InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Dead Famous ❯ Diva Style ( Chapter 14 )

Author's Notes: Yep, it all went according to plan and this chapter does contain fluff. Except, not the kind of fluff that will disrupt the continuity of the story line (I know a few people have been screaming at me to not add the fluff (and even more telling me I'm not updating fast enough ¬_¬)) but I think those worried about Inuyasha and Kagome falling in love too quickly will be pleasantly surprised. See for yourself ^_^

Dead Famous

Chapter 14

Diva Style

"Got your bags packed?" Sango asked as they headed down the stairs for breakfast Saturday morning.

"Well… half done. I'll finish up after lunch." Kagome told her, mindlessly combing her fingers through her hair to straighten it. "What time am I leaving again?"

"For one o'clock. By limo, not taxi," Sango informed her.

"Cool." Kagome couldn't wait to see her family again.

Inuyasha and Miroku were both sitting down in the kitchen eating breakfast when the two girls arrived. Inuyasha glanced up when they entered and spotted Kagome. Suddenly a smile twitched onto his face. "Hurray! She's leaving!"

"Feeling's mutual." Kagome assured him as she took her seat beside him on the counter and loaded her plate with the selection of food on offer. A bit of bacon… toast… hash browns… egg… sausage… hang on, since when were sausages red? "I don't think these sausages are done properly." She told cook as the woman busily tossed some frying vegetables for the entourage's breakfast.

"Not pork sausages. Venison." Cook replied brusquely.

"Venison…?" Kagome stared at the sausages in horror. "These were deer?!"

"No," Inuyasha consoled her. "Quite cheap actually."

"I'm sorry…" Kagome shuffled the sausages back onto their serving platter. "I don't eat Bambi."

"I cried at that film." Miroku input helpfully.

Sango frowned at her. "Deer are practically the same as sheep and cows. They have hooves and big eyes and everything… what's the problem?"

"I'm a vegetarian." Kagome told them. "Save for poultry, fish… and maybe pork…"

"Right." Inuyasha scoffed. "You're a vegetarian. And I'm a non-smoker save for cigarettes."

"Are you making fun of me?" she glared at him.

"And if I am?" he glared back.

Sango, sensing an imminent cat-dog fight converging between them, patted Kagome's arm to drag her attention away. "I have a present for you."

"Really?" Kagome forgot her glaring match with Inuyasha instantly and turned cheerfully to her friend. "What is it?"

"Open it and see." Sango slipped a little box out of her black jacket pocket and set it down in front of Kagome.

"Ooh…" Kagome picked it up opened it carefully, recognising straight away that it was jewellery from the style of the box. When she opened it she gasped in awe. "Wow… that's really pretty!"

Inuyasha glanced down at the necklace in the box and frowned. "I don't get what appeals to women about jewellery." He said. "Females are like magpies… see something shiny and pretty and they swoop over to pick it up and add to their collection."

"Don't be so primitive." Sango scorned him as Kagome continued to admire the necklace.

Kagome had only just finished putting it on when Kikyo arrived with her daily list of things-to-do. "The police will be returning the silver Porsche at half past three when they've finished running their tests." She informed Inuyasha who gave no indication he was listening. "Kouga's doing well… but he won't be fighting for another few weeks so you win the semi-finals be default. Congratulations."

Inuyasha grunted.

"The police want to come round at eleven and ask a few more questions though." Kikyo continued. "And to view our security tapes I suppose. And at one o'clock the limo will be round the front ready to take you home." She looked at Kagome. "Nice necklace."

"Thank you." Kagome smiled, fingering the silver pendent.

"And also…" Kikyo slid her attention reluctantly back to Inuyasha. "Fushira Hashimoto has been granted parole… they decided to drop all charges against him and forgo the appeal in a parole meeting yesterday… you weren't invited to add your testimony in light of the fact you were under suspicion of criminal activity."

Kagome glanced uncertainly at Inuyasha with concern. He seemed to be taking it well… considering how he was continuing eating like nothing bothered him. Perhaps he hadn't heard? But Kagome quickly forgot that idea when he said. "They're just going to let him go free?"

"Yes." Kikyo told him evenly.

"Fair enough." He shrugged and went back on eating. Kagome frowned at his profile, wondering why he wasn't blowing up with anger at such news. If she'd heard that her parent's killer was on the loose again she'd either be terrified or very, very angry.

She had a feeling Inuyasha would swing towards the latter emotion and be very, very, very pissed. But he carried on eating at a regular pace, half reading a magazine lying open beside his cereal bowl and half concentrating on dissecting his weetabix into equal squares.

Then suddenly he snapped a glare on her. "Would you quit staring at me?"

Kagome quickly averted her gaze to a hanging ladle near her head, realising that perhaps Inuyasha was a little more miffed than she'd thought…

~*~

Kagome… was getting desperate.

Two hours and five minutes to go before she had to leave and she still hadn't found out what had happened in 1992. She'd been online and had typed in 'Inuyasha' and '1992' into a search engine, and had come up with nothing very interesting. She'd tried asking Inuyasha himself, his Aunt, his cook, his cleaner and still she had nothing at all satisfying for her curiosity.

So she was resorting to desperate measures.

"I will pay you this much…" she held up a money bill between her and Miroku, "…if you tell me what happened in 1992."

Miroku quickly glanced around the empty corridor Kagome had cornered him down, then when he was satisfied they were alone he turned back to her. "Do you know how much Inuyasha pays me?"

Kagome pursed her lips, realising that wasn't the answer she wanted. "Can't say that I do…"

"A lot."

"Uh-huh…"

"Per month."

"I see."

"And that doesn't include the bonus he pays his employers to keep their mouths shut about certain things… as well as the contract that he made us all sign where we vowed to keep quiet in return for not being sued off our asses."

Kagome lowered the bill. "You're not going to tell me are you." she stated flatly.

"I would," Miroku said considerately. "But telling people the truth doesn't pay my rent."

Kagome quickly offered the bill again. "Yeah, but this will pay for your next playboy magazine."

Miroku's hand began reaching out for the note, almost unconsciously, but the second he realised what he was doing he retracted it sharply back to his side and grinned sheepishly. "Nice trick, Kagome. Better luck next time." He patted her shoulder with the same fixed smile and walked away.

Kagome tucked the money back into her jeans pocket and sighed. This wasn't going well. Miroku soon disappeared from sight around the next bend in the corridor… and a few moments later a maid came along the opposite way. Kagome waved her hand. "Excuse me! Do you know what happened to Inuyasha in 1992?" she called eagerly.

The woman gasped and quickly reversed back out of sight making several religious signs over her chest.

Definitely not a good response… but then again that was basically the same response she'd been getting all week.

Better get on with packing…

Kagome stopped suddenly as she passed one of the windows in the corridor of the second floor. Glancing at her watch, she realised that they were on time. Eleven o'clock. The police had arrived for their questioning and were currently dropping the silver Porsche off in the garage.

Inuyasha would probably be put in a bad mood all day with their questions… but hey! What did Kagome care? She was leaving in two hours anyway.

~*~

"Find anything interesting?" Inuyasha drawled as the chatty detective from the previous day drew closer to the main entrance of the villa. He stood on the steps with Kikyo a short distance behind him. If he turned around and looked at her he'd probably see her sending him a few deadly warning glares. He didn't care.

"In the car?" the detective responded with a vague shrug. "We found a few short black hairs that don't match any DNA profile we have on file."

"You know…" Inuyasha turned to look at Kikyo and spoke to her in a loud conversational way that he made sure the detective would here. "CSI would have been able to deduct who the criminal was by now. As well as what he ate for breakfast and whether or not he likes his coffee black or white."

Kikyo was indeed shooting warning looks at him.

"Very funny, sir." The detective gave a very dry smile, obviously not humoured in any way. "If we can go inside and answer a few questions?" he gestured towards the doors before turning to look back at his fellow police officers. "Sweep the grounds for evidence!"

Inuyasha rolled his eyes in annoyance. There was no point protesting loudly against any searches since this guy would undoubtedly have thought ahead and gotten a warrant in case Inuyasha had done just that. The best way to annoy the man would be to avoid any protest and let him think that warrant was going to waste.

"If you'd come this way, please?" Kikyo said evenly to the detective and led the man inside the villa. Inuyasha trailed reluctantly behind them, secretly thinking of many, many unpleasant ways to dismember the man in front of him.

Kikyo chose her own office as the 'interrogation' room and both she and Inuyasha were rather offended and thrown-off by the way the detective presumptuously chose Kikyo's seat to sit in, gesturing them to sit in the two chairs opposite as if he were the owner of the place. "Take a seat." He told them.

Neither of them moved. Kikyo just wasn't used to having anyone boss her around, and Inuyasha just wouldn't sit down out of sheer stubbornness before she did.

Eventually they both moved forward in a joint effort and slid into their seats glaring daggers at the man opposite.

"Now." The detective leaned forward to rest his elbows on the desk, interlocking his fingers before his chin. "As I'm sure you're already aware of, Kouga has regained consciousness and has been talking to us."

"About damn time…" Inuyasha muttered resentfully.

"He says that the man who shot him was a human. Middle-aged. And under your employment." He consulted a notepad that had been stashed away in his breast pocket. "Kouga describes him as 'bouncer-like'. Undoubtedly your hitman?"

"My hitman is a woman. Wrong person." Inuyasha said flatly.

"He's not serious." Kikyo quickly amended with a glare at Inuyasha. "Neither I nor Inuyasha have ever employed a 'hitman' for our services."

"Noted." Chatty detective jotted her statement down. Inuyasha narrowed his eyes, knowing that the man would probably make it his mission to prove them wrong.

"I'm under the impression that you were in the headlines a lot last year, Inuyasha." The detective was back to the first name basis. "But on rather more negative subjects."

No point playing dumb. "You mean the situation where I was allegedly involved in a shoot-out gang warfare over an illegal shipment of drugs from Taiwan?"

"Care to shed some light on the topic?" the man gave him a concentrated look.

"Not really."

Kikyo cleared her throat. "Shed some light Inuyasha."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes and folded his arms like the surly teenager he was. "The whole thing was blown completely out of proportion and only a quarter of the story was true."

"Which quarter would that be?"

"The quarter where I got shot." Inuyasha told him evenly, staring him straight in the eye. "One evening when I was walking back to my ride with a group of friends, a man with a gun who just happened to be on his way to pick-up his monthly ration of drugs from a Taiwanese vendor down in the port, recognised one of my friends as a member of a gang which rivalled his own, and so the moment he recognised me as Inuyasha he chose to shoot me instead."

"In a gay bar if I'm not mistaken."

"Near a gay bar." Corrected Inuyasha patiently.

"So you admittedly associate yourself with gangs?" the detective quizzed.

"We're all in a gang of some sort and of some size." Inuyasha shrugged. "You and all your police cronies are probably the biggest, most out-of-control gangs of all."

Kikyo leaned slowly towards him. "You are not helping yourself."

"Is this a face that cares?" he answered in the same dangerous tone she'd applied.

"You've still not answered my question." The detective was ignoring the little jab Inuyasha had made about his department. "Are you involved in any gangs?"

Inuyasha slowly drew his hands behind his head in a gesture of total apathy. "No comment."

"Of course." The detective jotted more notes down as he talked. "I'm also aware that your parents died in nineteen-ninety-seven-"

"Which has nothing to do with anything now, so I'd appreciate it if you shut your trap about it." Inuyasha snapped rather suddenly. Obviously a nerve had been touched.

"I was only going to inquire as to who acted as your guardian after this accident." The detective said innocently.

"My Aunt. Father's side."

"Is she around?"

"No." Inuyasha shrugged, glaring at the man for all he was worth now.

The interview was turning ugly.

~*~

"Shower cap… shower… cap… Ahah!" Kagome pushed her hand along the shelf in the bathroom, sweeping all the contents into the awaiting bag beneath. A few soaps, some complimentary shower gel… she'd smell like a superstar for at least a month!

"Now where was that sewing kit…?" she went to hunt around her room for more freebies to take home.

~*~

"So where's your little friend?" Inuyasha asked in a not-so nonchalant way. "I'm sure you had a quiet little man next to you yesterday."

"Detective Sano." The man shrugged. "I appealed for him to be taken off this case."

Inuyasha's brow lowered slightly. "Oh?"

"I felt he may have been too personally involved already with the inhabitants of this villa to act as an unprejudiced, reliable officer." The detective told him evenly. "After all, you've already dealt with him before."

"I remember." Inuyasha narrowed his eyes.

"And as I remember, he didn't do a particularly efficient job back then." The detective said derogatorily.

"You have no right to say that!" Inuyasha barked at him suddenly. "You weren't there in 1992 - you wouldn't know!"

"I was there in the aftermath." The detective shrugged in a reasonable way. "All those bodies that had to be buried… if Detective Sano had done something sooner then perhaps a lot of that death would have been avoided."

Inuyasha was stiffening up in his chair and Kikyo cast a startled glance between the two men before fixing her sights solely on the detective. "What are you doing?" she breathed in a hiss.

The detective glanced at her in an almost bored manner. "I'm merely pointing out the fact that people with rather obvious childhood traumas do not grow up into the type of people that fit in with society at the best of times. People like him," he flicked a brief nod of the head to Inuyasha, "cannot be trusted completely. So how can you be so sure that he isn't screwed up enough to consider doing something like-"

The man was unable to continue his 'point' when he found himself knocked completely out of the chair and dragged along the floor to be pinned against the window by a very irate superstar.

"Inuyasha!" Kikyo jumped out of her seat in alarm.

Inuyasha ground his hand tighter around the man's throat, incurring some interesting choking sounds. "This isn't 1992 anymore!" He snarled in the detective's face, pressing him nice and tight against the glass window behind him which overlooked the pool. "Why can't you just get over it and forget!"

"Inuyasha! Put him down!" Kikyo marched over to tug on his shoulder. But Inuyasha simply ignored her, she was just a vague nuisance on the edge of his mind now. The detective was deemed of more worthy attention.

"You didn't see what I saw!" Inuyasha allowed his claws to prick into his neck as the man struggled futilely against his grip, turning some drastic colourful shades of red and purple in the face. "You have no right to say that shit to me - do you understand?!"

Either he didn't hear, or he didn't understand. Or maybe he just couldn't nod with Inuyasha knuckles crammed under his jaw.

"I said do you understand?!" he growled louder.

When the detective still didn't acknowledge him, probably too busy fighting for air, Inuyasha decided he'd had enough. With his free hand he jerked open the window next to them and hauled the detective into the opening.

"NO!" Kikyo shouted, but all too late.

The detective was already falling… and with a loud splash and outward explosion of water, he hit the surface of the pool. Only a foot away from the stone rim as well…

Kikyo shoved Inuyasha aside to peer out of the window, gaping in shock as the startled detective surfaced, splashing around like a very unhappy feline in the water, coughing and choking for breath. She turned slowly back to Inuyasha with a dangerous look. "You really shouldn't have done that…"

Inuyasha glared down at him. "You're right. I should have killed him." He turned and swept out of the office. Kikyo shot after him, sensing more upcoming disasters. "Where are you going?!" she called.

"To kill him!" Inuyasha yelled back over his shoulder to her.

Kikyo lost her heels in a desperate attempt to catch up to him. It was enough, and she whirled to a halt in front of him just as he reached the top of the stairs. She stretched out her arms and looked up at him with challenge. "Don't you dare think about it. If you go down those steps I will never work for you again - because you'll be in prison!"

"I don't care! Get out of my way!" he seemed unwilling to push her away, probably knowing that she would go tumbling down the steps and break her neck.

"I know he upset you, but deal with it." she hissed. "Go back to your room. Don't make this any bigger deal than it already is."

He closed his eyes in a fleeting half-grimace, half-frown. He struggled with some internal-battle that he both lost and won. With an angry sound in the back of his throat he whipped away from her and stormed away down the corridor, heading for his room… the only place in the world that would probably offer him complete solitude and peace.

But that formerly cold, wilted feeling inside of him had been stoked far too many times recently. It had started when she had arrived and since that morning a hard sequence of events had been building up on him. Hashimoto's parole. The match with Kouga being cancelled. The fact that he would be entering the finals with everyone believing he'd hitched an easy win in the last round. And now this chatty detective's rather insensitive and accusatory remarks about a time in his life that he hoped to be able to block from memory one day.

That cold lump in his chest welled and flared to the point where he couldn't contain it anymore.

The moment he slammed his bedroom door he really let the room have it…

~*~

"Toothbrush… hairbrush… deodorant…" Kagome ticked off the list of supplies that she'd brought with her, making sure she wasn't about to forget anything important.

Kagome was always liable to forget something. And of course, she'd only ever remember what she'd forgotten when she was too far away to come back and fetch it. She cast a look around the warm beige colours of the guest room and sighed with a small smile. Having all this space to herself was a lovely change, but in a way she would be happier in her own cramped little bedroom with her single bed with the soul. She missed her creaky bookcase that sat next to her desk and she missed her purple pen pot that had sat on said desk since she'd received it as a tenth Christmas present.

She didn't have a balcony back home, but then she'd never really needed one so she wouldn't miss its advantage too much.

Oh, and she probably missed her family a little as well… but maybe not as much as her pen pot. She smiled at that thought and dragged her suitcases towards the door. Sango had told her to leave them outside her bedroom before one o'clock to be picked up by the porters could take them out to the limo for her.

She was just opening her door and lugging the two big suitcases onto the landing just outside when she stopped as she heard some odd noises in the distance. Stilling her movements she lifted her head to listen.

It sounding like someone was shouting… no, more than one person… more like a group. She would be willing to bet that the woman was Kikyo. Above the rest of the rabble she could only make out who she thought could be Miroku.

Dropping her bags without a second thought she padded quietly down the corridor, heading towards the source of the noise that seemed to be emanating from the stairs. She moved down the steps with a curious frown marring her expression. Was there some sort of collective argument going on down there?

Kagome peeped around the corner at the bottom of the flight of stairs on the first floor and saw them.

A group of eleven or so people had gathered outside Inuyasha's bedroom door. Miroku and several other strong looking men where collectively rearing back and slamming what looked like a statue of a scantily clad woman against the door. It was only a metre long, but Miroku had somehow managed to get his hands on the suitable appendages of the stone model as they slammed the square base against the wooden panels.

Nearby Sango was shouting periodically. "Open the door!" or "Don't be stupid!" And just a little distance from them stood a shoeless Kikyo having a rather heated argument with a wet police detective.

Kagome frowned at this odd scene, wondering what on earth was going on… but over everyone's shouts and the slamming of the of the statue against the door, she could hear the faint sounds of destruction from within the bedroom. A loud tinkled chorus sounded as glass smashed, and more dull wooden sounds as furniture seemed to be abused.

What was Inuyasha doing in there?

The group was having very little luck getting inside the room, and Kagome knew that obviously Inuyasha had done something like push a wardrobe in front of the door to stop people getting inside.

But his balcony would be pretty much unguarded, right?

Kagome chewed her lip a moment, wondering if she should bring someone with her… before deciding that Inuyasha obviously didn't seem to want a lot of company right then. She'd rather go it alone anyway…

Without a backward glance at the group she dashed up the flight of stairs again and onto the second floor corridor. Her bedroom door was still open thanks to the suitcase she'd only hauled halfway out of the room. She hoped over the luggage without a second to spare and shot over to the balcony.

No sooner had she opened the glass door than she heard another high pitched smash from below her.

A television arched through the air, turning slowly in a rotation as it descended back towards the pull of gravity. Kagome couldn't bare to tear her gaze away as she watched in a sort of stricken fascination as it drew closer to the patio next to the pool… and smashed into several pieces upon impact.

Kagome winced and wondered if she should rethink her decision of going down there…

But in the end her incurable nature to get involved in affairs that were none of her business got the better of her.

Inuyasha's room was a great deal larger than her own, which also meant that his balcony was a great deal larger than hers as well. It was at least two metres wider on each side and protruded several feet more away from the building than her own, giving her plenty of space for a landing platform. But that still didn't mean her knees shook any less as she rigidly climbed over the stone wall surrounding her little balcony.

Looking down, her eyes seemed to like focusing on the patio far below rather Inuyasha's balcony. She steeled her nerves and lowered herself as far as possible. It wasn't a very far drop down to the next level, but if she overbalanced then what would stop her keeling over the wall and falling the rest of the way.

She could already hear her mother's voice in her head scolding her for doing something so risky and dangerous. However, Kagome made it a habit of ignoring good advice and prepared herself for the drop.

She let go.

It was only a small breath-taking moment before Inuyasha's balcony met her feet. It was sooner than she'd expected and she did overbalance… though fortunately she only sprawled forward across the stone floor, breathing hard, but pretty sure that she was out of danger.

But now she could plainly hear what was going on in that bedroom.

Little white and brown feathers floated out of the jagged holes in the French windows, drifting along with the breeze like eerie cherry blossoms, completely in contrast to the heavy sounds of destruction from within the room.

Kagome quickly pushed herself upright and to her feet. She reached timidly for the small brass handle of the balcony door and paused a moment to gather her courage before pulling it towards her. The door opened with a jerked, broken action that jarred the whole frame, sending little shards of glass raining down. She stepped over them and entered…

…Into complete chaos.

"Oh my…god…" she breathed inaudibly as she gaped at the ruins.

Inuyasha was in the process of tearing the room to shreds. Feathers from the shredded mattress whirled around in a maelstrom, obscuring Kagome's vision of what else was going on in the room. She could see the door thudding in its frame, but there was no way they would break past the four poster bed that had been scrammed against it.

Everything else was in tatters.

"What are you doing?!" she yelled at Inuyasha who was currently tearing out the contents of his bookcase. She'd never noticed that he'd had one before, but now its books and their torn pages lay scattered around as he threw them on the ground one by one with a sort of methodical carelessness. "Inuyasha!"

"I'm fine!" he snapped angrily.

"What the hell's the matter with you?!" she yelled. A feather got caught in her mouth as she inhaled and she spent the next few seconds coughing to try and free her airways.

It was like a blizzard.

"Why aren't you out there with the others?!" he demanded back, now finished with tearing his books and papers out and so had moved onto the shelves, ripping them out with a rage-induced determination before hurling them towards the balcony windows.

Kagome quickly ducked to the side to avoid being hit by flying objects. "This is insane!" she yelled. "Why are you wrecking your room like this?!"

"This isn't my room! And I'm NOT insane!" he yelled back.

The door had stopped banging. Kagome couldn't hear much of what was going on out there due to Inuyasha's careless destruction, but she reckoned they'd heard her voice and knew she was inside.

"You are freaking insane!" she said hotly, almost scared for him. "Only insane people do these kind of things!"

He lost interest in the bookcase and spun on her, gripping her arms painfully. "I'm not insane! I'm fine! I'm just fine!!"

He threw her down on the shredded mattress and moved off through the storm of feathers to pick up the leg of a table that he'd previously smashed, wielding it like a baseball bat. For a horrible moment she thought he would turn it on her… but instead he turn it on his own mirror, shattering the reflection and beginning work on the frame it was mounted on.

He's nuts… she concluded seriously as she rose from the bed, ignoring the wads of feathers that clung to her hair and clothes, and instead stared at him… trying to understand.

It was so easy to say he was crazy. Or say that he was having a diva moment as was per usual. But Kagome just didn't see a diva trashing items only because they were replaceable, and she didn't see a crackpot either.

It was like watching a six year old throw a tantrum in agonising frustration.

She found her feet again and moved towards him, trying to dodge the flurry of feathers that whirled around the air in his wake. He still battered away relentlessly at the demolished mirror and Kagome wasn't sure how close she wanted to get.

But then he turned, ignoring her, intent on ripping more damage to the bed behind her. She caught his wrists halfway and drew him around to face her. "Stop it!"

He screwed his face up and made to shake her off like an annoying insect. She tightened her grip and gave him a shake a shake. "Inuyasha-!"

"I'm fine!" Was that the only thing he was capable of expressing?

"You're not fine!" she shouted back, making sure not to slacken her fingers around his forearms. "'Fine' people don't do this!"

He didn't care what she had to say. "But I'm-"

"Listen to me!" she refused to let him go. "You're not fine… you need help."

He stared into her face blankly for a long time… before eventually he inched his gaze from her to look around the room as if seeing it for the first time. His hands loosened around his make-shift club and it clattered to the ground with a hollow, empty sound in the suddenly quiet room.

He pulled back from her, forcing her to release her hold on him as he ran his hands through his hair and backed up against the wall. He didn't look surprised or shocked by what he'd done, not even angry.

Just ashamed.

Despite her rather intense dislike of him, she couldn't stop the way her heart squeezed her chest, going out for him. But she didn't dare move a step closer to him, even as he slid down the wall till he sat in a heap with his legs drawn to his chest.

The boy with the inspiring presence with bags of self-esteem and confidence seemed strangely small now…

He just stared dully at the ground, as if in a trance. Kagome didn't know what to do. Should she go now? But it wasn't like she could leave… she couldn't fly back up to her own balcony and she didn't possess the strength to peel the bed away from the door. The quiet was making her nervous. Until she heard voices outside.

"…I don't hear anything…" it sounded like Miroku. "Inuyasha? Kagome? What's happening? What's going on?"

"It's ok!" Kagome called back earnestly. "It's alright, you don't have to worry." She turned to look back at Inuyasha, half hoping that he'd come back to his senses and stop acting so strange.

She wasn't prepared for the way his head fell forward into the arms hugging his knees… when he began to shake with silent sobs.

Her mouth dropped open in a soundless gasp, but all the shock and dislike in the world couldn't have stopped her from moving forward towards where he sat, hunched. "Please don't…" she whispered as she eased herself down next to him and wrapped her arm around his shoulders like she'd done so many times for her little brother. "…It's ok…" she stroked his back soothingly, forgetting all too easily in this circumstance that he was a world wide superstar and she was a middle-class nobody whom the world would forget after today. "Please don't cry… it'll be ok…"

He nodded quickly with his head still tightly pressed into his arms, but he didn't stop shaking.

Then he turned under her arm in a move that really did remind her of Souta. He rested his head on her chest, close to her shoulder and clenched a fist into her cotton shirt at her stomach. She frowned ever so slightly in confusion, but hugged her arm tightly around him and placed her free hand on his cheek, feeling the moisture of his tears as real proof that he wasn't just pulling a fast one on her.

It was slightly awkward. Kagome was only used to comforting her younger brother who was barely out of his single digit years and had been prone to many tantrums and tears. He was also a lot smaller.

"It's ok…" she breathed sadly as she rested her cheek against the top of his head, wondering what on earth could possibly move such a normally stable person like Inuyasha to tears.

At the end of the day she could only reason that he was simply just a child forced to grow up too soon…

There were bound to be consequences one day.

AN: Now see? Not exactly romantic fluff…