InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ First Class Dog ❯ The Love Notes ( Chapter 8 )

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Another day, another chapter, and I'm really happy to have new people signing up. I can't believe some people have this story as a favorite! It makes me feel pretty darn good. Hey guys if you've got ideas for where they could go or what they could do please send me a message/review. I've got a masquerade coming up in a later chapter and another event in the next chapter but I definitely need more ideas. All ideas are much appreciated--even silly ones.

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The previous night Inu Yasha had slept on the couch in the living area… much to his disappointment. Secretly, the hanyou would have endured a hundred sits to wake up in the morning next to her again—but not if she did not want it. Sleep had not come nearly as easily as it had beside the miko's warm body but eventually, he did succumb.

The morning, however, had a new surprise in store for them. A knock at the door roused him from his slumber. He glanced through the open bedroom door, a little surprised she had left it open, but the girl still slept peacefully. Slipping the sheath of his Tetsusaiga through his belt on his back he approached the door slowly. The dog-demon threw a baseball cap on his head to cover his ears for good measure and was glad Kagome had the presence of mind to leave a bunch hanging on a hat rack right near the door so he would not forget. A lady who identified herself as `Room Service' handed the man two white gift boxes tied with a complicated-looking red silk bow. She said it was from Shiro, and then handed over an envelope addressed to Kagome. The lady then bowed and left.

Ignoring the gifts which he tossed unceremoniously onto the coffee table; the dog-demon tore into the envelope. He could smell Shiro's strange scent all over the damned paper. He read through the letter quickly.

“My dear Kagome, I apologize for being so forward with you last night. You looked so lovely today and you were playing hard-to-get for so long that I had to kiss you. I simply could not help myself…” At that point Inu Yasha had to stop reading. Kagome kissed Shiro? She had not mentioned that little tidbit to him in her explanation of her date! He paced around the coffee table, growling and snarling, his mind racing. She gave away a kiss to some guy she had only just met! A smaller part of himself quietly asked, “Why not me?” He protected her on a daily basis from all kinds of scum; Inu Yasha highly doubted a man like him could rend a demon asunder like he could. “But then again,” the same quiet part of him argued, “Shiro lived in her time period, did not appear to be a demon, and could provide her with a privileged lifestyle. If she were with you then she would be scorned by her world and yours.” He lifted his claws to his scalp to run his fingers through his hair but found the baseball cap there. With a frustrated rumble in his throat he whipped off his hat and threw it into the couch.

At that moment Kagome shuffled into the living area. She was dressed in a bathrobe and had a toothbrush in her mouth. Seeing Inu Yasha in such a troubled state caused the miko to pull the toothbrush from her lips.

“What's going on?” She inquired.

“I'll tell you what's going on,” the hanyou bellowed, “You-you and Shiro, that's what's going on!”

She blinked, unsure of what he was talking about. He had not seen terribly worked up the previous night. Inu Yasha would not give her a chance to respond. Instead, he stomped over to her, grabbed her hand, and shoved the letter into her palm. Still too confused to get angry she quickly perused the letter, reading past the part where the dog-demon had stopped. “…Perhaps I was too forward and scared you off? Regardless, I insist you take my gift. I will not take no for an answer. In apology for my brash behavior I have sent you a second gift for the pool party tomorrow. I would be heartbroken if you did not wear it for me. Dreaming of seeing you tomorrow, Shiro.”

Kagome looked up from the note at Inu Yasha, “That kiss he's talking about… it's not what you think.”

“That note says `kiss' what else could it mean?!”

“He tried to kiss me ON THE LIPS but I turned my face so he'd kiss me ON THE CHEEK! I couldn't get out of the way! It's not liked I wanted it.” She shouted.

That poured cold water all over his rage. Inu Yasha hesitated, but the miko was not finished with him yet.

“…And besides that, what are YOU doing reading a note addressed to ME?”

“Why didn't you tell me what he did to you?” He snapped back, having found his tongue again.

She would not respond to his demanding question, instead she stomped over to the two packages on the coffee table and shook one of the boxes at his face.

“I suppose you've gone through these, too? Don't you trust m—?”

Her voice stopped mid-sentence. She was staring at the box in her hand as if it was on fire. The half-demon lost his steam again as he regarded her shocked expression; a hint of concern flickered somewhere deep in his eyes.

“What is it, Kagome?”

With a faltering voice and slightly shaky hands she tore off the bow and threw off the lid of the container. The bracelet Shiro had tried to give her the night before sat inside. This time however, the bangle was accompanied by the matching silver chain of a delicate necklace. On the necklace was a tiny pendant set with the tiniest sliver of a gem. To the miko's eyes the gem glowed. A familiar, yet sickening, feeling settled in the pit of her stomach as realization set in.

“Inu Yasha,” She breathed. “It's a Shikon fragment.”

“Wait, wait. How did you miss it?” Having completely forgotten the argument the dog-demon rushed over to inspect the necklace. It was quickly obvious why she had missed it. The shard was tiny at best. Unless Kagome held the box in her hand she could barely pick up its tell-tale signature. However, something about the fragment didn't sit right with the miko—besides the mere fact that Shiro had simply given away an ancient artifact to a virtual stranger. Her fingers moved over the shimmering fragment, hoping to discern the difference and also to be sure that it was purified. To her shock the shard disintegrated the instant her skin made contact with it.

“It's a fake!” They proclaimed in unison.

“Shit. Now we'll have to stay.” The dog-demon grumbled and scuffed the floor with his foot.

Kagome nodded, and then frowned as a more unpleasant thought emerged in her mind. Taking in a slow breath she prepared to break more bad news. The hanyou had seen the look and sensed where it was heading.

“Oh no, don't say it.”

“We'll have to get closer to Shiro and Ikume.”

“Damn it!”

The half-demon followed up his first curse word with a series of other expletives. They both knew they had to get to the bottom of the fake fragment and the only way to do that would be to entertain their company as much as possible. Worse, they had only a few weeks to get to the bottom of the mystery. Even if they could have afforded to stay close by the Baines siblings it would have been difficult to justify and they still had duties to their friends in the Sengoku Period. Inu Yasha had more to say about the situation.

“I know you're going to say we can't go charging around looking for the fragment, so don't bother. You would have said something if you had any sense of where the fragment was, I know, so don't say that either. But there is no way in hell I'm gonna let you go off with that fucking bastard Shiro alone. Don't you dare say that, you hear me?”

The miko gaped, take out all the swearing and he had practically read her mind, right down to the concern that she might have to spend more alone time with Shiro.

“Look, I don't like it any more than you do but we might have to.”

“No! No fucking way.” His golden eyes burned with anger, his arms crossed obstinately over his chest. “What if he makes a move on you and I'm not there again? Huh? What if he tries…” here he choked on his words, unwilling to describe the possible scenarios that flooded his mind. If Ikume turned out to be some sort of demon in disguise he would have no problem dispatching her on his own, however Kagome had no claws of steel or abilities to heal. More so than even that, if Shiro turned out to be a demon then he might take her like Kouga. Nothing had happened to her then, sure, but Shiro obviously did not care about demonic code. Shiro certainly did not follow the unwritten laws between fellow demons and their mates. There had been no challenge to the death over her, as with Kouga. The wolf-demon would not claim her unless Inu Yasha had been killed. Demons were feral, but they weren't all without honor. He could not say that though, instead he ended, “What if he tries…some-some… funny business on you? Huh? How am I supposed to protect you?”

Even with all his scowling it was impossible for Kagome to miss the apprehensive look on his face. She put on her bravest smile before she replied.

“We'll figure something out. I won't go off alone anywhere without you unless we have some sort of contingency plan, okay?”

He grunted his approval and the miko took this as a sign that she could continue.

“For now, we have a couple of opportunities to get Shiro and Ikume to talk. There's the pool party tomorrow night and the masquerade in a week. If Ikume's anything like Shiro then she'll probably arrange a date or two in the meantime. There'll probably be more parties or dinners, too. I think we should try and see if Ikume and Shiro will double date, too, that way we don't have to separate. Shiro doesn't seem to like you off somewhere alone with Ikume so I think it'll be easy enough to convince him. We still need to figure out how and why they're creating fake Shikon shards.”

“And where.” Inu Yasha added. Kagome concurred.

“I don't want to do this… but I guess I'm going to have to accept these gifts. If I turn them down it might be hard to stay on Shiro's good side…”

Suddenly curious, the hanyou stepped past her to the coffee table and inspected the larger gift box that remained unopened. He sniffed surreptitiously at it and then slashed off the bow with a claw.

“What the hell is this?”

The dog-demon came up from the opened box with a small blue piece of fabric. Kagome quickly realized he was holding a swimsuit (and a skimpy one from the obvious lack of fabric) and snatched it out of his hands. She knew she was blushing but could not regain her calm as she turned the swimsuit this way and that. It took her several seconds to find out which end was the front and she could barely picture what it would look like in her mind's eye. The miko was seriously reconsidering how far she wanted to go for a fake Shikon fragment.

Her furious blushing fueled Inu Yasha's curiosity. He had easily deduced that the cloth in her hand was far more revealing than the one she wore to bathe in the Sengoku period. He had to practice some serious tact if he wanted to convince her to wear it—besides, he reasoned mentally, if Shiro attempted to make a move at the party then he could beat him down. Simple, really.

“Well, you're the one who said you needed to keep the gifts to stay on his good side…”

“Yeah, but-but this is…”

“Oh so now you're going back on what you just said a minute ago? I have to deal with Ikume blowing my eardrums to hell while acting all `gentlemanly' and all you have to do is wear a swimsuit?” He turned his back to her and put his hands up behind his head for effect before nailing her with his last comment.

“Feh. Women: all talk no action.”

The living area seemed to rise several degrees all of a sudden and he swore the air smelled of sulfur. He allowed himself a small grin. Without seeing her face he already knew she had taken the bait. He was fucking brilliant!

“Fine! I'll wear it. I'm a liberated woman.”

The gods had been on Inu Yasha's side that day.

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The rest of the day went by without further incident.

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The thoughts of a modern-day miko and a youkai from antiquity were numerous and varied as they tried to get to sleep that night:

Inu Yasha crashed on the couch again. His mind was filled with possibilities and never lingered on any one particular musing for very long. The hanyou had stopped just short of begging Kagome to try on the new bathing suit before the pool party (for inspection purposes, of course) to make sure it wasn't ripped or anything. She flatly refused. In the end he decided that he could wait another day because he had an overactive imagination to visualize what the tiny garment might look like on her. He considered all sorts of wild designs as he slipped away into the land of dreams.

As Kagome tried to fall asleep her thoughts focused mostly on lists. For an hour she laid on her back and ticked off on her fingers every possible motive the Baines family could have for creating fake Shikon fragments. However, none of them seemed sensible. The fact of the matter was that a demon had never been spotted in her modern world. If demons were still lurking about in Japan they certainly did not need Shikon fragments for empowerment. It just was not adding up. With a frustrated sigh the miko flipped onto her side, pulled the covers up to her cheek and shut her mind down. She was getting nowhere fast in her thoughts, anyway. Twenty minutes later Kagome slipped into a deep, yet troubled sleep.