InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Different Always Means The Same Thing ❯ A Brief Interlude and Pointless Foreshadowing ( Chapter 5 )

MM.org note: Here's the next chapter for my crossover fic. If anyone has any questions or comments feel free to leave a review with your e-mail. I'll be sure to give a personal response. Enjoy.

 

A/N: This is NOT part two of the last chapter. This was meant to be the beginning of the next chapter plus bits of the chapter after that. I thought they fit nicely together so they ended up as one. I expanded more on Kouga's character because he's kind of going to need it. And in case people are wondering, the reason this fic is taking SO long to `begin' is because I want to give the characters a strong base for their future relationships and trials. Trust me, after the next couple chapters, the story kicks off with more dramatics.

 

Disclaimer: Nope, still a poor college student.

 

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Chapter 5: A Brief Interlude and Pointless Foreshadowing

 

By Kenkaya

 

 

“Crap, crap, CRAP!”

 

Kagome ran down the stairs in twos, grabbing her sneakers in front of the door and pulling them on as she rushed across the porch. This, of course, made for some very interesting bodily positions. Inuyasha jumped effortlessly down the same stairs in a single bound and blinked at the panicked girl.

 

“Oi, what're you doing?”

 

Kagome whirled around and fell flat on her rear. She sent a death glare to Inuyasha as his shoulders shook slightly with suppressed laughter.

 

“Why didn't you tell me it was three already?! Baka! I'm going to be late! Hell, I AM late!”

 

“Huh?” Inuyasha scratched his head below one pointed ear. “Stupid wench, still babbling nonsense.”

 

“WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!”

 

“You heard me.”

 

“Whatever, STAY here. Don't break anything. Don't touch anything you don't recognize---“

 

“In other words, everything.”

 

“Yeah, anyway, don't go outside. It's still daylight and we might get some tourists. If my mom or Jiichan comes home, hide in my room. There, I think that about covers everything.”

 

“You forgot sit, roll over, and beg,” Inuyasha grumbled.

 

“Shut up! I'm going to pick up my brother from school now. I'll be right back, bye!”

 

“Oi! You expect me to just hang around here?! I told you, I'm only here to learn stuff. Once I'm done I'm outta here!”

 

“So go upstairs and read your history book like a good boy,” Kagome snapped. “And I told you. I'll. Be. Right. Back!”

 

“Damn, I should've just killed her last night,” Inuyasha hissed as he stomped back into the house. Kagome sprinted down the shrine steps with speed that could put Olympic medalists to shame.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

“What took you SO LONG?!” Souta exasperated. Kagome slid to a halt on the pavement in front of him with a precision born of repeated practice. She immediately bent over to catch her breath. Souta merely rolled his eyes as he leaned against the metal fencepost surrounding the playground. This was going to be good.

 

“Sorry,” Kagome managed to gasp between breaths.

 

“You were ditching with Inu-no-niichan, weren't you?”

 

“What?! Where did you get a crazy idea like that?” Kagome waved off the question casually as she began to forcibly push her brother in the direction of home.

 

“You don't have your backpack, you answered my question too quickly which almost always means your lying, you came running from the direction of home instead of your school, I kinda guessed this morning that you were gonna do it anyway--- did I leave anything out?”

 

“Tell mom and die.”

 

“What's in it for me?”

 

“Brat!”

 

“I guess Mama's just gonna have a fit. You and Inu-no-niichan weren't making out or doing any of that nasty stuff were you? Eww! I guess I'll have to be honest and tell Mama that too.”

 

“I hate you.”

 

Souta grinned and spotted his price. He pointed to a small ice cream shop, “double scoop rainbow sherbet.”

 

“Are you KIDDING?! You won't finish your dinner and you'll be up half the night! No way!”

 

“A hundred yen says Mama breaks a window yelling at you.”

 

“One scoop.”

 

“Deal!”

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Kouga laid back, hands tucked casually behind his head. To his left, a couple new recruits kicked a soccer ball lazily across the small field scrunched between dorm houses. He sighed, the green grass tickling his back through his thin black t-shirt and American music blasting through budded earphones.

 

Kouga wasn't quite sure why he was attracted to this particular country's music. Perhaps it was his mother's blood; he remembered how she use to sing along to the stereo in the kitchen, cutting vegetables to the rhythms of Jimmi Hendrix, Janis Joplen, Aerosmith, and the occasional Led Zeppelin song. She had been an outrageous woman; a beautiful gajin with fiery red hair and piercing blue eyes. He often wondered what she saw in a conservative Japanese businessman like his father. Apparently not enough, the divorce happened when he was too young to remember. His early childhood consisted of life with a half-crazed mother he adored and sparse visits from a father he didn't understand nor care to. To his chagrin, his mother often complimented him for his looks.

 

“Oh, Kouga `sweetie' you look just like your father! So handsome!”

 

The young mutant snorted. He hated his father and wanted no connection with him, physical or emotional. At least he had his mother's eyes.

 

~Where do bad folks go when they die?

They don't go to Heaven where the angels fly

Go to a lake of fire and fry

See `em again `til the Fourth of July~

 

Kouga shut off the CD player and switched discs. Nirvana was just to depressing for the way his thoughts were headed. No wonder Cobain shot himself in the head. Hard electric guitar assaulted his ears and James Hetfield's distinct vocals accompanied the new music.

 

~Hey

I'm your life

I'm the one who takes you there

Hey

I'm your life

I'm the one who cares

They

They betray

I'm your only true friend now

They

They'll betray

I'm forever there~

 

The words came effortlessly as he sang in a decent baritone voice. He wouldn't win a Grammy anytime soon, but listening to him sing was definitely not classified as torture. The recruits spared him a questioning look before shrugging back to their own activity. Kouga smiled. The music reflected his feelings so painfully clear in a language these kids could probably only pick words out of, if even that. A rebellious shiver raced through him. He felt like he was reciting a personal diary entry right under their noses without the slightest notice. The urge to laugh grew stronger.

 

~I'm your dream, make you real

I'm your eyes when you must steal

I'm your pain when you can't feel

Sad but true

I'm your dream, mind astray

I'm your eyes while you're away

I'm your pain while you repay

You know it's sad but true~

 

His father said he laughed like his mother, as if a hyena were hiccupping in his throat. The statement had been thrown as an insult but Kouga had taken it to heart. Any traits of his mother were a blessing. He fingered one of the only two photos he had left of her. One lay safe, folded between his socks; the other traveled from pocket to pocket. He pulled out the wallet-size picture from his torn jeans. The ends were frayed and the color faded, but his mother's face shone through, wild red hair pinned back with a green headband. She wore a white tank top with `But I Think The Real Reason Was That Heart Was Two Sizes Too Small' hand-painted in deep green block letters across the front. He remembered when she used to read him that book at bedtime. Every Christmas she would pop in the video and cuddle with him on the couch. Even now, Christmas just didn't feel quite like Christmas without watching `How The Grinch Stole Christmas' at least once. That was another thing they shared, a love of Dr. Seuss.

 

“What would you think of me now, Ofukuro?”

 

In his memory she laughed. The stereo was on, as it always seemed to be. She was dancing in the kitchen, the paring knife she had been using on the vegetables still in her hand as she swung her arm diagonally from her hip in a stereotypical disco move. Her voice was high and clear.

 

~You say you want a revolution

Well you know

We all want to change the world

You tell me that it's evolution

Well you know

We all want to change the world

But when you talk about destruction

Don't you know that you can count me out~

 

Kouga smiled. God, he missed her. He remembered when he was twelve, sitting by a sterile white hospital bed. The thin, sickly woman wrapped in those sheets hardly resembled the vibrant mother who sang `Revolution' in their small kitchen. Her skin was a pale shade of pasty cream and seemed to barely cling to her petite bone structure. The red hair, so much a part of who she was, had fallen out long ago. Still, she managed to give her son a pain filled smile, a smile that tried to deny him the agonizing truth; this was cancer, there was no turning back.

 

“Kouga?”

 

He opened his eyes, banishing the haunting memories. Kagura stood above him. Her black hair was absent of the usual side bun, hanging loose past her shoulder blades. He nodded and she lowered herself to sit on a patch of grass beside him. Kouga stared at the blue sky and Kagura at the ground. No words were spoken. They didn't need any.

 

In the distance, a soccer ball exploded.

 

“Hey!”

 

“Sorry, man! I didn't mean it! Sorry!”

 

“You blew the ball up!”

 

“It was an accident! I swear!”

 

Kagura turned to watch the commotion, her red eyes strangely distant. Kouga pulled out one of the buds to free his ear. She beat him to the punch line.

 

“I'm such a coward. A Goddamn coward.”

 

“Where the Hell did you get that bullshit from?” Kouga snorted.

 

“I wish I was like them. I use to be, and now I'm turning them into something I hate. I'm turning them into me because I don't have the guts to stand up for myself.”

 

“But you fight. Even in the beginning you fought. I didn't. I just let my stupid emotions push me into this shithole because I couldn't stick it out with my old man. I just walked right in without thinking.”

 

“Dumbass.”

 

“Don't remind me.”

 

“But you walked in because of me. I talked you into it.”

 

“I wanted to be talked into it. Now stop beating yourself up before you force me to slap it into you. And trust me; I really don't want to hit a girl.”

 

“You know I'd hit back twice as hard.”

 

“No shit.”

 

Kagura laughed softly before sending a pointed glare to the still quarreling youngsters. Her ruby eyes narrowed slightly and a small crease appeared on her brow. Kouga's skin tingled as the air changed currants. The recruits looked up nervously at the build-up of dark clouds as a small twister touched down between them, effectively breaking up the fight. Dark swirls writhed, but not with enough force to cause any real damage. The kids jumped back and a few screams echoed across the field. Kouga couldn't help it, he burst out laughing.

 

“That's enough! Just go get another damn ball!” Kagura shouted.

 

Kouga hyper-ventilated on the ground as the recruits practically squeaked and ran off. Kagura visibly relaxed and the clouds dissipated. The tingling feeling left his skin as the air currants returned to normal. It always felt funny like that when someone messed with the atmosphere.

 

“Hey,” Kouga called as Kagura rose. “I was thinking of getting some ice cream. Wanna come?”

 

“Tempting, but I have BUSINESS,” she twisted the word in her mouth like a curse. “See ya.”

 

Kouga waved at the only kindred spirit in his personal Hell before deciding ice cream wasn't such a bad idea. He replaced the bud in his ear and headed off.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

“One scoop of rainbow sherbet in a cup---“

 

“I wanna a cone!”

 

“And I don't wanna mess. In a cup. And I'll have a scoop of strawberry in a cone.”

 

“How come you get a cone.”

 

“Because I'm older and I won't lick half of it on my face and the other half on my shirt. Plus I like cones.”

 

“I guess I'll have to---“

 

“Hey! I'm getting you the ice cream, twerp!”

 

Souta grumbled as Kagome paid for their orders and handed him a small cup of rainbow sherbet. The argument died on his lips as he grabbed the spoon and dug in. The bells tied to the metal handle on door rung and tapped the glass as another customer rolled in.

 

~The story of a woman on the morning of a war

Remind me if you will exactly what we're fighting for

Throw me to the wolves

Because there's order in the pack

Throw me to the sky

Because I know I'm coming back~

 

Kagome stared at the source of the unfamiliar lyrics. An attractive young man with long black hair tied in a high ponytail waltzed up to the counter and said in an abnormally loud voice (courtesy of the music blaring through his earphones), “scoop of chocolate an' cookies `n cream!”

 

“Cup or cone?!” the employee shouted to be heard.

 

“Huh?! Uh--- cone!”

 

Kagome screwed her eyes. That voice sounded familiar. If only she could put her finger on it---

 

“Do I know you?” Kagome spoke before she could stop herself.

 

“Huh?!” the boy glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and removed one of the ear bubs. “What did you say?” he asked at a lower decibel.

 

“Do I know you from somewhere?” Kagome repeated, curiosity nagging her.

 

“I don't think so. I'd definitely remember a face as pretty as yours,” the boy smiled and Kagome blushed at the unexpected compliment. Souta rolled his eyes. “The name's Kouga. What's yours?”

 

“Uh--- Kagome.”

 

“A beautiful name for a beautiful woman.”

 

Kagome felt a sick sense of deja-vu. Houjou had used lines like these on her before and she had fallen; hook, line, and sinker. She wasn't a naïve little girl anymore. She licked the pink ball on her cone and ignored Kouga's obvious attempts to flirt.

 

“So--- what are you listening to?” Kagome attempted friendly conversation since Kouga obviously wasn't leaving anytime soon.

 

“A band called `Red Hot Chili Peppers.'”

 

“Never heard of them.”

 

“Yeah? They're pretty big. They're an American band.”

 

“Oh, my friend Miroku listens to an American band. I think they're called `Pink Floyd.'”

 

“'Pink Floyd?' Yeah, they're good too but a little out there. I listen too them occasionally but I'm not too big on them.”

 

“Well, Miroku is definitely out there himself.”

 

“Enough about this Miroku character--- sooo, what type of music rocks your world?” Kouga leaned toward her in, what he believed to be a suave manner.

 

“Jeez, you should just back off,” Souta grumbled, sick of the game and no longer able to distract himself since he finished his cup. “Neechan's taken.”

 

“What?” both teens chorused.

 

“Yeah, she was ditching with her boyfriend today and Inu-no-niichan is A LOT cooler than you anyway.”

 

“S---Souta,” Kagome stammered, her face a deep scarlet. “That's SO not true!” The little boy snickered at his sister's evident embarrassment. Kouga was simply confused. It didn't add up; after the initial blush, the girl had remained uncharacteristically calm throughout his advances. Kouga had flirted with his fair share of cute ladies, and he had immediately written Kagome off as one of the romantically callous types who formed practical relationships and rarely got giddy over them. Yes, a fun challenge to crack in his game, but he really wasn't expecting to go anywhere. Her sudden behavior over this Inu-guy threw him for a loop. He was intrigued.

 

“Oh, come on, neechan, just admit you like him. I found you guys sleeping together in your room this morning.”

 

“And guess where he was sleeping? THE FLOOR! You SO took that out of context!”

 

“You like him. Kagome and Inu---“

 

“IF YOU SING THAT DAMN KISSING IN A TREE SONG I SWEAR I'LL PHASE YOU INTO THE WATER HEATER AT HOME! I'D NEVER HAVE FEELINGS FOR A STUPID, INSENSITIVE, STUBBORN, STUCK-UP, SARCASTIC JERK LIKE HIM!”

 

Souta winced at the mental imagery of solidifying in the water heater and shut up. Kouga blinked.

 

“Phase?”

 

Kagome turned slowly to face the young rocker, realizing at the moment exactly what she had said. Kouga arched an eyebrow at the girl's sudden apprehension. He just couldn't read this one. She reminded him a little of Kagura; when he was first recruited she had remained a complete mystery to him. Later, she grew to be one of his closest friends, perhaps his only real one.

 

“Um,” Kagome stuttered. Kouga was nice, if a little forward. What would he do if he found out she was a mutant?

 

“Neechan?” Souta questioned. “What's wrong?”

 

“I don't want anything to do with a freak like you,” Houjou echoed in her mind. Kagome didn't want to deal with that right now. She was too tired.

 

“Inuyasha,” she whispered, remembering he was still at the house and immediately jumped up. “I'm sorry. I forgot we left the family dog inside. We need to get going, see ya, Kouga!”

 

“Yeah, same here,” Kouga called back as he finished the last dredges of his ice cream. He watched her black hair bob as she ran, little brother in tow. Something about that figure eluded him.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

A/N: In order of appearance, the songs were; `Lake of Fire' by Nirvana, `Sad But True' by Metallica, just in case (and this SHOULD be a BIG in case) `Revolution' by The Beatles, and `Easily' by Red Hot Chili Peppers.