InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Heart's Landfill ❯ Chained Hearts ( Chapter 1 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

A/N: As always all characters will be walking the transparent line of OOCness!! Warning: Vulgar language!! This fic is meant for mature readers. There will be lots of cussing and lemons and almost lemons. That being said, this fic is dedicated to all of my loyal readers that even though they don't like Sess/Rin fics, still read and review every chapter of Confrontation II. This is also to my fans that were left hanging with Truth and Consequences, which is now formally deleted. To all you new readers, stick around; I'm sure you're going to enjoy this ride. This is going to be fun!!!!!
 
I'm sure that after reading this chapter, more than a few of you will think that you know the plot or have an inkling of what's to come, but trust me, you don't. Remember nothing is ever as simple as it may appear.
 
Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership to anyone, but I do thank Rumiko Takahashi for her wonderful imagination.
 
FYI: I know that in the anime Kagome lives in Tokyo and not Kyoto, but I don't really care, this is an AU fic. I'm not a Kikyo lover, but I try to keep my feelings out it. However, Inuyasha will be bashing her quite a bit in this fic, at least in the beginning, so Kikyo lovers don't read this if it going to make you flame me!!
 
Chapter 1
 
Chained Hearts
 
 
“Yes Mom, I got them. They're absolutely beautiful,” Kagome stated, trying to sound happy as she glanced over her shoulder at the large bouquet of mixed orchids that she had received earlier in the day.
 
“Well, it was the least that I could do, today being your 26th birthday and all. I just wish that you were here. We would've gone out to dinner or something, like we normally do.”
 
Cradling the phone between her shoulder and her ear, Kagome sighed lightly and poured herself another glass of wine. “I know, but I couldn't afford to take the time off. I'll try to come home soon, I promise.”
 
It wasn't often that she got to speak with her mother like this. Most of their conversations were rushed because she always had one meeting or another to attend, so she tried to cherish these moments when they did happen.
 
Her mother, brother, and grandfather lived in Kyoto and, until 7 months ago, so did she. Staring out the window at the Tokyo skyline, she couldn't stop the longing for home that came over her.
 
Since she had relocated, she'd made sure that she was as busy as humanly possible so that she wouldn't have to think about the ultimate reason why she felt it so necessary to leave the only home she'd ever known.
 
Perhaps it was the fact that it was her birthday and, for the first time in an extremely long time, she was spending it alone that had her homesick.
 
“Honey, I understand that you're busy with your work, so you don't have to rush home or anything. Just come home when you can. We all miss you,” her mother said, interrupting her thoughts.
 
“That's what I love about you. You've always been so understanding, Mom.”
 
“I'm your mother, dear. If I weren't, who would be? And you better not let that firm run your life. You have to take time to smell the roses…or should I say Orchids,” her mother replied giggling softly, secretly hoping that her daughter understood the importance of what she had just said.
 
Staring down at the bright red and white lights that raced along the streets far below, Kagome took another slow sip of her red wine and tried not to think too much into what her mother was getting at. She knew she was talking about Kouga, and, if she wasn't talking about him, she was damn sure heading in that direction.
 
“Mom, I made partner at 25. How can I not work hard? Right now, I don't have time to enjoy life, but I promise you that I will try to get out more often, okay?”
 
The older Higurashi, sighed and replied, “Sweetie, you know I'm not one to pry, but it's been months, almost a year. I know what Kouga did hurt you, but it's time for you to move on. It's time to forgive and let go. You can't bury yourself in your work all the time.”
 
`Maybe not, but I can damn sure try,' Kagome thought as she made her way back over to her marble kitchen counter and poured another glass of wine. `And… here we go. Back down the all…men… aren't… like… Kouga lane,' she thought sarcastically.
 
She by no means meant to be discourteous or rude to her mother. She was just tired of hearing the same advice over and over and over…and over. Perhaps that was another reason why she packed up so quickly after the debacle, called her relationship, ended. Had she stayed, she knew she would've heard this on a daily basis.
 
“Kagome, I know you hate when I bring this up, but no one knows you like I do. I know why you left Kyoto in such a hurry and I understand. But I don't want you there not living the life you deserve. It's time to let it go.”
 
`Now comes the part about me meeting some nice young man that will make all my troubles and insecurities disappear, miraculously.'
 
“Dear, all I'm saying is that sometimes the best way to get over someone is with someone new. I'm sure if you got back out there and started dating again, you'd meet someone that would help you heal. And he'd show you that all men are not the same. Kouga just happened to be one of the very bad…bad apples.”
 
After three glasses of wine and an ear full of mother knows best, Kagome had basically had enough. “Mother, stop it. I don't need anyone to help me get over Kouga. I'm over him and have been for awhile now.” Sighing exasperatedly, she continued, “I don't need to meet anyone to make me feel better about myself, I know who I am and what I want. And right now…right now it has absolutely nothing to do with a man…any man.”
 
“Kagome?”
 
“Mom, thanks for the flowers, but I really have to go. I have 3 briefs that I have to look over for a 10 A.M. meeting.” She knew she was rushing their conversation to a close and she knew her mother knew it too, after all this had become more of a routine, hadn't it?
 
“Alright dear, I won't keep you anymore; just think about what I said.”
 
“Alright, I Love you lots,” Kagome stated, almost too enthusiastically.
 
“Love you too, sweetie,” her mom responded.
 
Not sparing a moment more, Kagome clicked the off button on the cordless phone and tossed it onto the contemporary couch that sat against the far wall.
 
“It never fails,” she mumbled as she turned back to the window and stared down at the cars from her 23rd floor condo. “She always has to bring him up. Just when I've gathered the pieces of my heart, my life and began to glue them back together, she brings him up!” she snapped, to no one in particular, as she reached up and wiped away an angry tear that trailed slowly down her cheek.
 
Throwing her head back, she gulped down the last of the wine that was in her glass, and wiped away another shameful tear that had the audacity to slip from her tear duct without permission.
 
Kagome knew she had no reason to be mad at her mother. It was her own fault that her heart was broken. It was her fault that she hadn't paid attention to the signs. It was her fault that she made excuses for him when he would disappear for days on end with little to no believable excuse.
 
This, all of this, was her fault and she knew it! That's why it hurt so much whenever her mother felt it necessary to remind her of the two years she would never get back!
 
She was angry, and had been for so long that she'd forgotten how it felt to be genuinely happy about anything. When she went out, she'd put on a mask of peaceful serenity. When she was at work, she did her job and she did it well. But when she was home, away from prying eyes, the mask came off.
 
Turning back towards the counter, she emptied the rest of the wine into her glass and whispered acerbically, “Happy…fucking…birthday…to me!”
 
Tossing the empty bottle into the sink, she turned on her heels and stared around her 3-bedroom home, which was purchased for her by the law firm she worked for, when she made partner.
 
It was empty.
 
Sure, it was fully furnished and filled with pictures of her family and a few of her friends, but it still felt empty, cold, and desolate.
 
From the beige colored contemporary couches to the flower filled vases. Even the expensive ass drapes that hung from the huge floor-to-ceiling windows that made up the entire right side of her home. No, no matter how much money she spent or how many pictures she hung on the snow-white walls, for some reason this place just seemed so damn cold.
 
Staring around the room once more, she grimaced angrily and threw the glass filled with blood red wine against the wall.
 
`I let him take everything from me! Two years of my fucking life! It's my birthday damn it, mine's! I should be home in Kyoto with my fucking family! I should be with Eri, Yuka, Ayumi, Souta, Mom, and Grandpa! I shouldn't be here in this…this god forsaken place!' She was beyond angry. Maybe enraged, incensed, or fuming would've described her current mood better.
 
How often had she done this in the 7 months that she had been here? How often had the reality that she had allowed him to run her away from her home in tears, bring her to tears all over again?
 
When would she stop blaming him for her mistakes and deal with what was before her face? When would she forgive him and move on with her life?
 
`When hell freezes over, that's when. I'll forgive him when hell freezes over and pigs reproduce with cows,' she thought hatefully.
 
Kagome had tried to make herself believe that she didn't regret her relationship with the wolf demon, because through everything that she went through with him, she'd learned a lot. But that didn't stop her from feeling stupid. It didn't stop her from feeling used. It didn't stop her from feeling like he'd taken something so precious from her… Something she would never be able to reclaim.
 
Sliding down the side of the wall, she pulled her knees up to her chest and buried her face in them. “Why didn't I walk away? Why couldn't I just walk away?” she cried shamefully, as tears began to pour from her eyes.
 
`It's been 7 damn months, why aren't I over this yet? Why does it still feel like I'm allowing him to hurt me? I don't love him! I don't…I don't want to love him anymore! I don't want to hurt anymore!'
 
It hadn't been this bad in a very long time. Maybe it was the three and a half glasses of wine, or perhaps it was just the fact that she was alone on her birthday. She didn't know for sure, but today, for some reason, the pain that she felt on that warm summer night, 7 months ago was fresh within her chest, her heart, and her mind.
 
It was as if it had just happened. It was as if she had just found out the truth about the man she had wanted to promise herself to…the man she thought she'd grow old with.
 
That relationship…that heartbreak…that man…that sorry bastard of a youkai had made it so that she would never, could never trust another man…human…demon again. It didn't matter who it was. All she had left to believe in was herself, her family, and her career.
 
`Never again.'
 
Pulling herself to her feet, she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and straightened her back. She hated to feel…appear weak, even in private. She was okay with being angry or showing her anger, but weakness, that was something she refused to wallow in.
 
With her face red and streaked from her tears, she stood up, her head held high. “I will not…I will not allow that prick to take anything else from me. I will not allow anyone, no matter who he is, to take anything from me ever again,” she vowed.
 
Her heart, what was left of it, belonged to her; she would protect it with her life.
 
Simonkal of Inuy
 
His heart was filled with so much admiration that he thought at any moment it would burst. How could he, a hanyou, have found someone so beautiful and so giving? Someone that wanted…someone that needed him just as much as he needed her.
 
The church was filled with people. It was a mixture, a beautiful mixture of demons and humans. Whites, blacks, Indians, and everything in between, people and friends from all over the world had flown in for this very special day.
 
He stood there, beside his one and only best man as she made her way slowly up the isle, headed in his direction.
 
She was radiant, dressed in a white chiffon fitted dress that hugged her hips and kissed every single one of her curves. Her long dark locks were pinned elegantly at the crown of her head with tendrils of curls falling down into her face.
 
`Kami, she's beautiful. How could I have gotten so lucky? How could someone like her love me?' he thought, as he glanced over his shoulder at Sesshomaru.
 
It was like a dream, a wonderful awe-inspiring dream, that wasn't meant for him. Yet he was living it. He, the hanyou that was teased unmercifully in school… The hanyou that everyone thought would amount to nothing was living a dream that belonged to someone else…someone that wasn't him.
 
“Do you, Inuyasha, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?”
 
It took him a minute to realize the he had missed more than a little bit of the ceremony, lost in thoughts of his gorgeous bride to be, because the American preacher that they had flown in for this special occasion was addressing him.
 
“I…I do. Hell yeah, I do!” he exclaimed happily as he slipped the platinum wedding band onto her slender finger.
 
The church erupted with joyous laughter and then quickly quieted down as the Preacher turned his attention to the hanyou's half- American half-Japanese bride.
 
“By the powers vested in me, I present to you, Mister and Mrs. Takahashi.”
 
The church erupted once more in cheers and shouts of congratulations as he leaned in and placed a sweet kiss to her beautifully painted lips.
 
Turning to face his friends and family as a newly married man, Inuyasha listened intently as the once happy cheers turned into boos and words not meant for the ears of children or the elderly.
 
Looking down at his wife, the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, Inuyasha watched in horror as she released his hand and joined the crowd as they laughed at him and called him a fool for believing that someone like her would actually marry him, of all people.
 
He watched them point, gawk, and laugh in his face at his stupidity. “Wha…what's happening? What's going on?” he asked as the room began to swim around him, the laughter escalated, and the faces began to distort and mold into one another.
 
He reached for her, called out to her, pleaded with her to tell him what was going on. But she just laughed…cackled at him and called him a fool!
 
“Kik…Kikyo, why? Tell me, why?” he begged, as they surrounded him; closed in on him, so much so that the air from his lungs felt like it had just been sucked right out.
 
End Dream Sequence
 
Inuyasha sat up, clutching his chest as he gasped for air. His bangs were stuck to his forehead, his satin sheets soaked from the sweat that coated his body. Ever since the wedding… Actually, ever since he came back from the honeymoon that he was supposedto take with his wife, he'd been having these dreams.
 
They were always the same in the beginning, but, as time passed, the ends began to change ever so slightly. Sometimes the people would poke him. Sometimes she would slap him and spit in his face. Sometimes she wouldn't even make it up the isle before she burst into laughter. He supposed that it really didn't matter, that in reality it hadn't gone down like that at all, the end result was still the same, wasn't it?
 
Crawling out of bed, he began to slowly pull the sheets off. At first this annoyed him to new heights, but over the past 5 months, since the sham of a wedding had happened, he'd gotten quite accustomed to it.
 
Normally, he would replace the sheets and crawl back in bed, but tonight, for some reason, he really had no desire to relive that day for the umpteenth time.
 
Walking out of the room, he made his way to the laundry room of his penthouse condo and tossed the sheets in for the maid to clean in the morning. He then made his way to the kitchen, where he quickly lit a cigarette and grabbed a Red Stripe beer out the refrigerator.
 
Glancing at the clock on his entertainment center, he noticed that it read 3:34 A.M. “Why am I surprised? Isn't it always the same time every night?” he asked no one in particular.
 
Sliding the balcony door open, he stepped on to it and over to the ledge while taking a swig of beer. Staring down at the streets far below, he took a deep breath and sighed as he ran his hand lethargically over his bare chest.
 
Inuyasha had to admit that he was rather proud of himself. He'd come so far from the night that that stinking cunt had walked out on him. At first, he was so angry that just the thought of her caused him to punch holes in his walls and destroy many of the priceless artifacts that he'd collected over the years.
 
It wasn't that she'd left him, per se. It was the way she did it, that got to him.
 
She could've told him how she felt before the wedding or any fucking time before he proposed to her, but no, the bitch wasn't that kind. It was as if she felt she just had to totally and undeniably humiliate him…destroy him. Leave him so tortured and tormented that he was nothing more than damaged goods.
 
`That damn tramp went through the entire performance. She dragged me around picking out China and taste testing cakes for fucking months! Damn she had me fooled,' he thought as he stepped away from the ledge and sat down in one of his patio chairs.
 
Kicking his feet up on the table, he let his head fall back as he whispered, “Never again, will I be that foolish. Love…” he scoffed derisively, and then finished, “Love is for the foolish.”
 
Of course, she had tried to explain, but what explanation was there that would justify what she had done and the manner in which she did it?
 
“That bitch. I hope she burns in fucking hell!” he hissed coldly as he took another swig of his rapidly warming beer.
 
The wind blew his silver mane into his face, but he paid it no mind. The only thing he wanted was to be rid of those dreams. He wanted to stop seeing her face everywhere he went. He wanted to stop hearing her laughter when he was in a crowded room, and he wanted more than anything else to just let go of this rage that he had buried so well.
 
Was he asking too much? Hadn't the Buddha laughed at him long enough?
 
Inuyasha snorted dryly. `My entire life has been one big fucking joke. I was nothing less than a freaking fool to believe that I could actually be happy.' Downing the rest of his beer, his thought finished, `Fool me once, shame on me… I'll be a monkey's limp nut before I ever let anyone else fool me again.'
 
Closing his eyes, he tried to fight away the images of her that danced through his head, taunting him. If he could just make it through the next few hours with his sanity intact, he could once again bury himself in his work. He just needed to make it through the next four hours.
 
Until Next Time…(Your .02 cents are greatly appreciated)
 
Next Chapter: Interference