InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ I'm Teaching Myself To Dream ❯ Big Bird ( Chapter 12 )

I'm Teaching Myself To Dream

Disclaimer: Don't own Takanaka, Inuyasha, International Airlines (if such a thing exists) or any of the songs, lyrics, music, all songs are work done by geniuses who I think are awesome, so please, don't sue me… I need all the money I have for my trip to Japan! Yes! That's right! It's official! I am going! YAY! -_______- I also need to come up with a couple grand to pay for it…

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I'm Teaching Myself To Dream

Chapter 12: Big Bird

It was a quiet ride in the taxi to the airport with only a few moments of chatter in the back seat. The Inuyasha gang didn't know if they should be excited or afraid of this "plain."

The "car" or "tax-see" or whatever Souta called it, was bad enough, Inuyasha didn't want to ride on any more horrible smelling machines. But, he did want to see Kagome, and one measly little "plain" wasn't going to stop him from seeing her.

Inuyasha bit his tongue as Shippo rearranged his seating position on his lap. Shippo moved from one side to the other, kicking his legs this way and that, trying to get comfortable underneath the seatbelt in which they were trapped. Meanwhile, Miroku, who was in the center, was putting an all too familiar hand in an all too familiar place…

"HENTAI!" Sango yelled.

The next thing you knew the taxi swerved as the cab driver looked back, only to see Sango's extremely angry hand connect with Miroku's very frightened face.

"PERVERT!" She said before squishing herself up against the door, getting as far as humanly possible away from the monk.

"How you hurt me so…" Miroku said in dazed sort of way as he rubbed the very red handprint left on his cheek.

"You deserved it!" Sango threw back at him.

"Ah… It was worth the pain…" Miroku said with the goofy smile that he always has at the end of an incident like this.

Inuyasha and Shippo watched, with no particular amusement. After all, this did happen almost every day (excluding the last couple of weeks), and it was nothing new to them for the monk to be "touchy". After the actual scene played out, Inuyasha and Shippo turned to look out the window, while Sango threw some insults at Miroku, and Miroku continued acting like an idiot. Both Inuyasha and Shippo seemed to be in deep thought for the rest of the ride.

Souta, well, Souta… He was just trying to figure out how he was going to survive the plane with them…

After all the excitement had worn down a little, Sango still remained in her position leaning up against the car door. Miroku was drifting in and out of consciousness, in small intervals of about 2 minutes.

Sango stared out the window sadly, sighing every now and then. Sango looked out at the houses and trees whizzing by. Everything blurry and barely recognizable. Sighing silently again, oblivious to her surroundings, Sango's let her mind drift to other things.

`Why's the Miroku acting like this?' Sango thought without glancing back at said monk. `One minute he's acting like I'm just a friend, a normal friend like Shippo, or Inuyasha, or something that doesn't require groping…' She sighed again. `And the next,' this time she did glance at Miroku. `I'm suddenly his target of interest.' Sango looked back outside at the blurry background. `I just don't understand him.'

The cab reached the airport parking lot after what felt like forever, but really all that it was, was ten minutes.

"Okay, kid." Said the driver. "Here ya go."

"Kay, come on guys." Souta said as he opened the car door.

Inuyasha and Shippo turned to look at the door handle on their door, as Sango and Kirara did the same.

"What?" Sango asked.

"We can go now, we're at the airport." Souta said as he stepped out of the car.

Sango carefully and slowly reached her hand out to the handle and pulled it. Something in the door felt like it moved and Sango carefully pushed out the door. Silently, Sango sat admiring the magic of it all for a moment, before getting out of the car.

Miroku slid over to his right (his pounding headache starting to die down), where Sango had previously sat, and got out of the car also. Inuyasha did the same on his side of the car. He pulled on the door handle and as soon as he felt the car door move in a way, he pushed it and got out. By the time everyone was out, Souta was already back by the trunk, getting all of their luggage out.

The driver sat impatiently up in his seat, with his window down, and his arm dangling off to the side. He tapped his short, stubby fingernails against the driving wheel as he waited for Souta and the gang to get their luggage and pay him.

Souta handed each member their backpack and bag, before closing the trunk and walking up to the driver and paying him for the ride through the window.

"Thanks," Souta said cheerily as the driver started the car up again. The driver didn't say anything, he merely waved his hand in one, single smooth motion, as he started to drive off. "FOR NOTHING!" Souta yelled out as the driver turned out into the main road again, tires screeching as he did so.

The gang watched the little yellow car drive down the main road, not really understanding what just transpired. Souta sighed.

"Alright." Souta said. "Let's go." He started to walk towards the airport's entrance. "Now remember," Souta said as he and the others made their way to the large airports entrance doors. "If I don't freak out, then you don't have to."

"You've said that a million times already!" Inuyasha exclaimed. "What could be so bad?"

"I'm afraid to say." Souta whispered, to low for Inuyasha or the others to hear.

The group walked into the busy airport building. Inuyasha and the others had to fight themselves from stopping and looking on with awe like they did in the mall. Inuyasha didn't know what was bigger, the mall, or this place.

The large, building with an extremely high ceiling was bustling about, people walking in every direction. Some with luggage, some with little black boxes attached to their belts that kept talking about numbers like "10-4". Other people were with little children, who were screaming their heads off. Others were hugging each other and talking about how good it was to see them again, and how much the wailing kids have grown.

People were everywhere, more than Inuyasha had seen in one place in his entire lifetime. Which goes to say, that's a lot, considering his age.

"What are all these people doing?" Asked Sango.

"Lots of stuff," Souta replied. "Either going on the planes, or helping people who are going on the planes."

"You mean there's more than one?" Shippo asked.

"Yep."

"Then why were you in such a hurry to catch one if there's so many?" Shippo asked. "If there's more than one, why did we have to go through this morning with so much trouble? Just when we could've caught another one of those… thingies."

"Because the plane we're going on, is the only plane that will take us directly to Hawaii. If we wanted to catch another one, we'd have to wait a few days." Souta said.

"Oh."

"Besides," Souta continued. "This plane is my sister's private plane. She's sending it over so we can go straight to Oahu. We're going to be the only ones on it except for the people who will fly it and the people who will bring us food." Souta said.

"Oh," Shippo said again. He suddenly stopped walking.

"What's wrong Shippo?" Miroku said, as the gang looked back at the ten-year-old.

"Did you say… fly?" Shippo asked Souta with terrified eyes.

The gang looked at Souta, with just as much terror and confusion that shone in Shippo's eyes.

"Yes," Souta said uneasily. "But it's not a big problem anymore, the planes are absolutely safe." Souta said as he saw their eyes get wider.

"You haven't exactly told us what this plane is yet." Inuyasha said annoyed.

"Um," Souta thought out loud. "Well," He said. "It's a machine." He said as he started to walk toward the ticket counter, followed by the others. "It's kind of like…" He tilted his head a little, trying to think. The voice speaking loudly on the PA wasn't helping, though.
"It's…" What was it? Pieces of metal connected together with wires running throughout the entire thing in order to keep it running. And they were supposed to understand, how? Souta shook his head. What exactly was it? What did it look like at first sight? Souta thought as they walked into the waiting area.

"It looks like," He thought. "A big bird." He finally said.

"A bird?" Miroku asked.

"We're going to fly on top of some giant bird?" Shippo asked.

"No, not on top. Inside it."

That didn't help to ease the gang's nerves.

"With all the intestines and brains?" Shippo asked disgustedly.

"No, you see." Souta said, trying to form words in his tired little head. "It's not an actual bird with intestines and brains. It's a machine, made of metal that can stay up in the air and fly us to my sister, that's all you really need to know. I'll explain more as we're on the plane, but right now we need to go get on the thing." He said. "Now, don't say anything while I give the lady our tickets, okay?" He got behind a man waiting in line.

They waited as the ticket lady worked with the man in front of them. Souta would glance impatiently at his waterproof watch every five seconds, expecting hours to have flown by.

When the lady had finally finished with the man, Souta stepped up to the counter.

^_^

"I can't believe we made it through…" Souta said as he walked towards the exit of the waiting area. "It's unbelievable." He said in what was like a daze. "No," he told himself. "It's a miracle."

It had been so easy. Too easy.

The lady at the ticket counter had taken their tickets, and let them go easily. She didn't even bother to check for passports. Nowthat, would've been a problem.

The thought crossed his mind in the taxi. They didn't have passports. They didn't have identification. Souta could only imagine the horrible things that could've happened if the lady had asked for any of the above.

But, she hadn't. Her eyes looked puffy, almost as if she had been crying. She wasn't the nicest person either. Souta just figured it was some kind of personal thing, like boy problems.

So the gang walked off into the waiting room, after going through the first form of security. They'd gotten off easy, the guard was more concerned about the doughnuts on the counter in the other room than what was in any of the members' bags. Also, the were extremely lucky considering Sango had a ball of fur hidden in her coat.

When they walked through the machine that was supposed to pick up any metal they were wearing, in case of guns or weapons, it hadn't beeped them once. Not that Souta expected it to, but everything had just gone so smoothly for him.

It made him wonder just how advanced this security system was… and why it was such a question that there were so many terrorist attacks and hi-jackings. But Souta wasn't about to complain, not when it was tipping all the scales in his favor.

"Why's it a miracle?" Shippo asked. Souta sighed. All Shippo's questions were making him exhausted.

"I just expected someone to catch us, that's all." Souta said. "I'm glad they didn't though."

"Last call for private flight 221 to Oahu, Hawaii. Repeat, last call for private flight 221 to Oahu, Hawaii." The voice from the PA thundered over the waiting area as Souta and the gang approached the exit.

"Thank you for traveling International Airlines, please enjoy your flight." Said a blonde teenage girl at the small booth by the exit. She wore a fake, cheery smile that showed that her front tooth was chipped.

Souta nodded to her and then with the others. Miroku lagged behind a little to wink at the blonde, but then he quickly followed the rest of the gang down the gray hallway, that would lead them to their private plane, and then finally, to Kagome…

The group walked down the eerily silent hallway, not really knowing what to expect. Well, except for Souta. This was not his first time on a plane, especially because of his sister's… occupation.

How was he going to tell the gang? Souta thought. But that wasn't the problem. What the real problem was, what Souta was really afraid of, was how they would react.

^_^

"What, is that thing?" Asked Inuyasha.

The others just stared wide-eyed, looking at the extremely large "bird," as Souta called it.

"It's the plane." Souta said. They were ten feet away from the plane's stairs.

"That thing?" Sango asked. "And I thought the car was bad."

"It's not as bad as it looks." Souta told them. "Really, I've been on lots of them, my whole life."

"Still," Shippo said. "I don't like it."

"Well, you're gonna have to get on, whether you like it or not, in order to see Kagome again." He said. "Kagome rides in these things all the time, so does my mom, so does Gramps, so does Leo (insert Inuyasha's spark of jealousy here), and so do I." He said. "Believe me, the pilot-the guy who flies it, knows what he's doing. It's absolutely safe."

They looked at the plane uneasily.

"Feh!" Inuyasha walked up to where Souta was standing, backpack slung over his shoulder, arms crossed and eyes closed. "Come on you pansies, I didn't come all this just to have you guys get scared." Inuyasha said in a mocking tone. "If you guys are too frightened to get on the thing, it's not my fault. Not my problem either." Inuyasha passed Souta and began to walk up the steps to the plane.

Sango and the others exchanged looks, all raising their eyebrows in amusement, before shaking their heads and following Inuyasha up the steps and into the brainless, intestine-less bird.

Souta however, remained behind on the pavement looking up at the sky.

"God, help me." He whispered.

He had no idea how much help he was going to need.

^_^

When Inuyasha walked up the steps he had no idea what he'd find on this plane. But when he reached the summit, he walked in through the open door way of the plane to find the most comfortable looking things he'd ever seen.

There were those big black boxes, the TVs, just like the ones Souta had at the shrine. Instead, these were bigger, almost as tall as he was, and they weren't so wide. The entire thing was only a couple inches thick. There was a small little table, and couches, and comfortable chairs all around. There were all sorts of machines with funny pictures on them, like Espresso and Mrs. Tea. Then there were machines that said things like DVD and Surround Sound. He had no idea what these words meant, he could only guess that they were fancy.

There were more doors on the plane. He didn't know where they led to, but later Souta would show him that it was a western-style bathroom… Equipped with a magical, swirling white bowl, that made funny noises as it created a whirlpool, leading to who knows where.

Then entire room, at least the one he could see, was a creamy color, with matching comfy furniture, and a rug or carpet or whatever Souta called them.

The others came up behind him, why he was still in the doorway, and looked around with just as much awe as he did. Souta walked up the stairs, and tried to look in the room through the crowded doorway. It was barely visible, for the group of people from the feudal members were blocking his view.

"Guys?" He asked. "What are you looking at?"

"This is the plane?" Miroku asked.

"Yeah," Souta said. "What'd you think it was?"

"I don't know." Miroku said.

"Well," Souta said, gently pushing the gang into the plane. "We have to go, Drake is going to close the door." Souta said.

Once all the members were inside the plane, Souta told them where to put their stuff, and that he would be back in a moment. He just had to go say "hi" to the pilot.

While Souta disappeared into a small room in the front of the plane, the group quietly sat down in the chairs. The group found that they were even more comfortable than they looked.

^_^

"Hi, Drake!" Souta said as he walked into the cockpit.

"Hey, Souta." Said a thirty-year old man sitting in the main pilot's seat. He had headphones around his neck and was flipping a few switches in front of him. "How've you been doing?" He asked.

"Okay, I guess."

"Leo told me you brought some friends with ya," Drake said. "Have they met your sister before?" He asked with just a small amount of interest. Souta thought for a second.

"Yeah," He said. "Before she was famous, though." Drake nodded in response. Souta thought for a second. "When's the last time you saw my sister?" He asked.

"About," Drake paused. "I don't know, two, three maybe, weeks ago." Souta looked confused.

"What about her ride back to Hawaii?" He asked. "Weren't you the one that flew her back to Oahu from New York?"

"No," Drake explained as he flicked a couple more switches. All the while, indistinct voices were heard in the background from the radio. "I had a nasty cold that week, some old veteran guy had to take them. I'll be flying her and Leo around when she goes on tour, though." He said.

"What have you heard about that, anyway?" Souta asked as he leaned on the back of Drake's pilot seat. "I haven't talked to her in awhile, and I don't know what's happening."

"Well, nothing's set in stone," Drake started. "But I hear Takanaka and Sheryl are really pushing her to do it." He said. "I don't know what her options are, let alone her decision."

"Oh."

"But I do know," Drake continued. "That if she does decide not to go on tour, there's gonna be a lot of disappointed fans." Drake flipped a few more switches. "Well, we're gonna be leaving in a minute or two, you better go sit down and put your seat belt on. You can take them off when I turn off the `seat belt sign'."

"Aww!" Souta said. "Why do I have to wear them?" Souta complained.

"Sorry," Drake said. "I don't want to take any chances."

"Fine," Souta said defeated as he got off the back of the seat. "Thanks, Drake." He said as he walked out the door.

"Yep." Drake said simply as he put his headphones on.

^_^

"Where'd you go?" Asked Shippo as Souta entered the more comfortable part of the plane.

"I had to go talk to Drake." He said.

"Who's Drake?" Inuyasha asked, fighting to keep himself from sounding too jealous. Just how many guys were hanging around Kagome?

"The pilot of the plane, he's the guy that flies it." Souta said.

"Does he usually fly this thing?" Souta asked, petting a particular large bump in her coat. "I mean, he does know what he's doing, right?" Sango said, petting the bump harder and faster, as if it would absorb all her troubles. Meanwhile, the poor cat underneath, was having a hard time breathing, making gagging noises in the process.

"Yeah, he's a friend of Leo and my sister." He said. "You can take Kirara out of your coat now." He said, looking at the bump worriedly. "At least until we have to get off again." He said. "You'll have to hide her if a flight attendant comes by, but I don't think they'll be around much. On Kagome's planes it's pretty much self-serve, she's not the type to have people waiting on her hand and foot." He said. "Besides," He added. "We have pretty much everything we need already." He watched as Sango unzipped her coat and let poor Kirara out. As the cream colored cat tried to fill her tiny little kitty lungs with sweet oxygen, Souta continued talking. "Which reminds me," He said. "You guys need some more lessons…" He said, not too enthusiastically I might add. "But first, we have to buckle up, the plane's about to leave." Souta saw the sign that said "Seat belts" on the wall light up.

After digging out the seatbelts from in between the couch cushions, he made sure the gang knew how to buckle and unbuckle themselves. When that was finished, Souta fastened his own seatbelt.

The lift off went fairly smooth, despite the fact that the entire feudal gang almost got sick, and had to use the magical white bowl. Even though they hadn't had anything to eat that morning, they didn't think they'd have an appetite anytime soon.

Until Souta brought out the lunch menu. They ordered enough for each person to have seconds, or thirds if they were lucky, and Inuyasha and Shippo wolfed down the meals like the true dogs (or foxes) they were.

Miroku seemed to be the only one that wasn't enjoying it entirely. He seemed to be deep in thought through out the flight. He wasn't one to turn away good food, but somehow this seemed different. Nonetheless, he ate all his food heartily and enjoyed every bit of the meal, especially when the very attractive flight attendant came every now and then…

"Would you like anything else?" The platinum blonde had said with another fake, cheery smile.

"Yes," he said, momentarily forgetting what he had just been thinking a few moments before. "Would you bear-OW!"

Sango kicked him in the shin from under the table. Inuyasha and Shippo kept shaking their heads, muttering about sick perverts and how they'll never learn.

^_^

Souta, once again showed them the wonders of the modern world. From the big screen TV, to the Mrs. Tea, he showed them the basic things. Although teaching them was fairly easy, his least favorite item of all, would have to be the toilet. He swore they wasted so much water during the million times they pressed the "flush" handle that Drake would some how fine him, not that he thought Drake would actually do that, but it was the principle of the matter. He showed them the DVD, and all the little things like forks, not that he showed them how to maneuver the things, even that was too much for Souta. He could just imagine Inuyasha trying to use silverware. Not something he'd like to see.

After Souta couldn't take it anymore, he sat down on one of the couches for a break. The gang sat down as well, their minds bulging from all the newfound information.

He spent most of the eleven and a half hour plane ride teaching them the ways of the modern world, Hawaii, and any other little thing Souta thought they might need.

While the others were fairly talkative throughout the trip, Miroku was mostly silent. However, no one even seemed to notice.

Souta was trying to teach them how to make coffee (and having little success) when Miroku finally spoke up from a spot on the leather couch.

"Souta," He said. "Something has had me thinking ever since we entered this plane."

The group turned away from the Espresso maker momentarily covered in splotches of brown coffee stains.

"What's that, Miroku?" Souta asked.

"Well," he said. "There are many planes here, correct?" He asked.

"Yeah."

"And there are many people here." Miroku said.

"Yes." Souta said, not sure where Miroku was going with this.

"Well, is there enough planes like this in the world for people to have?"

"I'm not following…"

"I mean, can all the people in the world have planes such as these?" He asked.

"Well," Souta said. "No, not really." Inuyasha and the others looked at Souta, as Souta started to realize what Miroku was asking, or implying anyway.

"Then," Miroku asked. "Why is it that Kagome can have this?"

"Because she can afford it." Souta said. He knew this conversation was somehow going to end with the gang knowing that Kagome was a pop singer with money to burn.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Asked Inuyasha, as he came around to the couch where Miroku was sitting to face Souta.

"It means, that this-" He waved his hand around to show he was talking about the plane. "Is very expensive, and my sister, is one of the few hundreds, that can afford it."

"What do you mean?" Shippo asked. He was starting to feel dizzy from all that caffeine, and undoubtedly he'd be hyper within the end of their flight to Hawaii.

"Look, guys, there's something you should know about my sister…"

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Uggggggggggggggggggghhhhh! A pathetic, disgustingly short chapter… *gags* I despise short chapters like this… Unless, of course the updates are in two second intervals, but even that gets annoying, and as you all know, I'm incapable of updating in that short period of time… -____-

Anyway, I didn't want to spend too much time on the plane, despite the title of this chapter. I guess I should've added a little more detail in places, but I would've gone off rambling about incompetent teachers and illogical math problems… 0.0 Believe me, somehow I would've… Sorry folks, just blame the tests, finals, and evil Math and English teachers…

I haven't been to the airport in 12 and