InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Divine Interventions ❯ Dirty Dancing ( Chapter 8 )

Chapter 8 Dirty Dancing

Michael and Kagome walked hand in hand, back to same table where Inuyasha was seated earlier.

“You're going to have to talk to her. You know you have to face her. Just get it over with.”

A muscle in Inuyasha's jaw clenched, as he brooded over the way that Kagome had so easily ignored him, dismissed him from her mind once she saw her human, “pathetic,” he thought in disgust. What was even worse was his uncertainty if Kagome was the one acting pathetically.

A part of him felt like running, tearing out of there like hell and flying back to the well. But another part of him couldn't let him run and leave “hell, that's what she did. After I hurt her. She left, and I didn't even know why, not fully”

It was unbearable to his pride to admit that she had hurt him tonight with her dismissive treatment, the smiles of delight lighting up her face for another. He couldn't admit that, not fully.

He had to talk to Kagome, had to decide if she was still going back with him. He just wasn't sure he was ready to see her yet. He had no idea what he was going to say to her when he did. He felt drained, dizzy and nauseous from the whirl of lights, smells, sounds, and the raw emotions that coursed through him. It was like being caught in a dream, a nightmare.

Gripping his sword in its hilt by instinct, Inuyasha braced himself and walked back to the table where Michael and Kagome were enjoying the music and, by the looks of it, each other.

Kagome looked up and noticed the towering red figure standing over her. She stood immediately and took a step toward him, smiling warmly. “Inuyasha! I'm so glad to see you!”

“Are you?”

He didn't know where the question came from, but it was voiced before he thought about it. Hurt laced his words, words that felt more weighted than any he had ever spoken to her before.

Kagome noticed his tone, his meaning, but misunderstood its reason.

“Oh Inuyasha, of course I'm glad to see you! Look, I'm sorry about earlier. I acted terrible and, I'm sorry.” She glanced down at her hands and then raised her eyes solemnly to his.

“I'm still trying to get used to it, you know. I mean, just being able to see you again, it's major to deal with. Still, that's no excuse for rudeness. I really am grateful you went to the trouble to come. It means everything that you wanted to be a part of my birthday, more than I can ever say, and I was wrong and stupid to get so embarrassed, and I'm sorry, and, oh come ON, are you just going to let me ramble, or are you gonna throw me a bone?”

His eyebrows arched and his ears rose at her choice of metaphor. He gazed down at her petite frame with his arms crossed tightly across his chest, his eyes unblinking and unreadable.

“Exactly what `part' did I play tonight Kagome? What's my part now?. . .” he thought.

“Why were you embarrassed?” he asked with a sigh.

“I guess I didn't want you to know I sang,” she said, looking down at the floor. “I thought if you knew I sang in a band, you'd laugh at me.”

Of course, she was right. He did laugh. At first he laughed a whole lot was prepared to tease her eternally over it, but then, “Then I heard you sing, and it wasn't funny anymore. . .”

“I wanted to laugh at you,” he said truthfully.

Kagome sucked in a shallow breath; felt his words like a punch in the stomach. She squeezed her eyes to stop unwanted tears from resurfacing.

“Even now, no one has the power like you do to make me feel so miserable, Inuyasha," she thought.

Noticing her sudden rigid posture, he took a breath and quickly exhaled it, then continued.

“I was going to laugh until I heard you. You. . . .you're good.” Inuyasha squirmed and looked away from her when he told her. “

“And THAT was an amazing understatement,” he thought.

Kagome raised her eyes to look at him. “Did he just. . . . did he just COMPLIMENT me?! Oh God! He DID! He said I was GOOD!” Kagome couldn't have felt happier if she had been given a room filled with flowers.

“Thank you, Inuyasha,” she said smiling at him in amazed happiness. “That is the nicest thing you've ever said to me.”

Michael coughed into his hand, breaking Kagome away from her moment of pure bliss. During that brief exchange with her, Inuyasha realized that it was HE, not Michael, who had been holding Kagome's complete attention. He raised an eyebrow, wondering. . . .

“Oh,” she laughed nervously, “best to get this over with now,” she urged herself. “Inuyasha this is my, my good friend Michael Sephrim. Michael, this is-“

“We've met, love. I already know WHAT he is. I don't need to know who, and I will not be standing now for formal niceties.”

Kagome gasped and stared down at Michael. “MICHAEL!” she hissed in a rush of anger. “That was incredibly RUDE! This is my very dear old friend, Inuyasha. I will NOT tolerate you being disrespectful to him, UNDERSTAND ME?!”

Michael and Inuyasha both froze, stunned by Kagome's outburst.

“She's actually standing up for me? Why would she do that?” Inuyasha was flattered, dazed, dumbfounded.

“Okay, love, okay-I'm sorry, I beg you to retract your lovely claws from my poor heart!” Michael said, looking at up her and smiling tensely as he dramatically placed both hands to his chest. “Please now, let's sit down with your friend, Kay, and not have a scene.”

“Hhmph!” Grunted Inuyasha as he sat down, “It's not as if you haven't caused several `scenes' already tonight!”

Kagome looked at Inuyasha quizzically, not getting his meaning.

Michael gave him a forced smile and said, “It seems this is the second time I've found myself apologizing to you, demon. This is for the lady's sake alone. Don't get used to it.”

Inuyasha's lips curled back in a snarl to meet Michaels, revealing fangs. “How in the hell does this human know what I am? . . . . Did Kagome tell him about me? It didn't seem like he knew who I was earlier, but at least that would explain how he knows I'm not human.”

Kagome looked dismayed at the two men, now locked in a battle of wills, a staring contest.

To anyone who might have looked back at the table, the scene was worthy of high daytime drama. A woman sat between two men who, from their posture and appearance, were about to fight for her. One man intense, devastating in his looks. He was a vision of masculine power and beauty in flowing white and red. The other a study in hardened perfection, chiseled features both alluring and frightening. Both were startlingly handsome, the woman between them, an amazing beauty, worth fighting for

“Uh-oh. I better do something quickly. This is getting ugly,” Kagome thought.

“Inuyasha, Michael, I want to leave now. We need to go back to my apartment and talk, all of us.”

Michael broke the stare to look at her first, but before anyone could say anything else, Mika and Chloe were standing by the table. Kagome looked up at her friends, startled.

“Hey you three, mind if we join the party?” Chloe said as she looked down at her friend and the two men. She smiled, but looked pointedly at Kagome.

“Sure Clo, that would be. . . .”

“Actually, this is not a good time,” Inuyasha snapped. “We were just about to leave.” He pushed back from the table to stand, not even bothering to look at her.

Chloe looked surprised, but was not dissuaded from continuing to press. “Oh,” she said in a voice that Kagome could tell was laced with mock surprise, “so soon? And I was just going to ask Michael to dance. How about it Michael love, just one dance?” Flirting, she leaned down and wrapped her arms around his neck.

Kagome looked at her friend quizzically, raising her brows.

“Well, I can't very well refuse a lovely lady asking so sweetly, now can I?” Michael turned to look at Chloe, who smiled enigmatically back at Kagome. “Shall we Chloe?” he asked as he rose.

“Let's go babe!”

He slipped his arm around her waist and they were gone, lost in the beat of the music, lights, and pressing bodies.

“At least he's gone for now, but why isn't Kagome mad?” Inuyasha thought. He studied her, taking in the small upward tug at the corners of her mouth she was trying to suppress. Not only didn't she look upset, her posture and her smell actually seemed “relieved?”

Before he had time to think about this longer, the tall woman with the short, spiky black hair said, “Kagome, you haven't even introduced me to your new friend.”

“Oh, sorry Mika. Mika, this is Inuyasha, and he's not new, he's an old friend.”

“What exactly did she mean by that, `old friend?' She's said that several times now, `old friend.' Did she think I'm `old?' I guess I am, if humans and demons aged at the same rate, but we don't so. . . .Does it mean I come from another time, which is also true, or does she mean that we were once friends, but now? . . . “

Inuyasha had thought of all the possibilities except one: That he was one of the dearest persons to her heart, that her feelings for him had not dimmed, that she had cared about him, loved him, almost from the moment they met. This was Kagome's meaning, and when she called him “old friend,” she smiled mentally, enjoying the double meaning in the phrase that was only known to her-that she had loved him for so long and that he was here with her now, some 500 years out of time.

She was so happy to be with him again, just to be able to look at him again. Even if he was scowling at her, being insensitive, or driving her crazy, he still had power over her, the power to make her soul soar with the slightest smile, the tiniest begrudged compliment.

If only things weren't so complicated. She knew he wasn't hers, never would be. “He only came back because he needs your help, remember that. You still have a duty to fulfill”. Over the course of the night she had reminded herself of this many times. “And when it's all done. . .

“-And when it's all done he'll be with Kikyo. It's what he wants. It's what is right. And you know it.”

No, she wasn't about to go down the same path she did two years ago. She had been a fool, a silly, young girl who allowed herself to hurt others because of a crush she couldn't control. After all this time, somehow, fate had given her a second chance, a chance to do what was right. She was resolute. “I will not mess things up with my emotions this time. I will stand by Inuyasha until the end, and when the end comes. . . . I will be happy for him to have what he wants. This time, I will be his friend,”

Kagome was gazing in the direction of the dance floor. Inuyasha thought she was trying to find Michael and Chloe, but she wasn't. She was lost in these thoughts again about him.

The music changed abruptly, grew softer, slower. It was one of Kagome's favorite love rock ballads, “I've Been Waiting For A Girl Like You,” by Journey.

“Hey Inuyasha, how about it?” Mika asked forwardly.

“How about what, woman?”

“A dance!”

Inuyasha stared at her dumbly. “You want to dance? With me?”

“Yes,” Mika giggled. “I think I do. Will you?”

Inuyasha came close to having an anxiety attack. He paled and sat frozen, jaw open, looking back and forth between Mika and Kagome. He had never “danced” before. Besides, what these humans were doing now didn't look like the dancing he saw earlier. It looked like mass mating.

“Oh, go ahead Inuyasha, it'll be fun,” Kagome prompted him.

“I promise not to bite,” Mika said and gave the demon a playful smile as she held out her arm.

When Inuyasha was still reluctant to rise and follow her, Kagome pushed at his hand saying, “Go already! The song will be over before you get out there!”

With a look back at her that seemed to say, “Are you sure about this?” Inuyasha finally allowed himself to be lead off by Kagome's forward friend.

When he was gone, Kagome sat at the table alone and smiled, thinking about the maneuver her two friends had just pulled off. “Talk about a save in a tight spot! It's just like those two to throw me a life-jacket when I'm in way too deep.”

Kagome was relieved the men were gone. Thanks to her friends and the temporary distraction they caused, she had a much-needed reprieve from the mounting tension and a chance to think through how she was going to handle the upcoming “conversation” with Michael and Inuyasha.

“How am I going to keep them from killing each other?. . .”

Kagome's attention from this problem was quickly distracted. She saw something, someone and frowned. “Time to have a talk with Bradley.”

He stood at the bar with his back to her, but his brash laugh was unmistakable. Kagome gave a disgusted grunt, “Probably flirting with the bartender or telling one of his sick, misogynistic jokes,” she thought.

She walked over to him and took in his physique. “He IS hot, I'll give Clo that much, but that's just what's on the surface. Like a poison apple, all wormy inside.” She approached the muscular man, known as “Brad the Bod,” or “The Bod” to his admirers. Brad the body-builder, the tan American with the loud laugh, the drunkard, the joker perpetually unable to hold down a job, the leech who held onto Chloe for all she was worth, Brad the woman-beater.

She slipped up behind him and placed her delicate hands over his eyes. “Guess who, Brad?” She made her voice drop to its lowest register, phrasing her words slow and thick like honey.

He laughed, but she could feel him stiffen, suddenly tense with anticipation. “Damned if I know sweetheart, but it sure as hell isn't Chloe.”

“No Brad, it's not Chloe,” she said, releasing her hands from his eyes and moving in beside him.

“Kagome?”

“Did you like my set tonight Brad?” She gave him her widest eyes. “I know it was short tonight, but I felt like I had a kind of energy-thing going. Did you feel it Brad.”

“Uh-huh,” he nodded dumbly. “You were on fire, Kagome. Everyone felt it,” he said smiling down at her, showing every one of his large, ultra-bleached teeth.

Kagome thought they were frightening, but shrugged this distraction away.

“Thanks, That means a lot coming from you. You know, I've still got some of that energy left-I was wondering if you'd dance with me?”

“Yeah, sure, babe!” He put his arm around her neck and she walked with him out onto the dance floor, allowing her hip to rub against his side as they moved. “Damn I'm not sure what she's on, she's never been like this. If Chloe sees. . . .well, I'll just have to deal with Chloe later. I'm definitely going to enjoy this!”

They made their way past the maze of entwined bodies. The D.J. was playing another slow-song. They found a small space, he put his arms around her waist, she put hers around his neck and they began to dance. Kagome smiled at him, her eyes fixed on his. “This is perfect,” she purred.

He actually started to move his face closer to her, testing for a kiss. At the last minute, she turned her head into his neck, closed her eyes, and allowed a hot breath to escape through her lips onto his skin. She heard him give a little moan of pleasure, and then began to focus. . . .

Inuyasha had tried once already to get rid of this female after the first song was over, but the next song began with barely a pause, and before he could stop her, she had pulled in close again. Inuyasha was trying to be VERY careful not to accidentally scratch the scantily-clothed woman. He remembered how he had inadvertently hurt Kagome earlier, and didn't want to do that again. It was difficult, however, because she kept trying to pull him closer. He tried to pull his hands into his coat sleeves and keep his clawed fingers curled, but he was still worried. He wanted this human ritual to be over. He could tell she was aroused by him as she pressed the side of her face into his chest, smelling him. Her body gave off a strong odor, she wanted him. He could feel himself starting to panic,

“I have to get away from her, now, even if I have to hurt her to do it.”

 

That's when he looked up and saw Kagome, dancing way too close to yet another man, breathing on his neck. “WHAT THE HELL IS SHE DOING NOW?! “

If he would have seen her like this now with Michael he would have been angry, hurt, but at least partially prepared for it and able to control his territorial impulses. She had given him signs, more than he EVER needed, that she was interested in Michael. But now this one? He felt his cheeks tinge scarlet as he had a sickening, angry thought “Has she become a whore?”

Although he never voiced it, he had respect for Kagome's heart, her loyalty and friendship, her shining purity. Part of the attraction, he had admitted to himself once, was this. She was pure, innocent. She was different than Kikyo had once been in other, less-important ways, but in this crucial one, she was the same. It was why had been able to look at her in the past times and sometimes, when he tried, see Kikyo. Now he didn't see Kikyo. He wouldn't have wanted to. He wasn't sure who he saw, or if he even wanted to know. Watching her cheap behavior, and looking back on her behavior through the entire night, he allowed a new feeling to surface in himself about Kagome-disgust.

He pulled the woman in front of him away from his chest and shook her slightly, causing her to startle. “Mika, who is Kagome dancing with?”

“Damn Inuyasha! You scared me. It's Brad, the man Chloe's going to marry.”

Inuyasha was stunned. He dropped Mika's arms and stood there, staring across the sea of people to Kagome. “She's doing that with her friend's chosen mate?” he thought, incredulous. “How could she! She really has become a cheap —“

Taking in the shock registering on his face, Mika tried to snap him out of it. “Hey dude, don't flip out. It's just social, okay?”

“Social?” he asked in distracted mutter.

“As in socializing. Social dancing. You know, she's not trying to steal him from Chloe or anything. I've known Kagome a long time, and she's not like that.”

“Does it look like she's `socializing' to you?” he asked, his voice dripping sarcasm.

“You know, I don't know what Kagome's up to, but she was really angry at Brad earlier for something, so I don't know. Now I hope you won't be too terribly heartbroken, but I don't think I want to dance with you anymore. I like my partners focused on me.”

Inuyasha noticed she left him standing there alone. He considered the possibility that he should have said he was sorry for something or other, but he didn't care. “Kagome was angry at this man earlier? . . .” With that latest bit of information, his ears twitched. He stood perfectly still as couples moved around him, occasionally casting him wary glances. He listened:

“Brad?” she spoke the question into his neck.

“Yeah Kagome?”

“I know you've been drinking again,” she purred.

He stiffened and pulled her away from him. “Bitch! What do you want?” he asked, his eyes narrow, tone threatening.

Kagome laughed and pulled in again. “Relax Brad,” she said, bringing her face very close to his. “I just wanted to dance with you. Can't we just have some fun?”

He eyed her suspiciously, but placed his hands back around her waist. “Is this some kind of a sick joke, Kagome,” he asked.

“No Brad, I swear, this is no joke.” She kept her eyes locked on his, and as she smiled up at him, licked her lips.

That did it. His body relaxed and he began to move with her again, allowing himself to relish her enticing body.

She leaned in to his neck and lifted her mouth to his ear.

“Brad?” She voiced his name in a husky whisper.

“Yeah babe?”

She licked his earlobe, making little swirls with her tongue and breathed into his ear.

His body tensed with ecstasy and they danced.

“Brad. . . .” she whispered, ”If you hurt Chloe again, I'll castrate you, you son of a bitch.” She cooed these words lovingly into his ear, smiled, and placed her right hand on his shoulder. A beam of white-blue light shot from her palm through his neck.

She released him and stood back. Brad gasped, tried to scream out in pain, but couldn't. His eyes were wide in shock and pain, and he collapsed forward in front of her feet.

Kagome turned to walk away, but before she could move, her wrist was grabbed forcefully and she was being pulled. “That's it. We're leaving NOW!”

Before she knew what was happening, he held her fast. The scene of the nightclub and Brad dissolved in front of her eyes.

Inuyasha's mind was racing. He looked at the spot where Kagome had stood an instant before, where he watched as Michael, grabbed her and pulled her away from the man, his face a mask of rage. The man Kagome had stunned was alive. Inuyasha could hear him breathing. It was shallow and he was in pain, but he would live. He felt relief that Kagome hadn't killed, but where was she? He couldn't smell her or even sense her now. “Damn it!” he thought desperately, “What the hell just happened here? If he hurts her . . . .”

“Michael PLEASE! I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I know I shouldn't have done it, but Michael--”

They stood in the parking lot in the back of club, Michael was pacing in front of her, keeping her caged with his body. The sound of his boots echoed on the asphalt.

“Not a word, Kay, I mean it. I don't want to hear so much as a bloody word from you, YOU GOT THAT!” He glared at her with swirling silver eyes, his hands by his sides clenched in tight fists.

Kagome looked at the man facing her, he was so angry. She had never seen him like this before, distant, severe, angry. That was terrible. That he felt these things toward her now was unbearable.

Kagome looked at him, miserably. Tears fell silently down her face, leaving wet trails as she blinked through them, not bothering to try to stop them.

“You screwed up mightily, lady, you know that? Do you think your powers are just atoy, something you can use any time and way the mood strikes? Is that what you think now, Kay?”

Kagome didn't answer him. She knew he didn't want to hear any of her answers.

“Tell me Kay, is this what I saved you for?”

Kagome looked up into Michael's demanding eyes and felt sheer terror.

“Michael, NO! Please don't say that! I'm sorry! I'm so very sorry!

“I understood what happened to you earlier tonight, when I saw you pouring your energy into song. I know why you did it, that ass of a demon showing up unnerved you. I understood Kay, I truly did, and I wanted to give you comfort, to show you it was alright. But this, to do this to an innocent-“

“Brad's no innocent, Michael! He hurt Chloe. Hurt her so bad she was wearing sunglasses to cover the bruises. He beat the holy shit out of her, and you tell me he's innocent? That he didn't deserve to hurt a little himself?”

“Hurt a little Kay? . . . You could of killed him if you would have hit his heart. Did you even know that? Tell me, does he deserve to die? Are you the one that gets to make those kinds of choices now, now that you have power?”

Kagome had never felt so defeated, so lost. He was right, and there was nothing she could do now to take back what she had done.

“I pray I didn't make a mistake with you, Kay.”

“Michael,” she whispered, looking down at her feet “you're right. I don't deserve this chance.” She allowed a single sob to escape from her throat, then closed her eyes tightly.

“Kay. . . .” he said, his voice softening somewhat, “We'll let it lie for now. Let's go home.” He walked away from where she stood to the gleaming, black motorcycle.

Slowly, Kagome opened her eyes and looked up. Michael was sitting on the bike, his duster billowing behind him. He started the engine and over it, called to her, “Come on, Kay.”

Kagome let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding. In a sea of fresh tears, she ran to him. She grabbed the back of his coat and straddled the bike. Without looking back at her, he handed her helmet to her and-

Kagome gasped in fear as air was forced from her lungs. Grabbed around the waist from behind, she was being lifted off the bike, away from Michael, and into the air. Inuyasha held her as he jumped through the skies, barely touching down on rooftops. In seconds, Michael was miles away.

“Hang on!” Inuyasha bellowed back at her. He had grabbed her so suddenly, she didn't have time to position herself. It had been a long time since she'd done this, held onto Inuyasha, soaring. The sensation was not unlike being on a motorcycle, but much more intense, exhilarating. Like a motorcycle rocketing through space.

“Not that tight, wench!” he yelled again.

Kagome uncurled her fists, her fingers where white with the tension from clutching and digging into his neck.

“Sorry,” she whispered into the side of his rat-fur coat. She didn't even know if he could hear her in the wind, but she whispered again, “Inuyasha. . . . thanks.” Kagome closed her eyes, allowing herself to breathe, just breathe; to be in a moment where she felt only the wind on her face and her own heart beating against Inuyasha.

Feeling her body relax and lean closer into his and her contented sigh against his neck, the hanyou smiled.