InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Future Beginnings ❯ Ch 7: Revelations ( Chapter 7 )

Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi

 

Ch 7: Revelations

 

Inuyasha watched as they got out of the car and went into a wonderful-smelling place, probably for dinner, he surmised. It had been a little challenging to follow their car down into a city, but he used the tops of the buildings for cover when he ran out of trees. This place wasn't nearly as big or as crowded as Tokyo, but he had to get used to hiding himself in plain sight all over again.

 

This place wasn't so bad, he thought, as he dropped down from a six-story building to the pavement below. It stank in the alley, but no worse than some of the villages back in his time. He gazed down the alley, eyes glowing with reflected light, and located an open doorway. It led to the kitchen of the place where Kagome was. Inuyasha walked in, keeping an eye on the busy workers who were throwing thick slabs of meat onto a very hot grill. He snatched a few pieces of the raw meat as he slipped past them and into the narrow hallway between the kitchen and the dining room. “Not bad at all,” he said to himself, tearing off big chunks and wolfing them down. He licked his fingers as he scanned the darkened room for Kagome. There she was.

 

Inuyasha grabbed a cloth off a nearby table and tied it over his ears, knotting it underneath his mass of hair. He didn't slow down, but made his way unerringly to Kagome's table. No more hiding.

 

With one hand he hooked an empty chair from the next table and slid it next to Kagome as he sat down. “Hey,” he nodded his head to the rest of the group while putting one arm possessively around the back of Kagome's chair.

 

Kagome was speechless. She looked at him in horror. He still had on the voluminous red hakama but had somehow lost the haori along the way and now wore a cook's white high-button cotton jacket over his own white inner shirt as well as a ridiculous white table napkin on his head.

 

“Inuyasha!” she hissed, eyes darting frantically this way and that around the room to see who had noticed something out of the ordinary. Her friends were staring back curiously, but they didn't seem particularly alarmed.

 

Inuyasha grinned, careful not to reveal his fangs. “Did you miss me?” he asked, leaning back in his seat and eying the other people at their table. “Who are your friends?” he added, with a hint of challenge in his voice.

 

Noriko, the only other person at the table who understood Japanese, was quick to answer. “We are all classmates of Kagome. We go to the same school. Who are you?” she responded, noting the white hair and amber eyes. He might speak Japanese but he certainly didn't have the usual coloring. Of course, he might have dyed his hair. So many young people did that these days to assert their individuality, or sometimes as a sign that they belonged to one gang or another. She sincerely hoped he wasn't one of those boys. She took another look at him as he sat relaxed and smiling faintly, very obviously displaying his connection to Kagome, who was quick to jump in and field Noriko's question, speaking in English for the benefit of the rest of the table.

 

“This is my friend Inuyasha, from Japan,” she told them. With an apologetic smile, she added, “I didn't know he was coming to visit me.”

 

“Inuyasha?” thought Noriko. “It must be a nickname.” She glanced at him appraisingly. “It suits him, though.”

 

Inuyasha, meanwhile, was looking suspiciously at Kagome. He'd caught his own name but wasn't sure what else she had said. It didn't sound flattering, however.

 

“Is `Inuyasha' your real name?” Noriko asked him in Japanese.

 

Inuyasha turned his gaze to her, and she was struck by the intensity of his unusual eyes. Those weren't contacts. Was he albino? No, that didn't seem to be it, either. She had to admit she was puzzled and intrigued. Too bad he seemed to be Kagome's boyfriend.

 

“Oh, we all just call him Inuyasha,” Kagome answered before he had a chance to, worried what he might say. “What are you doing here, Inuyasha?”

 

Since she'd asked him in Japanese, he answered. “I wanted to see you. I want to talk to you.”

 

“Now?”

 

“And I wanted to meet your friends. You look like you have fun with your friends,” he added, eying her going-out outfit. “I thought I'd see what kind of things you do here for fun.”

 

It was a long speech for Inuyasha. He clearly was jealous. Kagome felt her face reddening as she realized Inuyasha had never seen her in clothes that normal teens wore to go out here in America.

 

Noriko was quick to invite Inuyasha to join them. “You're just in time. We're going dancing next.”

 

“Oh, no, no…” Kagome answered for him again. She grabbed his arm and pulled him to his feet with her. “Since I haven't seen Inuyasha for so long, I think we'll skip the dancing tonight and just catch up on old times.”

 

“English! English!” said Liz. “What are you guys saying?”

 

Inuyasha slowly detached his arm from Kagome's. He put it back over her shoulder and pulled her close to him instead, much to her surprise. A slow grin spread over his features. “We'll catch up later,” he told her, looking at Noriko and the others. “Let's go dancing first.”

 

Liz caught the English word `dancing.' “Ok, let's go!” she said. “Inuyasha can squeeze in the back seat next to Kagome and Noriko.

 

Jen looked up. “Doesn't he speak any English?” she asked.

 

“No,” said Kagome quickly.

 

“Yes,” said Inuyasha. “Dancing. Party. Let's go.” He didn't wait. He grabbed Kagome's hand and started for the kitchen.

 

“Not that way! This way!” Kagome pulled in the opposite direction.

 

Inuyasha stopped long enough to retrieve the rest of his clothes as well as Tetsusaiga.

 

“Oh, that's so cool!” said one of the girls.

 

“Yes, well, um…he's a martial arts student,” Kagome hastily explained.

 

 

Luckily there wasn't a cover charge at the under 21 club. They went in as a group. It was dark enough that no one really noticed Inuyasha's lack of shoes. He sometimes wondered why Kagome worried so much about people noticing him. From his time spent in Kagome's world, he had observed over and over that people tended to ignore what didn't fit their preconceptions, especially when it came to him. People didn't believe in demons anymore, therefore when confronted with claws or fangs in a human form, they either didn't notice or rationalized it away. Same thing with his bare feet. Nobody expected it, so they didn't notice it. Every now and then a sharp human would pay attention and really see him, but not often. He figured that sooner or later he would have to do something about shoes, though. The colder it got, the more humans tended to notice things like bare feet.

 

He had kept the kerchief tied over his head. No sense tempting fate. Music was booming, coming at him from all directions. It made his heart thump and really bothered his ears. The kerchief helped somewhat, but still he dragged Kagome, the rest of her group obligingly following, to the part of the room that was the least offensive to his sensitive ears.

 

When all the girls got up in a group to move to the middle of the room, Inuyasha didn't follow, content for the time being to just watch. He had settled down after realizing that all the girls in Kagome's group, as well as all the girls he saw tonight, were as un-dressed as Kagome. Besides, the other boys at the table didn't make a move to get up either. If one of them had, Inuyasha told himself, then he would have followed the girls too, no matter how much it hurt his ears.

 

He straightened up in his chair as the girls faced each other and began gyrating, granted rhythmically, but also very suggestively. This was dancing? He glanced to see if the two boys sitting at the table were also watching. They were. He growled. He couldn't help himself.

 

Abruptly he surged to his feet, muttering under his breath. His eyes were like burning embers staring at Kagome as she moved, unaware, on the dance floor.

 

“Inuyasha! Come dance!” called Noriko, who noticed him first. Inuyasha growled again, not about to be distracted from the object of his intense scrutiny.

 

“Inuyasha?” asked Kagome, unsure, when she finally noticed him.

 

He grabbed her arm, her bare arm, and started dragging her off the dance floor. “Inuyasha,” she said warningly, as if she would say the word in this place. He stopped moving and just looked at her, practically daring her to say it.

 

“We're leaving. Now.” He told her. He pulled her out the door and into the brisk night air as she waved a hasty good-bye to her friends. “Good-bye!” she called. “We had a really nice time! See you tomorrow!”

 

As soon as they were away from the building Kagome rounded on Inuyasha in righteous indignation. “What did you do that for right in front of my friends?” she shouted.

 

“That wasn't dancing”! Inuyasha shouted right back. “You shouldn't be doing that in public!”

 

“Oh? And just what was I doing, Inuyasha?”

 

“That.” He folded his arms and turned slightly away from her. Why did it always end up like this?

 

He heard her suck in her breath and he knew what was coming next. Hastily he pulled her into his arms and leaped into the nearest tree. Luckily, even in this city there were trees everywhere. He noted Noriko and two of the others had followed them outside and were looking around in confusion. Kagome couldn't say the word now, Inuyasha thought with satisfaction, unless she wanted her precious new friends to find out he wasn't exactly human.

 

He was right. Kagome let out her breath and sighed. It might have been his imagination, but did she snuggle closer to his chest? His arms tightened around her and he leapt to the roof of the club, and from there, he continued along the rooftops until the ground started rising and enough trees grew along the side of the road that he could travel relatively unseen through the still leaf-covered branches.

 

When they got near Kagome's house, she started squirming in his arms. “Let me down!”

 

He deposited her gently at her doorstep and watched her fumble with the key. “It's not locked,” he said, reaching across and opening the door for her. She glared at him and stomped inside. When he attempted to follow, she put a hand on his chest and pushed him back. “Not now, Inuyasha.”

 

“Kagome, I'm not leaving,” he told her.

 

“Sit.”

 

With a thud his face hit the front step and she quickly closed the door. “Go away.” He heard her muffled voice through the door.

 

“No,” he growled, face still flat against the concrete.

 

Kagome ran up the stairs. She was shaking from her encounter with Inuyasha. She knew the spell would wear off in a matter of seconds. Hopefully he wouldn't make a scene. What had possessed him to reveal himself in public like that? What if someone had figured out he was youkai? He didn't realize what this world was like. She was petrified that scientists would get hold of him and want to study him. He wasn't a thing! He was her Inuyasha!

 

She stopped. She had done it again. She had rejected him, sent him away. Tears filled her eyes. Why was it so hard?

 

She flicked on the light to her room and sank down on her bed, head in her hands. Outside, it had started to rain. Almost savagely she ripped off her going-out clothes and grabbed her robe. She flounced downstairs to take a quick shower before she went to bed. Maybe tomorrow when she was calmer she would try to find Inuyasha and they could talk. She had to get him to understand how dangerous it was for him here. She wanted to explain that she needed her space and she would see him in December as they had planned—as she had planned, she amended. He should just go home for now, she thought, letting the water run over her head and wash away her tears.

 

 

As soon as he could move, Inuyasha jumped up to Kagome's window. He wasn't leaving. He started to open her window, then reconsidered. She would probably not be too happy if she realized he had been able to go in and out of her room any time he pleased. Better to let her invite him in. He settled down on his branch and kept his eyes trained on her window as a steady rain plastered his hair to his forehead.

 

Kagome flicked off the lights and crawled into bed. She felt better because she had finally seen Inuyasha and knew he was safe, but she also felt terrible because he shouldn't be here—why was he here?—even though she wished he could stay with her forever.

 

Sighing softly, she turned and faced the window. Rain drummed overhead and made slashes on her windowpane. A sudden flash of lightning made her jump.

 

Illuminated in the bright flash was a bedraggled Inuyasha, staring solemnly at her through the window. Water streamed from his soaked hair and clothes. His ears flicked constantly, shedding water as fast as it accumulated.

 

“Inuyasha!” In an instant she jumped out of bed and twisted the useless locks on the window. Giving up, she tugged the window open, all her precious reasoning forgotten.

 

“Get in here.” She pulled him into her room, and he obliged her by shivering dramatically although he didn't feel the cold at all. She threw her robe over his shoulders and grabbed a towel from the shelf in her closet to dry his hair, being very careful of his ears.

 

He knew when he had won, even if she didn't yet. He didn't say a word.

 

“What were you thinking, Inuyasha?” she murmured as she continued to rub his head. “I've been so worried about you.” He leaned into her touch, still saying nothing, and allowed his eyes to drift closed.

 

“We'll talk about this in the morning,” Kagome said finally. She laid down the towel and walked back to bed. Inuyasha didn't move, but his eyes flashed open at her words and he silently tracked her movement.

 

She regarded him for a moment as he sat underneath her window in his now-dry red fire-rat robes, Tetsusaiga held loosely across his lap. He had sat like that, watching her, guarding her, a thousand times. It wasn't hard, in the end, for her to make a decision. She scooted over towards the wall and patted the mattress beside her. “Come on in, Inuyasha,” she invited.