InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Father Figure ❯ Play Dead ( Chapter 4 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: RozeFire 
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Romance / Psychological / Comedy | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 04.17.2003 | Pages: 5 | Words: 3.8K | Visits: 2.1K | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Romance / Psychological / Comedy | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 04.17.2003 | Pages: 5 | Words: 3.8K | Visits: 2.1K | Status: Completed
AN: My heart totally goes out to ArtemisMoon. I figured having a Dad like Denji is only possible if you're the kid in those child abuse adverts ^_^;;. Fortunately my only grumble with my father is that he pesters me TOO much, rather than ignore me.
Anyway, my saying for the day is: It takes 42 muscles to frown, but just 28 muscles to smile. Though it only takes 4 muscles to reach out and slap someone in the mouth. Give it a try - it's such good stress relief.
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Father Figure
Play Dead
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Kagome sighed as she shifted the cold bag of peas against her foot. Her behind was starting to go numb from sitting down for so long, but she couldn't exactly walk around with a damaged foot. It was better to have a dead posterior than a dead foot she thought.
"Can we watch something else other than the nursery kids learning programs?" Souta remarked from his cross-legged position on the floor in front of the sofa. Kagome gave the back of his head a sour look before grabbing the remote and flicking over the channel to some adverts.
"Better?" she asked him.
"Way."
"Why aren't you in school anyway? You don't look sick to me." Kagome remarked, annoyed that she had to share her day off with her younger sibling.
"Teacher training day." He shrugged as he concentrated on licking up the escaping dribbles of ice-cream from his cone. "They said that one of the teacher's is corrupt, so they're sussing out which one today."
"So whoever's missing tomorrow...?"
"Will be the Mr. I help kids cheat their exams."
Well at least it was better than a Mr. I love kids too much, full stop. Kagome huddled down on the sofa, trying to find a different position to bring some feeling back into her behind. Her movement caused the clean slice on the pad of foot to reopen and she squashed the hiss of pain she almost let loose. She'd only worry Souta if she went about groaning all day.
The only good thing she could think of was that for once she seemed to be home again. It was a weekend, the family was staying in after a tiring week at work and school (and feudal demon slaying). Everything was just normal. Grandpa was still tending the shrine grounds outside, Mrs Higurashi was bustling about in the kitchen doing the odd cleaning errands. Souta and Kagome were watching TV... and there was no Denji to be seen anywhere. He was the only one that had work that day, being a teacher.
Kagome mildly hoped he was under teacher training day too in whatever school he taught at. Maybe they'd catch him out to be the weirdo he was... but then again... everyone seemed to think he was Mr. Perfect. Even Souta.
The adverts on the TV were even beginning to take on Kagome's trend of thoughts for that day - seeing as the teacher advert chose that moment to come on.
"Can you imagine working with a small capital behind you? Can you spot the mean number? Can you imagine developing someone's mind? Those who can. Teach."
"And those who can't - Teach Maths." Kagome shot back at the box against the opposite wall. Souta shot her a questioning look over his shoulder.
"What's up with that attitude?" he asked.
Kagome sighed. "Nothing."
"I don't know Kagome, you seem like you've had it in for Denji ever since he arrived. What's the matter with you? He's a nice guy." Souta tried to reason.
She looked down at him with a slightly anguished frown tense on her face. She couldn't believe that she was the only one that noticed these things... "Souta - I screamed when I cut my foot and he didn't care. He just carried on watching TV."
"Maybe he didn't hear you?" He shrugged.
"Souta - YOU heard me and you were at the bottom of the steps at the road! I screamed so loud the neighbours came over to make sure I wasn't being horribly murdered!"
Souta turned back to eating his ice cream. "You're paranoid, you know that, right?"
"Am not!"
"You are. Ever since you started visiting the past with the dog-eared boy, and fought demons and stuff, you got all paranoid." He didn't seem to think much of this. "Now you're saying Denji is evil?"
"I never said he was evil..." Kagome scowled. Yeah... just the spawn of evil. They were two different things.
"Whatever... just don't go round called him 'aku' or anything."
"I'll tattoo it to his bleeding forehead..." Kagome muttered darkly.
"You what?"
"Nothing." She started to get up, carefully arranging her weight on her good leg as she hopped off to the kitchen to find something to drink. Her mother was gone from the kitchen by now and was instead pottering around upstairs making beds and things like she usually did on her days off.
Kagome went to the sink and grabbed another clean glass to fill with water. That was just asking for something bad to happen.
"So you just decided to go quitter on us"
Kagome started massively at Inuyasha's voice as he popped into the window directly in front of her. The jump made her overbalance on her wobbly legs and she started to tip backwards with a small cry.
Inuyasha was NOT going to have her crack her head open on his account and his hand snapped out so fast it was a blur - to grab the front of her shirt, halting her fall effectively.
"Nice catch..." Kagome told him, breathing hard as she got over her scare. But then she noticed his fingers were all but stuffed down the neckline of her low cut shirt. She yelped and attacked his hand regardless of the fact he was the only thing keeping her up. She only realised this when he let her go and she landed on her behind with a jarred thump.
"So this is how you repay all my help." He forced the window open wider to fit himself through and jumped across the sink to land nimbly on the floor beside her.
"What help?" Kagome grumbled, rubbing her badly abused behind. "You dropped me!"
"You didn't turn up!" he shot back. "Sango and Miroku killed that demon and brought it back to the village just so you could take a look at it!"
"They dragged it all the way? How big was it?" she asked.
He pulled something out of his sleeve that looked like a black furry purse... with a tail. Kagome took a closer look and yelped again. "You brought a dead possum here?!"
"Not possum. Demon!" he swung it before her like a hypnotist swings his watch, freaking her out even more. "Well?"
"Well what?!" she was scooting back until she was up against the table leg.
"Is there a shard?"
"God no!" Kagome yelled. "Throw it out the window - this is a kitchen! Not a morgue!"
"Figures." He tossed it over his shoulder without looking, sending it sailing out the open hole in the wall. "Stupid villagers worried over a silly killer rat."
"So I guess the trip would have been wasted after all, huh?" Kagome pointed out.
Inuyasha gave her an annoyed look. "There's another rumour, a more promising one this time. Sango and Miroku picked it up in the killer rat village. We could have gotten there by now if you'd just shown up on time!"
"Not my fault, Inuyasha!" she pointed to her bandaged foot. "Are you blind, or just ignorant of the fact I can barely walk!"
He turned his gaze to her foot with a frown, taking in the crisp white bandage around it as well as the fresh red speckles of blood that were showing through. "When did that happen?"
"Right after a got back." She would have tried to get to her feet by now, but she was sure she'd just embarrass herself and fall over again.
Inuyasha was about to say something when the phone rang beside his head. He snapped around to stare at it. It sounded sort of similar to Kagome's alarm clock...
"Could you get that - I'm a bit weighed down here." She said as she began to stand up regardless.
"Get it?" he turned his confused gaze to her. "Get what?"
"Pick it up." She said pointing to the handset.
He complied and held it out before him, sort of glad it had stopped ringing. "Now what?"
"Talk into it-" Kagome stopped short as she realised this was probably a bad idea... interesting though.
Inuyasha raised it cautiously to his mouth with a curious look and spoke into it like he might speak to a dark empty cave. "Hullo?"
"Hello." A voice replied.
Inuyasha had to shift it higher so his ear could actually reach the ear piece. He gave Kagome a queer look before dropping the phone into her lap and walking off into the living room. She guessed he didn't think too much of modern technology.
"Hello?" she said, pressing the phone between her cheek and her shoulder as she began to rise as quickly as she could.
"Er... who was that?" she recognised her father's voice at once and nearly fell over again as intense relief caught her. God how she missed his voice.
"Hi Dad! You don't usually call, is everything ok?" she asked, bursting with new found pleasantness that she hadn't felt much since Denji had been around to oppress everything.
"Everything's fine. I just called to tell your mother something, but I guess I could tell you instead." He sounded pleased whatever it was. "I got a job offer from a customer in the same district as you guys. He's some kind of rich snob with stress problems and wants private sessions for a few weeks."
"You're moving here?" Kagome nearly cried with excitement.
"Only for a few weeks." He said quickly. "And I won't be staying near you guys, I'll be renting a flat out further into town."
"How far away?"
"Only about ten minutes or so by foot I should think."
This was great. For some reason she kept imagining her father coming over and kicking new dad's butt into next week. "Great! Souta can see you now - when are you coming over?"
"I should be there by Sunday."
That was only six days away considering it was Tuesday.
"Remember to tell you Mom, ok, honey?" Her father prompted her.
"I will." She promised.
"I gotta go now, I'll see you at the weekend, love."
"Bye Dad."
"Bye Kagome." The line clicked dead at the other end and she sighed happily as she set the phone back in the cradle.
Kagome hobbled out of the kitchen and back into the living room where both Inuyasha and Souta were sat on the carpet staring at the TV screen like it was their lord. "Who was that?" Souta asked without looking up.
"Dad."
"Yeah?" his eyes lit up and he tore his attention to her. "What's he say?"
"He's coming to visit this weekend. He'll be staying for a while."
"Here?" Souta asked,
"Nope. A flat somewhere else. I don't think he'd want to infringe on Mom's new fiancé or anything." Kagome looked at her watch and bit her lip. Denji would be home soon and if he saw Inuyasha... that was the end of everything.
"Inuyasha?" she gestured for him to follow her. He complied, only after a moments hesitation, and followed her out of the room where she started up the stairs at an agonisingly slow pace.
"Any slower and I could bet you in snail races." He suddenly picked her up and slung her over his shoulder, ignoring her indignant squeak.
"Don't touch me with your dead dirty possum hands!" she shrieked as she batted his back. "Now I need another bath!"
"All you do is take baths!" he snapped back. "Anyway - that thing was perfectly clean!"
"It smelt!"
"No it didn't!"
"Then it was you who smelt!"
"Ok - the possum stunk!" he kicked open her door and dropped her on the bed. "Did you dither around that much with Kouga?!"
Well he HAD just carried her in a very Kouga-like fashion. She just balled her hands into fists and folded her arms, turning her nose away. "I try and be helpful - and all I get is a injured foot for my trouble, you know. You don't even have the decency to sympathise."
"Well you should be more careful!" he waved a hand at her bandaged appendage. "Back where I come from - if you damage your feet you're as good as dead."
"Sounds like lions in the Sahara..." Remembering all those natural history programs Souta usually made her sit through in the evenings.
"Like what in the what?" Inuyasha narrowed his eyes at her, clueless.
"It wasn't my fault, ok?" she tried to placate him. "Denji gave me a scare and made me drop some glass and then I stepped on it."
Inuyasha's expression suddenly slackened. "Your step father did it to you?"
"Yes - I mean - no..." She flicked her gaze to her wringing hands in her lap. "I don't know... it wasn't on purpose..."
"An accident."
"Yeah, but he didn't care that he made me hurt myself." Kagome mumbled, slightly embarrassed with herself, feeling a blush rise into her cheeks. She didn't know what she had to be embarrassed about, she just felt slightly stupid. She was the only one who seemed to notice there was something odd about Denji. No matter how much she hinted to the other members of her family, they seemed blind to it all, making her seem like it was all in her head.
Maybe Souta was right... maybe she was just paranoid.
She glanced back up at Inuyasha and noticed he was looking at her strangely, she felt heat rise to her cheeks again. "What?"
"Are you ok?"
"Just hot." She pretended to fan her flushed face. "You better go now... I don't want Denji finding out about you and the well or anything... I don't trust that guy yet."
Inuyasha seemed reluctant to move from his spot, but he took a few steps towards the window before turning back. "Come along when your foot's better, ok?"
"Ok..." she saw him turn to leave again and quickly realised something else. "You can visit any time you lie - during the day when he's not here!" she realised there was a slightly hopeful tone in her voice that he couldn't have missed.
He looked back with a shrug. "Maybe. Whatever."
She tried not to let how much his callused response left her a little crestfallen. It was boring when Inuyasha wasn't around. She really wouldn't mind seeing him a little more often.
He was soon gone from her window and out of sight. She sat on her bed for a few minutes pondering if he would be back tomorrow.
It wasn't long before she heard the front door slam and Denji's falsely pleasant voice call out. "I'm home!"
Kagome closed her eyes with a groan and flopped backwards onto her bed, wishing everything was back the way it used to be. No Denji, no problems seeing Inuyasha...
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Inuyasha didn't leave straight away, he hung around the bushes beside the well house, waiting for the man that was posing as Kagome's new father to arrive. She said he'd be back soon...
The roar of a car engine close by caught his attention, before it was soon cut off. Car doors opened and slammed again, and before long someone began ascending the shrine stairs. Inuyasha crouched down, wishing maybe he could wear more camouflage colours other than red at this point, but watched intently as the figure came into view on the stairs.
The guy looked... well, average. Kinda good looking and lean. But in that pathetic human way which didn't threaten Inuyasha much. He was SO much better looking than that guy... Why had he ever been worried that man was Kagome's boyfriend anyway?
The man entered the house and called the usual arrival greeting most people seemed to use around here. He was greeted by Kagome's mother who looked especially rosy-cheeked that day. Inuyasha watched through the window as she kissed him on the lips and gave him a brief hug in the hall before he moved off into the living room to greet Souta, giving the boy a fond ruffle of the hair before disappearing off into the kitchen, out of Inuyasha's sight.
Inuyasha sat back and cocked his head with wonder. The guy acted like he was the natural father of the family... and they all treated him as such - except for Kagome. He shrugged and stepped out of the bushes to lean against the side of the well house.
Maybe this whole evil stepfather thing was in her head after all. The guy didn't give off evil vibes, and he certainly didn't smell like a demon or anything.
Maybe all this stress and paranoia was getting to Kagome - in that case better give her some time off.
But...
Why would Kagome lie that Denji had caused her injury? She'd obviously been embarrassed to tell him... she had no reason to lie. Kagome was an extremely nice girl. She wouldn't make stuff like that up.
So no, he wouldn't trust this Denji guy, even though he seemed the decent kind on the surface. He'd take Kagome's view on him... and just be very wary.
Nope... he wasn't going to be far from Kagome's side. He'd visit as often as possible... he'd stay even when he was told to leave (even without Kagome's knowledge). He had to protect her, even if it was from her own family.
"Starting now." He declared to the world around him.
A sweeping sound made him turn his head and he spotted Kagome's grandpa come around the corner of the house. The old man merely looked at him pointedly and tapped his digital watch, hinting Inuyasha should be gone by now.
"Starting tomorrow!" Inuyasha declared again, before turning and heading back inside the well house to get tell the others that their shard hunting was going to be put on hold for a while.
Something more important had come up.
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It wasn't usually so quiet during dinner, but for some reason it was that evening. Kagome darted glances between the rest of her family and Denji as she quietly tore off pieces of bread to dip in her soup and chew in silence. It didn't seem uncomfortably tense of anything, it was just that everyone was very hungry, and wanted to eat rather than talk.
Well it was comfortable to everyone except Kagome, who felt as though a giant invisible pressure was on her shoulders, pushing her down. It was so tense... she had to break it something.
"Souta - could you pass the bread?" she asked her brother who picked up the plate and passed it to her.
"You forgot to say please." Denji commented coolly from opposite her.
Kagome didn't say anything as she excepted the bread. She felt stupid saying 'please' so belatedly. She just smiled at Souta in her usual way to convey her appreciation. Souta understood.
"And you forgot to say thank you." Denji picked at her manners again.
Kagome felt herself turn red all over again as her mother and Grandpa sent her disparaging looks. "Thank you..." she muttered.
"S'ok." Souta shrugged, he didn't really care whether he was thanked or not. It was just a waste of energy to say 'please' or 'thank you' after everything you said at the table. After how many years, you tended to get casual about eating with the family.
Obviously Denji intended to shape things up again.
Kagome went back to eating, loading two more slices of bread onto her plate.
"Careful, Kagome, you don't want to put on any more weight. White bread is surprisingly unhealthy you know." Denji lectured.
Kagome's hand froze over her spoon as she stared at her food. She couldn't believe he'd just said that so blatantly. "Are you saying I'm fat?"
"Don't be silly, Kagome." Her mother admonished. "He just means you should be careful about eating too much. With that bad foot you don't need to carry around too much unhealthy weight."
Kagome snapped wide eyes on her mother. She was taking Denji's side? She glanced across at her Grandpa who was staying out of the matter, continuing to eat his food quietly, though he had a small frown on her brow. Souta didn't seem to notice as he continued scarfing down his meal like a starved boy.
It was like her whole family had turned against her. Or at least half was against her, the other half just didn't bother defending her. She suddenly pushed her chair back, no longer hungry, and started to get up.
"You forgot to ask if you could go." Her mother pointed out, picking up after Denji's lead.
Kagome had to bite back her tears as she nearly staggered on her bad foot. "Can I go?" she asked, glad her voice didn't show the tears that were glazing her eyes as she stood with her back to them.
"You can." Her mother said dutifully.
Kagome tried not to limp as she walked out of the kitchen and headed up the stairs. She didn't allow herself to break down and cry until she reached her room. Once inside and slumped on the bed she let herself go. Smothering her sobs into her pillow.
This was the third time she'd cried since Denji's arrival... she hadn't cried that much in six months - and it was usually only because Inuyasha said hurtful things - but she knew he never usually meant what he said. It was just a case of foot in mouth syndrome - or a bad brain to mouth connection. Denji's words were chosen carefully... he knew how this affected her.
Right then she knew she wasn't paranoid about anything. There was something seriously wrong about Denji, but everyone was too in love with him to notice. That was probably because he only attacked Kagome, and in so subtle little ways that anyone other than herself wouldn't notice.
But what had he got against her? Had she done something to upset him? The moment she'd walked in that door he'd been against her from the word go... but why? She'd done nothing wrong...
Kagome didn't understand, and it made her cry all that much harder for it.
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AN: Psychological bullying... hmmm...
Anyway, my saying for the day is: It takes 42 muscles to frown, but just 28 muscles to smile. Though it only takes 4 muscles to reach out and slap someone in the mouth. Give it a try - it's such good stress relief.
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Father Figure
Play Dead
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Kagome sighed as she shifted the cold bag of peas against her foot. Her behind was starting to go numb from sitting down for so long, but she couldn't exactly walk around with a damaged foot. It was better to have a dead posterior than a dead foot she thought.
"Can we watch something else other than the nursery kids learning programs?" Souta remarked from his cross-legged position on the floor in front of the sofa. Kagome gave the back of his head a sour look before grabbing the remote and flicking over the channel to some adverts.
"Better?" she asked him.
"Way."
"Why aren't you in school anyway? You don't look sick to me." Kagome remarked, annoyed that she had to share her day off with her younger sibling.
"Teacher training day." He shrugged as he concentrated on licking up the escaping dribbles of ice-cream from his cone. "They said that one of the teacher's is corrupt, so they're sussing out which one today."
"So whoever's missing tomorrow...?"
"Will be the Mr. I help kids cheat their exams."
Well at least it was better than a Mr. I love kids too much, full stop. Kagome huddled down on the sofa, trying to find a different position to bring some feeling back into her behind. Her movement caused the clean slice on the pad of foot to reopen and she squashed the hiss of pain she almost let loose. She'd only worry Souta if she went about groaning all day.
The only good thing she could think of was that for once she seemed to be home again. It was a weekend, the family was staying in after a tiring week at work and school (and feudal demon slaying). Everything was just normal. Grandpa was still tending the shrine grounds outside, Mrs Higurashi was bustling about in the kitchen doing the odd cleaning errands. Souta and Kagome were watching TV... and there was no Denji to be seen anywhere. He was the only one that had work that day, being a teacher.
Kagome mildly hoped he was under teacher training day too in whatever school he taught at. Maybe they'd catch him out to be the weirdo he was... but then again... everyone seemed to think he was Mr. Perfect. Even Souta.
The adverts on the TV were even beginning to take on Kagome's trend of thoughts for that day - seeing as the teacher advert chose that moment to come on.
"Can you imagine working with a small capital behind you? Can you spot the mean number? Can you imagine developing someone's mind? Those who can. Teach."
"And those who can't - Teach Maths." Kagome shot back at the box against the opposite wall. Souta shot her a questioning look over his shoulder.
"What's up with that attitude?" he asked.
Kagome sighed. "Nothing."
"I don't know Kagome, you seem like you've had it in for Denji ever since he arrived. What's the matter with you? He's a nice guy." Souta tried to reason.
She looked down at him with a slightly anguished frown tense on her face. She couldn't believe that she was the only one that noticed these things... "Souta - I screamed when I cut my foot and he didn't care. He just carried on watching TV."
"Maybe he didn't hear you?" He shrugged.
"Souta - YOU heard me and you were at the bottom of the steps at the road! I screamed so loud the neighbours came over to make sure I wasn't being horribly murdered!"
Souta turned back to eating his ice cream. "You're paranoid, you know that, right?"
"Am not!"
"You are. Ever since you started visiting the past with the dog-eared boy, and fought demons and stuff, you got all paranoid." He didn't seem to think much of this. "Now you're saying Denji is evil?"
"I never said he was evil..." Kagome scowled. Yeah... just the spawn of evil. They were two different things.
"Whatever... just don't go round called him 'aku' or anything."
"I'll tattoo it to his bleeding forehead..." Kagome muttered darkly.
"You what?"
"Nothing." She started to get up, carefully arranging her weight on her good leg as she hopped off to the kitchen to find something to drink. Her mother was gone from the kitchen by now and was instead pottering around upstairs making beds and things like she usually did on her days off.
Kagome went to the sink and grabbed another clean glass to fill with water. That was just asking for something bad to happen.
"So you just decided to go quitter on us"
Kagome started massively at Inuyasha's voice as he popped into the window directly in front of her. The jump made her overbalance on her wobbly legs and she started to tip backwards with a small cry.
Inuyasha was NOT going to have her crack her head open on his account and his hand snapped out so fast it was a blur - to grab the front of her shirt, halting her fall effectively.
"Nice catch..." Kagome told him, breathing hard as she got over her scare. But then she noticed his fingers were all but stuffed down the neckline of her low cut shirt. She yelped and attacked his hand regardless of the fact he was the only thing keeping her up. She only realised this when he let her go and she landed on her behind with a jarred thump.
"So this is how you repay all my help." He forced the window open wider to fit himself through and jumped across the sink to land nimbly on the floor beside her.
"What help?" Kagome grumbled, rubbing her badly abused behind. "You dropped me!"
"You didn't turn up!" he shot back. "Sango and Miroku killed that demon and brought it back to the village just so you could take a look at it!"
"They dragged it all the way? How big was it?" she asked.
He pulled something out of his sleeve that looked like a black furry purse... with a tail. Kagome took a closer look and yelped again. "You brought a dead possum here?!"
"Not possum. Demon!" he swung it before her like a hypnotist swings his watch, freaking her out even more. "Well?"
"Well what?!" she was scooting back until she was up against the table leg.
"Is there a shard?"
"God no!" Kagome yelled. "Throw it out the window - this is a kitchen! Not a morgue!"
"Figures." He tossed it over his shoulder without looking, sending it sailing out the open hole in the wall. "Stupid villagers worried over a silly killer rat."
"So I guess the trip would have been wasted after all, huh?" Kagome pointed out.
Inuyasha gave her an annoyed look. "There's another rumour, a more promising one this time. Sango and Miroku picked it up in the killer rat village. We could have gotten there by now if you'd just shown up on time!"
"Not my fault, Inuyasha!" she pointed to her bandaged foot. "Are you blind, or just ignorant of the fact I can barely walk!"
He turned his gaze to her foot with a frown, taking in the crisp white bandage around it as well as the fresh red speckles of blood that were showing through. "When did that happen?"
"Right after a got back." She would have tried to get to her feet by now, but she was sure she'd just embarrass herself and fall over again.
Inuyasha was about to say something when the phone rang beside his head. He snapped around to stare at it. It sounded sort of similar to Kagome's alarm clock...
"Could you get that - I'm a bit weighed down here." She said as she began to stand up regardless.
"Get it?" he turned his confused gaze to her. "Get what?"
"Pick it up." She said pointing to the handset.
He complied and held it out before him, sort of glad it had stopped ringing. "Now what?"
"Talk into it-" Kagome stopped short as she realised this was probably a bad idea... interesting though.
Inuyasha raised it cautiously to his mouth with a curious look and spoke into it like he might speak to a dark empty cave. "Hullo?"
"Hello." A voice replied.
Inuyasha had to shift it higher so his ear could actually reach the ear piece. He gave Kagome a queer look before dropping the phone into her lap and walking off into the living room. She guessed he didn't think too much of modern technology.
"Hello?" she said, pressing the phone between her cheek and her shoulder as she began to rise as quickly as she could.
"Er... who was that?" she recognised her father's voice at once and nearly fell over again as intense relief caught her. God how she missed his voice.
"Hi Dad! You don't usually call, is everything ok?" she asked, bursting with new found pleasantness that she hadn't felt much since Denji had been around to oppress everything.
"Everything's fine. I just called to tell your mother something, but I guess I could tell you instead." He sounded pleased whatever it was. "I got a job offer from a customer in the same district as you guys. He's some kind of rich snob with stress problems and wants private sessions for a few weeks."
"You're moving here?" Kagome nearly cried with excitement.
"Only for a few weeks." He said quickly. "And I won't be staying near you guys, I'll be renting a flat out further into town."
"How far away?"
"Only about ten minutes or so by foot I should think."
This was great. For some reason she kept imagining her father coming over and kicking new dad's butt into next week. "Great! Souta can see you now - when are you coming over?"
"I should be there by Sunday."
That was only six days away considering it was Tuesday.
"Remember to tell you Mom, ok, honey?" Her father prompted her.
"I will." She promised.
"I gotta go now, I'll see you at the weekend, love."
"Bye Dad."
"Bye Kagome." The line clicked dead at the other end and she sighed happily as she set the phone back in the cradle.
Kagome hobbled out of the kitchen and back into the living room where both Inuyasha and Souta were sat on the carpet staring at the TV screen like it was their lord. "Who was that?" Souta asked without looking up.
"Dad."
"Yeah?" his eyes lit up and he tore his attention to her. "What's he say?"
"He's coming to visit this weekend. He'll be staying for a while."
"Here?" Souta asked,
"Nope. A flat somewhere else. I don't think he'd want to infringe on Mom's new fiancé or anything." Kagome looked at her watch and bit her lip. Denji would be home soon and if he saw Inuyasha... that was the end of everything.
"Inuyasha?" she gestured for him to follow her. He complied, only after a moments hesitation, and followed her out of the room where she started up the stairs at an agonisingly slow pace.
"Any slower and I could bet you in snail races." He suddenly picked her up and slung her over his shoulder, ignoring her indignant squeak.
"Don't touch me with your dead dirty possum hands!" she shrieked as she batted his back. "Now I need another bath!"
"All you do is take baths!" he snapped back. "Anyway - that thing was perfectly clean!"
"It smelt!"
"No it didn't!"
"Then it was you who smelt!"
"Ok - the possum stunk!" he kicked open her door and dropped her on the bed. "Did you dither around that much with Kouga?!"
Well he HAD just carried her in a very Kouga-like fashion. She just balled her hands into fists and folded her arms, turning her nose away. "I try and be helpful - and all I get is a injured foot for my trouble, you know. You don't even have the decency to sympathise."
"Well you should be more careful!" he waved a hand at her bandaged appendage. "Back where I come from - if you damage your feet you're as good as dead."
"Sounds like lions in the Sahara..." Remembering all those natural history programs Souta usually made her sit through in the evenings.
"Like what in the what?" Inuyasha narrowed his eyes at her, clueless.
"It wasn't my fault, ok?" she tried to placate him. "Denji gave me a scare and made me drop some glass and then I stepped on it."
Inuyasha's expression suddenly slackened. "Your step father did it to you?"
"Yes - I mean - no..." She flicked her gaze to her wringing hands in her lap. "I don't know... it wasn't on purpose..."
"An accident."
"Yeah, but he didn't care that he made me hurt myself." Kagome mumbled, slightly embarrassed with herself, feeling a blush rise into her cheeks. She didn't know what she had to be embarrassed about, she just felt slightly stupid. She was the only one who seemed to notice there was something odd about Denji. No matter how much she hinted to the other members of her family, they seemed blind to it all, making her seem like it was all in her head.
Maybe Souta was right... maybe she was just paranoid.
She glanced back up at Inuyasha and noticed he was looking at her strangely, she felt heat rise to her cheeks again. "What?"
"Are you ok?"
"Just hot." She pretended to fan her flushed face. "You better go now... I don't want Denji finding out about you and the well or anything... I don't trust that guy yet."
Inuyasha seemed reluctant to move from his spot, but he took a few steps towards the window before turning back. "Come along when your foot's better, ok?"
"Ok..." she saw him turn to leave again and quickly realised something else. "You can visit any time you lie - during the day when he's not here!" she realised there was a slightly hopeful tone in her voice that he couldn't have missed.
He looked back with a shrug. "Maybe. Whatever."
She tried not to let how much his callused response left her a little crestfallen. It was boring when Inuyasha wasn't around. She really wouldn't mind seeing him a little more often.
He was soon gone from her window and out of sight. She sat on her bed for a few minutes pondering if he would be back tomorrow.
It wasn't long before she heard the front door slam and Denji's falsely pleasant voice call out. "I'm home!"
Kagome closed her eyes with a groan and flopped backwards onto her bed, wishing everything was back the way it used to be. No Denji, no problems seeing Inuyasha...
*
^_^
*
Inuyasha didn't leave straight away, he hung around the bushes beside the well house, waiting for the man that was posing as Kagome's new father to arrive. She said he'd be back soon...
The roar of a car engine close by caught his attention, before it was soon cut off. Car doors opened and slammed again, and before long someone began ascending the shrine stairs. Inuyasha crouched down, wishing maybe he could wear more camouflage colours other than red at this point, but watched intently as the figure came into view on the stairs.
The guy looked... well, average. Kinda good looking and lean. But in that pathetic human way which didn't threaten Inuyasha much. He was SO much better looking than that guy... Why had he ever been worried that man was Kagome's boyfriend anyway?
The man entered the house and called the usual arrival greeting most people seemed to use around here. He was greeted by Kagome's mother who looked especially rosy-cheeked that day. Inuyasha watched through the window as she kissed him on the lips and gave him a brief hug in the hall before he moved off into the living room to greet Souta, giving the boy a fond ruffle of the hair before disappearing off into the kitchen, out of Inuyasha's sight.
Inuyasha sat back and cocked his head with wonder. The guy acted like he was the natural father of the family... and they all treated him as such - except for Kagome. He shrugged and stepped out of the bushes to lean against the side of the well house.
Maybe this whole evil stepfather thing was in her head after all. The guy didn't give off evil vibes, and he certainly didn't smell like a demon or anything.
Maybe all this stress and paranoia was getting to Kagome - in that case better give her some time off.
But...
Why would Kagome lie that Denji had caused her injury? She'd obviously been embarrassed to tell him... she had no reason to lie. Kagome was an extremely nice girl. She wouldn't make stuff like that up.
So no, he wouldn't trust this Denji guy, even though he seemed the decent kind on the surface. He'd take Kagome's view on him... and just be very wary.
Nope... he wasn't going to be far from Kagome's side. He'd visit as often as possible... he'd stay even when he was told to leave (even without Kagome's knowledge). He had to protect her, even if it was from her own family.
"Starting now." He declared to the world around him.
A sweeping sound made him turn his head and he spotted Kagome's grandpa come around the corner of the house. The old man merely looked at him pointedly and tapped his digital watch, hinting Inuyasha should be gone by now.
"Starting tomorrow!" Inuyasha declared again, before turning and heading back inside the well house to get tell the others that their shard hunting was going to be put on hold for a while.
Something more important had come up.
*
^_^
*
It wasn't usually so quiet during dinner, but for some reason it was that evening. Kagome darted glances between the rest of her family and Denji as she quietly tore off pieces of bread to dip in her soup and chew in silence. It didn't seem uncomfortably tense of anything, it was just that everyone was very hungry, and wanted to eat rather than talk.
Well it was comfortable to everyone except Kagome, who felt as though a giant invisible pressure was on her shoulders, pushing her down. It was so tense... she had to break it something.
"Souta - could you pass the bread?" she asked her brother who picked up the plate and passed it to her.
"You forgot to say please." Denji commented coolly from opposite her.
Kagome didn't say anything as she excepted the bread. She felt stupid saying 'please' so belatedly. She just smiled at Souta in her usual way to convey her appreciation. Souta understood.
"And you forgot to say thank you." Denji picked at her manners again.
Kagome felt herself turn red all over again as her mother and Grandpa sent her disparaging looks. "Thank you..." she muttered.
"S'ok." Souta shrugged, he didn't really care whether he was thanked or not. It was just a waste of energy to say 'please' or 'thank you' after everything you said at the table. After how many years, you tended to get casual about eating with the family.
Obviously Denji intended to shape things up again.
Kagome went back to eating, loading two more slices of bread onto her plate.
"Careful, Kagome, you don't want to put on any more weight. White bread is surprisingly unhealthy you know." Denji lectured.
Kagome's hand froze over her spoon as she stared at her food. She couldn't believe he'd just said that so blatantly. "Are you saying I'm fat?"
"Don't be silly, Kagome." Her mother admonished. "He just means you should be careful about eating too much. With that bad foot you don't need to carry around too much unhealthy weight."
Kagome snapped wide eyes on her mother. She was taking Denji's side? She glanced across at her Grandpa who was staying out of the matter, continuing to eat his food quietly, though he had a small frown on her brow. Souta didn't seem to notice as he continued scarfing down his meal like a starved boy.
It was like her whole family had turned against her. Or at least half was against her, the other half just didn't bother defending her. She suddenly pushed her chair back, no longer hungry, and started to get up.
"You forgot to ask if you could go." Her mother pointed out, picking up after Denji's lead.
Kagome had to bite back her tears as she nearly staggered on her bad foot. "Can I go?" she asked, glad her voice didn't show the tears that were glazing her eyes as she stood with her back to them.
"You can." Her mother said dutifully.
Kagome tried not to limp as she walked out of the kitchen and headed up the stairs. She didn't allow herself to break down and cry until she reached her room. Once inside and slumped on the bed she let herself go. Smothering her sobs into her pillow.
This was the third time she'd cried since Denji's arrival... she hadn't cried that much in six months - and it was usually only because Inuyasha said hurtful things - but she knew he never usually meant what he said. It was just a case of foot in mouth syndrome - or a bad brain to mouth connection. Denji's words were chosen carefully... he knew how this affected her.
Right then she knew she wasn't paranoid about anything. There was something seriously wrong about Denji, but everyone was too in love with him to notice. That was probably because he only attacked Kagome, and in so subtle little ways that anyone other than herself wouldn't notice.
But what had he got against her? Had she done something to upset him? The moment she'd walked in that door he'd been against her from the word go... but why? She'd done nothing wrong...
Kagome didn't understand, and it made her cry all that much harder for it.
*
*
*
*
AN: Psychological bullying... hmmm...