was serious she would have called you. Stop worrying about her,” he said gently.

“I wasn't until you brought her up. I'm too busy worrying about all of this!” She gestured frantically to the mountain of papers.

“Do you have time to eat?”

“No. Too busy,” she said, waving him away.

“Okay, I'll just take this home and eat it myself.” He pulled out a container and her nose twitched as the smell drifted her way.

“Is that-“

“Yakitori? Yep,” He waved the box in front of her face, watching in amusement as her eyes never left it.

“But you're obviously too busy to eat it so I'll just-“

“Gimme that!” She lunged across the desk and grabbed the box just as he was about to put it back in the bag.

He laughed as she tore into the box and attacked the meat like an animal. “Don't choke on the skewer!”

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He was getting impatient with holding back on this plan. Kagome was never where he thought she would be. It was probably better that he didn't try here at the office anyway; it would probably get him fired. Subtly was never something he was good at so maybe it was time to try the bold approach. It was better than nothing, so he picked up the phone.

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They made it back to their apartment without any more incidents, but Inuyasha just couldn't let it go. He kept singing “my baby” repeatedly whenever it got quiet. It didn't really annoy Kagome because it was still enough to turn her face red and make her laugh but she was starting to think that she would never live it down.

“Come on, Kagome. What's the rest of the song?” he asked again for the tenth time with a smirk.

“It's not that funny!” But she was still giggling.

“I'm not trying to be funny, the song is just stuck in my head,” he said mockingly.

“Yeah, right,” she said, rolling her eyes.

She took off her coat and dropped it over the arm of a chair and was about to go raid the fridge when she felt two strong arms wrap around her waist. She let out a little confused “huh?” as if she had no idea who this stranger was that was touching her. Soon she remembered who it was, why he was touching her, and how it made her feel. So she relaxed and melted into him happily. It didn't last long, however, because the phone rang and she broke away from him to answer it.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Kagome, I was just calling to see if you were feeling well?”

“Kouga, is that you?” She saw Inuyasha stiffen out of the corner of her eye.

“Yeah, why aren't you at work? Are you okay?”

“Yes, I'm fine. I just had a doctor's appointment so I got the day off.”

“I was worried about you.”

“Well, I appreciate your concern.”

“I hope you'll be at home for a while longer. I'm sending something over for you.”

“Kouga, that's really not necessary. You called, and that's good enough,” she said nervously.

“Nothing is too much trouble for you, Kagome. Besides, I know you haven't forgiven me for what happened on our last date, and I refuse to give up on you. Just wait for the doorbell.” The line went dead and Kagome sighed heavily. This was just another argument waiting to happen.

She flinched when she heard a gruff “What did he want?” She took a deep breath and shut her eyes.

“He was calling to check on me.”

“And?”

“He said he was sending something over for me.”

“Something like what?” She could hear his voice getting louder with every word and she was really not in the mood for a headache.

“I don't know,” she said calmly.

“Well, I'm calling him back and telling him he can keep whatever it is!”

“Inuyasha, calm down and stop yelling. You know that won't do any good,” she said as she hid the phone behind her back.

“Do you want presents from him?” He was looking at her as if he didn't know who she was anymore.

“No. Don't be silly. But you know he's not going to listen to you, and he'll just send it anyway. We'll just send it back or throw it away, okay?” That calmed him down so she put the phone back on the base and turned to walk to the kitchen.

`I don't know why he lets Kouga get to him like that,' she thought.

She was about to rip open a bag of chips when the doorbell rang and her insides froze. She heard Inuyasha open the door and nearly fell over when she ran out of the kitchen.

“I'm here for Higurashi Kagome?” There was a short man standing there in an all purple suit and rose tented glasses. Inuyasha was staring at him as if he were a new breed of human. So she just elbowed him out of the way.

“I'm Higurashi Kagome,” she replied.

“Well, the lucky girl!” he said in a very animated voice.

“Excuse me?” she asked.

“Well, Hidaka-san has been setting this up for weeks! Now, if you'll just follow me we can get going.”

“And where is she suppose to be following you to?” Inuyasha asked, stepping back in front of Kagome.

“You must be the cranky roommate Hidaka-san mentioned.” The little man looked Inuyasha up and down as if he were appraising him. He gave a little nod and moved his hand in a “so-so” gesture in mild approval. Kagome hastily jumped back in front of Inuyasha before he could throttle the little man.

“I would like to know what this is about,” she asked sweetly.

“Hidaka-san has sent a limo to take you to the fabulous spa Tokoyonokuni to receive one of our world famous gold facials!” Kagome was absolutely speechless, but Inuyasha wasn't.

“A what?”

“A golden facial, young man. It's an elegant facial in which we cover the face in 24k gold leaf to accelerate cell growth and rejuvenate the skin. It will leave your skin bright and even lovelier!”

“But that's so expensive!” Kagome still couldn't believe what she was hearing.

“Yes, it's always wonderful to see a young lady treated so well by her admirer!”

“I'm sorry, but I couldn't possibly accept this! I'll call Kouga and apologize,” she said. The little man exaggerated a frown, but perked up again and handed her a card.

“Feel free to call us once you've changed your mind!” He bowed and headed for the elevator. Inuyasha pulled her back inside and slammed the door.

“What the fuck kind of gift is a gold facial?”

Kagome rolled her eyes and sighed heavily as she listened to Inuyasha rant and rave. She was sitting on the couch with her arms and legs crossed watching him pace back and forth in front of her. After slamming the door -- with near-splintering force -- Inuyasha proceeded to mock and question Kouga's gift in any way possible. Kagome had a sneaking suspicion that he was only doing this because he feared she might have liked it.

“And he didn't even show up to take you there himself! He knew the gift was stupid, that's why he didn't want to show his face. I mean, just look at that fucking purple teletubby that he sent to get you!”

“Will you please calm down?” Kagome asked gently.

“Kagome, I am not gonna have him sniffing around you now; you're taken.” Inuyasha was so busy storming around the living room that he missed her blush. His over-protectiveness was suddenly so adorable to her.

Her dreamy affection was interrupted by the phone. It was ringing again, and Inuyasha was so riled up that he didn't notice. So she just “shushed” him and answered it herself. She almost lost control over her own aggravation when she heard Kouga's voice. It seemed almost fated that he and Inuyasha would spend the entire day in a power struggle.

“It's not that I'm not flattered by the gift, Kouga; I really am.”

“Don't be nice Kagome. It was a dumb-shit gift!” Inuyasha bellowed his insult loudly, obviously wanting Kouga to hear.

“No, Kouga, I did not turn it down because Inuyasha told me to. It was simply too expensive, and I didn't feel right wasting your money when I'm involved right now.” She was doing her best to be considerate and get the message across while trying to fan Inuyasha away from the phone.

“Kouga, you have to understand that you make a great friend but a romantic relationship is just not realistic for us. Inuyasha and I have decided to…date.”

“What!” Kouga yelled it so loud that Kagome had to jerk the phone away from her ear or risk serious injury. It was mistake because Inuyasha seized this opportunity to snatch the phone from her outstretched hand.

“You heard her! I don't ever want to see anything from you showing up for my girlfriend you cock-smoking dingleberry!” He pressed the “end” button and slammed the phone on the base for good measure.

“Was that really necessary, Inuyasha?”

“It's his fault for not backing off!”

“I guess you're right. I am with you now, and Kouga does need to respect that,” she conceded.

“Kagome?” The moment she turned around to answer him, he grabbed her and started kissing her fiercely. Her automatic reaction was to push back; and when she finally got free, he was just grinning at her as if nothing happened.

“What's wrong with you?” She demanded.

“Nothing, I just like it when you say I'm right,” he said, shrugging.

She didn't even respond to him. There was no deflating his ego right now, and all she wanted to do was eat something. She pushed past him and went to the kitchen, but he was right behind her.

`I'll never get rid of him now,' she thought as she started laughing to herself.

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A/N: The song Kagome was dancing to is a new Jesse McCartney song called “My Baby”. Yes, there are such things as gold facials in Japan.

I'll bet some of you thought you'd lost me? Not so; I've just been extremely consumed by life. I've also been consumed by books. If any of you are Stephenie Meyer fans, and have read all three Twilight books, then you should understand. Breaking Dawn comes out in 46 days! And for those of you who have not; it's the best vampire love story I've ever read, so check it out. I've also been reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan, and the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini.