InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Count the Pretty Spiders ❯ Chapter Three ( Chapter 3 )

Title: Count the Pretty Spiders

Author: Anonymous Fangirl

 

Summary: After the death of Kagome's grandfather, she had two options: quite school to help with the shrine, or hire a new priest who will work for room and board. But. . . what's Naraku doing there? (Naraku x Kagome)

 

Rating: Mature.

 

Anonymous Fangirl: Nope! Still not gonna tell ya!

 

Kagome: Sniffle.

 

Anonymous Fangirl: Hey, I should be sniffling! You castrated Miro - kun!

Kagome: It'll grow back. . . he's an anime character! I'll just re draw it now!

Miroku: Stay away from me, you devil woman!

Anonymous Fangirl: Sigh. . . you know the drill. The more reviews I get, the faster I update. If you hit 20, I'll update it as soon as I'm on the internet.

 

 

Chapter Three

 

Kagome walked down the aisles of the supermarket, staring ahead at Kogajiin, finding it hard to believe that he was older than she was. Hell, she would have had a hard time believing that Souta was younger than he was. Never, in her entire life, had she seen someone act like. . . like. . . this in a public place, let alone a place as crowded as a super market!

 

At least, not if they were over the age of two. . .

 

Kogajiin was racing down the aisles, grabbing random things off of the shelves and staring at them. Most of the time he threw them (literally) back on the shelves before Kagome could catch up with him - she felt like walking, and he could just deal with that - but occasionally, he would deem something necessary to Kagome's meal and throw it in to the cart, doing a victory dance when he made it in at sporadic moments.

 

Kagome suppressed the surprisingly powerful need to smack him over the head and tell him that he had to hold on to the cart. How she had ever thought that this could have possibly been Naraku was beyond her.

 

As if he sensed her frustration, Kogajiin suddenly stopped and turned to her, flashing her a million dollar smile.

 

Kagome couldn't help it. She smiled back, just as warmly. Wow. . . she thought to herself. If I hadn't met Kogajiin today, I probably would have never imagined Naraku smiling at me!

 

But then, she did.

 

She imagined what Naraku would look like, standing over her friend's and family's dismembered corpses, licking their blood from his fingers. And he would smile at her, coldly, before gesturing for her to come over so that he could do the same to her. . .

 

Kogajiin was gesturing for her to come over.

 

Kagome shook her head and smiled at him, shaking the thoughts of Naraku from her mind. This isn't Naraku! She thought with a shake of her head. “Kogajiin.” Kagome said his name with a smile.

 

Kogajiin took two slow steps towards her, meeting her half way across the aisle. “Sorry I keep throwing food in to the cart. Everything just looks so good!” He answered the question she hadn't even asked with a boyish grin, and they began walking again. “I suppose I should ask you what you're planning on making, though.”

 

Kagome pressed her fingers to her lips and stared ahead. She frowned when she caught sight of a box of ramen. Inuyasha came to mind, and for a split second she tried to imagine that he was here with her.

 

She could picture it. Oh yes, that part wasn't hard at all. But the image that came to mind was not one she would have enjoyed. No, when she tried to imagine Inuyasha shopping with her, she imagined him harrassing employees, sniffing and degrading all of her favorite food items, and eating uncooked ramen whenever he saw it, leavig her to pay for the food. Her mood was not lightened in the slightest.

 

“Kagome?” Kogajiin asked, walking slowly up to the opposite end of the cart with an expression of concern on his face. “What's that look on your face for?” he asked, leaning in a touching her chin, running his thumb up her cheek. “Smile.” He commanded of her in a heavy voice that sounded much more like the Naraku she had thought him to be.

 

Kagome obeyed quickly, banishing the unwarranted thought from her mind before she had the chance to dwell on it. “Oh, it's nothing. I was just trying to imagine my. . . boyfriend shopping with me.” Kagome said, lacking a better title for what Inuyasha was to her.

 

Almost immediately the expression on Kogajiin's face darkened. But it was light again so fast Kagome knew that she must have been imagining it. “So, I'm guessing that he's not the kind of person who likes to go shopping?” he asked, pulling the cart along with him when he began to walk again, making Kagome hold on to the cart, as she had been thinking of making him do.

 

But Kagome hadn't noticed. She was recalling the time she took him to the mall to help her pick out a dress. “No. He is absolutely not the shopping kind.” Well, if that wasn't an understatement. The sales lady had been all over him, causing Kagome severe bouts of jealousy. And all Inuyasha could do was pant because her perfume had been too strong for his nose, giving the sales lady the impression he really liked her.

 

It was not an experience Kagome would have cared to repeat.

 

Kogajiin grinned. “I'm sorry to hear that. But you still haven't told me what you're planning on making.”

 

Kagome bit the inside of her lip and caught sight of some Mahi - Mahi. Now that she could make well, especially over an open fire. She grabbed the frozen fish and held it out to inspect it. “How about some fish?” She asked, showing him the package.

 

Kogajiin picked it up and frowned. “What are you gonna make with this?” He asked, skeptical of the fish. “Are you gonna fry it or microwave it?”

 

Kagome shock her head, understanding the point he was making. Her mother had microwaved Mahi - Mahi once, and it hadn't stopped popping for nearly ten minutes, and at that point in time, the fish had been cold again. “No, I was going to cook it over a. . .” she ouldn;t very well say open fire without him asking her where she learned to cook in such an odd manner, and she was in no mood to create an eloborate lie. “Grill.” Kagome said, wondering if they even had a grill at her house.

 

Kogajiin made a sound that sounded a lot like a hmm. . . “Well, you're the cook.” He said, voice dripping with displeasure.

 

Kagome frowned. “Don't you like fish?” she asked.

 

Kogajiin shrugged. “I don't not like it. . . I just haven't ever had good fish before.” Frowning, he seemed to be recalling something. “And one of my old. . . friends. . . gave me food poisoning with it intentionally.”

 

Kagome's brows drew together in confusion. “Why would someone intentionally give you food poisoning?” She asked.

 

Kogajiin frowned for only a moment longer, as if recalling the unpleasant memory, before he flashed her another smile and waved her question away with a flick of his hand. “Oh, never mind that. It's a long story.” Kogajiin's smile and eyes softened, making Kagome wonder how in the world she had compared him to Naraku. “Maybe someday I'll tell it to you. . .” He said in a soft, hopeful voice that made Kagome want to rub her hands over her arms.

 

Kagome smiled. He was talking like he had already decided that he was going to be staying with them! She put the fish back. “Umm. . . okay, no fish. How about. . . steaks?” Kagome asked, picking up a package of four slabs of the red meat.

 

Kogajiin grinned a boyish grin that assured her that he was absolutely not Naraku. Naraku would never, ever flash her a boyish grin. “Woman, now you're speaking my language!”

 

 

 

 

The walk to the shrine was uneventful, and as the evening was dawning, Kagome lay the bags down on the smooth marble tile of her kitchen. Turning on the tap to warm, Kagome rolled up her sleeves and turned to Kogajiin. “I'm gonna cook you the best steak you've ever had in your life.” She assured him with a smile. “But while it's cooking, why don't you show yourself around the shrine grounds?”

 

Kogajiin frowned. “Are you sure you don't want any help with that?” He asked her, unbuttoning the button on his sleeve that prevented him from rolling them up. “I'm pretty handy in the kitchen.”

 

Kagome shook her head. “No, I'm supposed to cook for you.”

 

Kogajiin smiled. “But everyone knows women can't grill!” he teased.

 

Kagome feigned extreme displeasure. “That was rude and uncalled for, but now I have to prove you wrong. Go take a look around. After all, once you've tasted my cooking, you're never gonna leave us.” Kagome assured him with a smile.

 

Kogajiin grinned. “Well, with an attitude like that. . .” he muttered, before open the side kitchen door. “I guess I'll look around. . . even though I'll never see it again!”

 

Kagome turned around, turning off the taps as she did, prepared to give him a piece of her mind, but he had shut the door quickly behind him, making sure that she could have no come backs.

Kagome cocked her hips and fisted her hands on them. “Well, we'll just see who has the last word!” She said with a brisk nodd of her head before slicing in to the meats, grinning. “He's never had a natural cooked steak over an open fire!”

 

 

 

 

Kogajiin strode the shrine grounds, carefully inspecting everything with a smile. He didn't really care if Kagome was a good cook - although he had no doubts about her culinary skills. He would stay. After all, they really were offering him a good deal, and besides, he missed being surrounded by so many trees.

 

He hadn't been lying when he said that he had been raised on a shrine. He really was a country boy at heart, and had only come to Tokyo for the university opperutinity his grandfather had worked so hard to obtain for him. Though he hadn't wanted to replace the grass for concrete, the open skies for smog, the trees for skyscrapers, he had journeyed to Tokyo because his grandfather had worked so hard to earn it for him. So that he could have the life that his grandfather had ever had the chance to have.

 

He slowed before the giant Goshinboku and took a light bow in honor of the ancient tree. He wondered what his grandfather would think, knowing that he was back on a shrine. Knowing that his grandfather had always hoped for him to be something fast and modern, he had been sorely disappointed when his gradnson, like his father before him, had, even at a young age, shown interest only in the preservation of religious history, particuluarly that of the feudal era of Japan. His grandfather, hoping to cultivate Kogajiin's love for the past in to something not related to the shrine, had enrolled him in many programs - martial arts, archeology for kids, and the like. But still - the only thing that had ever truly interested him was the keeping of the history. When his grandfather, growing tired and old, had asked him if he would have been interested in being a historian, Kogajiin scoffed at the notion, and promptly informed his gandfather that “Historians only claim to be open to the knowledge of the past. But I know otherwise. They would never accept that they were wrong about so many things.” His grandfather had shook his head, ad it was that day that he had admitted defeat, and agreed to sign the shrine over to his grandson's care, rather than the city's, once he had passed away. Of course. . . as often was the case, there had been a price. Kogajiin had to go to Tokyo - a city that he had sworn as the enemy to all small towns - and pass a history class. “Just to broaden how you see the past.” His gradnfather had said. But Kogajiin knew the truth. His grandfather had never accepted what Kogajiin had been sure was the truth.

 

The wind changed and blew a tiny leaf from the tree past his face and he beamed up at the tree, trying to imaging everything it had seen. Everything that it would see. He stayed for only a few heartbeats longer than most people would have before he continued on.

 

From far behind him, Kogajiin could hear the faint crackle of fire. Somehow, it hadn't surprised him that she would have insisted on cooking the steaks over an open flame. He was sure that her cooking wouldn't disappoint.

 

A flash of silver to his right caught his eye, and he was instantly homesick when he saw a tiny well house to the side, a fat cat sitting before the doors with an annoyed look on it's face.

 

Kogajiin, ever the animal lover, walked up to the cat and scratched it's ears, reaching for the collar tag that had caught his eye. “Buyo, huh?” Kogajiin asked, not expecting an answer. “My name is Kogajiin, and I suppose I'll be around for a while.” Kogajiin smiled at the irony of telling this to a cat.

 

“Meow.” Was Buyo's response, before he sat up on his hind legs, which Kogajiin was sure was a feat for the obese feline, and scratched twice at the well house door.

 

Kogajiin studided the door, taking notice of the many gauges in the door, indicating that the cat had done this often. “You want in there, kitty - cat?” Kogajiin asked as he stood from his kneeling position and slowly slide open the door.

 

“Meow.” The cat seemed to say in thanks before it ran inside. It stopped half way down a filght of stairs and turned back to Kogajiin, as if expecting him to follow.

 

With a wry smirk, Kogajiin consented. “Alright, Kit - Cat, but I'll only go down there for a second. I've had enough of wells to last me a life time.”

 

 

 

 

Kagome finished cooking with a satisfied expression on her face. “Just wait until that Kogajiin gets a bite of this!” she said with a smirk, looking around the back yard where she had been cooking for him. “I wonder where Kogajiin is. . .” she mummered to herself before going in search of the boy. “I know I told him that he could tour the grounds. . .” she said, wondering why he wasn't back yet.

 

“Kogajiin!” She called out when she reached the front of the two story shrine house. “Kogajiin!”

 

“I'm in the well house!” Came a distant cry. Kagome paled as she realized the implications of his location. She hurried along the shrine grounds, past the ancient god tree, and threw open the well house doors, gasping for breath and imagining all of the worst possibilities.

 

What she found, though, was Kogajiin staring down the dry well with a frown.

 

Kagome paled and wondered if Inuyasha had decided to cut her stay with her family short and had appeared to take her back to his time period. A time period, she was beginning to fear, that she would soon consider her own. “What are you staring at?” She asked.

 

Kogajiin looked up from the well for only a moment. “Oh, your cat, Buyo, jumped down there. I was thinking about climbing down that ladder there, but I didn't know how old it was and thought I should just wait for you to come.”

 

Kagome felt her heart begin to slow, grateful that he hadn't decided to be a little more courageous and a whole lot dumber by climbing down the bone eaters well to rescue her cat. Still. . .

 

“Oh, Buyo goes down there all the time. Don't worry about him. He'll manage to climb his way up soon enough.” She lied through her teeth with a smile on her face, hoping that he hadn't found her out.

 

Kogajiin smiled, seeming to take her answer as more than what it really was. In the faint darkness, his face had an omninious glow about it, reminding her of a certain villian she knew only too well.

 

She shook her head quickly, chastising herself for being paranoid. Naraku couldn't reach her in this day and age - if he could, surely he would have done so by now. “The steaks are done.” Kagome informed him, beginning to climb back up the flight of stairs.

 

Kogajiin smiled, stood. “Already? Hmm. . . makes me wonder how safe these steaks are to eat.” He teased again, only giving one more look to the well. When he turned to face her again, he had a look of confusion, as if he had a piece of information and he wasn't sure on exactly what to do with it.

 

Kagome froze, her fears renewed. “What's that look for?” She asked, wary of the well that had caused her so much trouble.

 

Kogajiin shook his head. “Oh, nothing. I just was wondering if Buyo was really going to be okay. . .”

 

Kagome smiled. “Animal lover?”

 

Kogajiin pointed his fingers in the shape of a gun at his temple. “You got me pegged already?” He asked. “And I don't know anything about you.” He said in a voice that told her that he knew more than he should. And for some reason, Kagome didn't doubt it. It was obvious, right from the get - go, that Kogajiin was the type of person that never let a single detail escape him, and always applied the information he collected to practical use.

 

Like finding out everyone's dirty little secrets. . .

 

Or weak points that he could exploit at any moment, making anyone he pleased a pawn that had no choice but to do his bidding.

 

Kagome forced herself to stop relating him to her arch nemisis and smiled, stepping in to the twlight. “What do you want to know?” She asked.

 

Kogajiin shook his head. “No, I think I'll take the long way trying to figure you out.”

 

Kagome turned to face him, unsure of what he meant. She was surprised that he was looking at her with soft eyes, like a mother might look at a child. As a lover may look at their love.

 

Or a spider might look at it's prey. . .

 

The though came unbidden in to Kagome's mind, and she shivered.

 

“Cold?” Kogajiin asked, offering her his coat.

 

Kagome nodded and accepted, and he lead her back to the house.

 

 

 

 

Anonymous Fangirl: Yeah! This chapter was 3,151 words long! Review for that!!!