InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Kindergarten Flirting ❯ Renchaku ( Chapter 26 )

Kindergarten Flirting

Back in kindergarten, your mother would tell you that if a boy pulls your pigtails he likes you, and if he dips them in paint he loves you. That goes for the rest of your life too. Moreover, when you're an adult and work for the Hottest Man of the Year.

.xx.

"What are you doing in my house…?" Kagome squeaked. Inuyasha raised his eyebrows and gently caught her wrist, tugging her lightly into the Shrine. Behind him Kagome saw that Souta was playing games, her grandfather was reading his weekly subscription of Shinto Shrine and her mother was cooking.

"I came to check up on you!" Inuyasha spoke loudly. "When I was told that you went home sick…"

He trailed off, the sweetness in his voice and his face never faltered. Kagome was beginning to worry for her life—she'd rather an angry, bitching, pissed off Inuyasha.

Not. This. Sweet. Person.

"Kagome! You're home!" Korari bustled into the living room. "Inuyasha came over and asked if you were home—I didn't know you were sick! Where did you go?"

Kagome looked from Inuyasha, to her mother, to Souta, and back to her mother. "Sango-chan picked me up… and I was at her school."

"Oh, dear," Korari pulled her daughter into an embrace, "when Inuyasha told me you were sick, I was so worried. I even tried calling your phone but you weren't picking up!"

Kagome twitched. "Err… yeah, phones aren't allowed in the school. I'm feeling better now, so why don't we bid my boss farewell and enjoy a nice family dinner? Sounds good? Alright, thanks for dropping by Inuyasha… but you can leave now."

Inuyasha chuckled and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "Now why would I leave your poor mother to take care of Souta, your grandfather, and yourself? I offered to stay the night and she agreed."

Kagome felt her world stop spinning. Did she hear what she thought she heard? Her mother agreed for Inuyasha to sleep over at their place? Faintly could she hear her Jii-chan yelling at Inuyasha, for claiming that he needed to be taken care of. Her mind was focused on one thing and one thing only: Inuyasha was sleeping over. Cautiously, she looked up at Inuyasha and he was peering at her.

"Anything wrong, Kagome?" He asked, again with the sweet undertone to his voice. Kagome wanted to shake him, wanted to beg him for unpaid overtime. She didn't want this… this… this nice guy that offered to take care of her while she was quote unquote sick.

"You let him stay?" She finally exploded. Her mother seemed taken back.

"He was insisting…"

"If I insisted I wanted to jump off of a cliff, would you let me?" Kagome's nostrils flared. Inuyasha watched her in sheer amusement.

She's so sexy when she's angry.

Korari crossed her arms. "You're taking this out of context. Wash up, take a cold tablet, and come down for dinner. I have to set the futon in your bedroom for Inuyasha."

Wait.

What?

"He's staying in MY room?"

"Well, there isn't room anywhere else." Korari stated, in a dubious tone. "Father is staying in Souta's room because Souta is sleeping down here."

"Why can't Inuyasha stay in Souta's room with Jii-chan?"

Jii-chan stood up. "Because you're the one that went home sick from work. Not me. Now I am going to sweep the shrine steps, call me when dinner is served."

"BUT I'M HEALTHY AGAIN!"

Inuyasha was having the time of his life. Korari would not hear any of it and shoved Kagome upstairs. Souta was cracking up in laughter and Inuyasha flopped down beside him, grabbing the other PS3 controller—payback, wench.

.xx.

Kagome lay in her bathtub and pushed her phone against her ear; she needed to call Sango and complain about how bad her life sucked. After two rings, Sango picked up and Kagome could faintly hear something frying in the background.

Sango was cooking.

"My life sucks, when are you coming?"

"An hour, why?"

Kagome filled Sango in on what Inuyasha did and her best friend was on the floor in laughter. Kagome pouted, waiting for Sango to recover (which took a while). Finally, Sango regained control of her breathing and expressed her condolences.

"Shut up! What do I do? He's gonna be in my room all night and I'm afraid I'm gonna wake up to my eyebrows being shaved off and my hair being dyed purple. He has a sick and very twisted way of getting back to me." Kagome was becoming hysterical.

"Relax. You're probably gonna get punishment sex."

"Sango, he's trying to punish me. Sex is not punishment. Not-sex is punishment."

Sango raised her eyebrow. "Oh -kayy… maybe he's gonna tempt you and then just pass out, leaving you horny and needing him?"

"He did that once before, remember?"

"Oh yeah," Sango bit her bottom lip, "how about you have a movie marathon with Souta tonight?"

"He came home from the hospital yesterday, the kid needs his rest. Gah! I'm doomed!"

Sango snickered. "Yeah, you kinda are. I'll be at your place in a bit, we can work out your last will then—I want your laptop."

"Shut up, you!" Kagome growled playfully. Laughing, Sango bade her friend farewell and hung up. Kagome threw her phone into the hamper and sunk lower into her tub. The bath salts felt nice against her skin and the aloe vera scented candles that she lit prior to her bath relaxed her brain considerably. She feared she'd have a brain attack and die instantly when Inuyasha said he was going to be sleeping over.

Why, oh why does my life suck so bad?

She didn't need anybody to tell her that she did this to herself.

If the asshole didn't sleep in this morning!

Regardless.

I'm fucked.

.xx.

Sango and Kohaku joined the Higurashi family for dinner. Souta was in the living room, with Kohaku, eating and watching TV (since he was confined and couldn't move around without feeling pain) while the rest of the family surrounded the dinner table. Kagome was squished between her grandfather and Sango, trying to put as much space as possible between herself and Inuyasha.

Inuyasha was amused.

Sango was being a great entertainer and talking to everybody; she even confirmed Kagome's story of feeling sick and picking her up.

"I didn't have enough time to drop her home, so I brought her back to the school and she slept in the teacher's lounge." Is what she told Korari. Subsequently, she smiled sweetly at Inuyasha before plopping some radish into her mouth. Sango also talked about Miroku; they were hitting it off quite well.

"He can't stop talking about you. Ever." Inuyasha murmured, dryly. Sango blushed.

"Yeah… well…"

"You have him hitched," Kagome nudged her. "He always wanted the unattainable."

"Playing hard to get does the trick. You should know," Sango winked at Kagome. Rolling her eyes, the latter mentioned girl turned her attention back to her food and refused to make eye contact with a smiling Inuyasha. She was dreading bedtime… maybe she would have a movie marathon with Souta…

"Well, how was everybody's day?" Inuyasha asked brightly. Kagome cringed at how sugary his voice was—oh she was so dreading bedtime.

"Quite alright," Korari smiled, "cooked, cleaned, took care of Souta. What about yourself, dear?"

Inuyasha quickly glanced at Kagome and turned back to her mother. "My day was really busy, Mrs. Higurashi."

Sango nudged Kagome who tried to shrink away into nothingness. God I hate that man.

"Why is that, dear?"

"My secretaries gave me a… full schedule."

Kagome wanted to die.

So.

Badly.

.xx.

Sango and Kohaku left and Korari pulled down some of her late husband's old clothing to give to Inuyasha. Kagome locked herself in her room for a bit and Inuyasha was bonding with Souta—he would deal with Kagome soon. He loved watching her squirm, especially throughout dinner. She looked like she was about to pass out any moment because she had no idea what to expect.

But that was only half the fun.

The real fun would begin after it was lights out at the Higurashi residence and he was alone.

With Kagome.

In her room…

Did I forget to mention alone? Inuyasha thought sadistically. He was fighting temptation to burst into incredible evil laughter.

Ahem.

.xx.

Lights out.

Bedtime.

Kagome was brushing her hair in her bathroom and was faintly aware of the fact that her boss – her unofficial boyfriend and the man who was out to make her life a living hell – was laying on a futon on her floor. In her bedroom. Right now.

She pulled her hair into a low braid and trudged slowly out of the bathroom. Her door was ajar and her lamp was on, emitting a shallow light. Gulping, she pushed the door open with her foot and shut it behind her. Inuyasha was sitting on her computer chair and reading one of her books, his ears tweaking. She knew he knew she was in the room but didn't call to him. Instead, she crawled onto her bed, pulled the cover over her head and counted in her head.

Any second now, he was going to throttle her for what she did.

Any second…

Right now…

Any time now…

Why isn't he throttling me for what I did?

Kagome pushed the covers off of her and turned over to see Inuyasha staring at her with a devilish smirk on his face. Raising her eyebrow, she pulled the covers up to her chin and watched him watch her. This is so unnerving…

"Inuyasha?"

"How you pulled today's stunt off, I will never know. But I do give you my congratulations. It was an amazing prank."

Kagome blinked; her internal scoreboard was going off of the charts.

Takahashi: ∞ + 1
Higurashi: In your face, Takahashi. I win at life, but you're scaring the shit out of me…

This was not good. He was complimenting her.

Takahashi: ∞ + 1 + 1
Higurashi: In your face, Takahashi. I win at life, but you're scaring the shit out of me…

Inuyasha deserved an extra point for keeping so calm, cool, and collected for the duration of the afternoon and evening.

Takahashi: ∞ + 1 + 1 + 0.5
Higurashi: In your face, Takahashi. I win at life, but you're scaring the shit out of me…

He deserved another half a point for looking so god damned fucking good while remaining calm, cool, and collected. And for smirking so sexily too. Kagome wanted to hit herself and knock herself unconscious. At least he wasn't catching up to her—she succeeded in rubbing his predicament in his face.

Actually, he kind of rubbed her predicament in her face.

Reassess the scoreboard!

Takahashi: ∞ + 1 + 1 + 0.5 + ALMOST in your face, Higurashi
Higurashi: In your face, Takahashi. I win at life, but you're scaring the shit out of me…

There. Kagome was still in the lead.

"Thank you?" She asked. She wasn't sure what to say to him. "… I'll stay unpaid overtime…"

She can't believe she just offered to do that. Never in her right mind would she ever have fathomed that she offered willingly to stay unpaid overtime. But hell, she'd stay overnight if he asked her too; she just didn't want to know what he was planning… because whatever it was, it was not going to be fun. That Kagome was sure of.

"Now why would I have you stay unpaid overtime?" Inuyasha raised his eyebrow. His voice was oozing in sarcasm and Kagome didn't like it one bit.

"Because…"

"You're so silly, love," he called her love! She was so going to die tonight, she knew it. Inuyasha was being nice, calling her a pet name, and wasn't shouting profanities! The world was going to implode, the sun was going to burn out, and robots were going to run the universe; Kagome knew it. She inched backwards, towards the wall, as Inuyasha sat on the bed beside her.

"What's wrong?" He whispered. Kagome's heart was racing.

"You're acting weird; why aren't you yelling and screaming and shouting about what Yura and I did?"

His grin widened. "You two went home sick, how could I possibly be angry at that?'

"Who are you and where is my Inuyasha?"

"Your Inuyasha? Love, I didn't know you cared."

Kagome wanted to cry. This could not be happening to her right now! Inuyasha trailed his fingers up the blanket and tugged it down so that her upper body was exposed. He ran his fingers down the length of her left arm before he circled his fingers around her wrist and brought her hand up to her lips.

"A prank is a prank," he murmured as he kissed the top of her hand, "what kind of man would I be if I was bothered by it."

Somebody, SAVE ME!

Inuyasha trailed his lips up the length of her hand and kissed the junction where her arm met her wrist. Ever so slowly, he drew his tongue over her joint before quickly piercing her wrist with his fangs. Kagome squeaked, watching what he was doing in horror. Drawing back, he licked her wrist and the pinprick wounds closed.

Her wrist didn't even hurt.

"Goodnight, love," leaning forward, he kissed her cheek.

"What did you do?" Kagome asked, examining her wrist. Inuyasha smirked.

"I bit you. Consider it your… punishment." Without another word, he climbed into his futon and turned his back to Kagome.

"Inuyasha?" She called. "Answer me, dammit!"

No answer.

"I'll body slam you!"

"I'll slam into your body." He cheekily responded. Kagome snarled and pulled the covers over her head.

I'll ask Yura tomorrow. She studied the mark on her wrist, what he heck did he do?

.xx.

Thursday morning dawned and Kagome woke up before Inuyasha. Muffling her jaw splitting yawn, she trudged into the bathroom to take her morning shower and prepare herself for a long and hard day of work; she was behind on one day's worth of stuff and she had to work extra hard that day to make up for it all. She got dressed in a knee length grey pencil skirt and adorned a navy-blue satin blouse. Her hair was brushing past her shoulders; wavy, from sleeping with the braid in her hair. Leaving the bathroom, she saw that Inuyasha was up and dressed in what he wore the previous day.

Kagome tilted her head. "You're wearing that to work again?"

He shrugged. "Why not?" With two long strides, he approached her and planted a wet kiss on her cheek. "Morning."

"Yeah…" She breathed. Her wrist began pulsing and she brought it up, to examine the mark. Inuyasha smirked.

"I'll start the car. Grab breakfast and let's go."

Before she could say anything, he was gone. She frowned, what did he mean by punishment last night? Was it supposed to hurt me when he bit me? It didn't…

.xx.

Their car ride was pathetic. She kept asking him why he bit her, and he kept avoiding the answer. She stomped her feet, threatened to castrate him, tugged on his ear but nothing. Growling she finally gave up and watched her surroundings; pointedly ignoring Inuyasha. All the while, he wanted to burst into uncontrollable laughter.

They arrived at the office and he dropped her off at the front before going to park. Kagome bought a cup of coffee for herself and Inuyasha before heading up to the fiftieth floor. One thing about Inuyasha's schedule that wasn't a joke was the system outage—CepheusOS did perform and upgrade so she had to sync all the computers from Inuyasha's office that morning.

"Morning," Kagome greeted Yura. Her friend and co-worker grinned up at her.

"So? What's the verdict?"

Kagome frowned. "The jerk didn't even react! Follow me to his office, I need to sync our computers."

Yura nodded and closely followed Kagome into Inuyasha's grand place of temporary residency. Yura sat on the couch as Kagome booted up his laptop and started typing commands into the system.

"So he didn't react?"

Kagome shook her head. "No… all he did was bite my wrist, saying it was punishment…"

Yura paused. "Wait… he did what?"

Kagome got off of the chair and approached Yura. "Yeah, I wanted to ask you today what the hell it meant." She showed Yura her wrist. Instantly, the latter mentioned paled.

"Uhh…"

"Uhh what?"

Yura looked up at Kagome. "That's the renchaku…"

"The… what?"

Yura bit her bottom lip. "Demons bite the wrist of women they intend to court. For fourteen days, you'll eat, sleep, breathe, drink, pretty much need Inuyasha until either the two weeks wear off or he bites you as his intended mate."

Kagome froze. "Wh- what?"

Yura nodded, looking at her friend apologetically. "It's typically to prepare the intended mate to be constantly surrounded and coddled by their significant other. This way, you'll always want to be around Inuyasha so if he bites you to be his intended mate, you won't be annoyed with the fact that he is always around you."

"Back-fucking-track." Kagome snarled. "He bit my wrist so that I won't be able to live without him for the next two weeks? HE IS A DEAD DOG!"

Yura smiled sadly. "Sorry, sweetie…"

"I'LL KILL HIM!" Ripping open the top drawer of his desk, Kagome pulled out "the book" and poured her coffee and his coffee all over it. Yura watched in amusement as Kagome began stalking out of his office; standing up, Yura followed her.

Inuyasha entered the main foyer when Kagome intercepted him and threw the soggy report in his face.

"Huh?" Inuyasha spluttered.

"YOU'RE A JACKASS! YOU COULD'VE AT LEAST FIRED ME!"

Inuyasha grinned impishly. "Ohhh, so you found out ehh?" He crossed his arms, "I guess Yura told you? And I can safely assume that what you threw at me was my all time favourite report?"

"I HATE YOU!"

"Don't worry, we can always reproduce them. I'll help," He winked. Yura watched in utter amusement.

"GO DIE!" Kagome began stomping towards her office, not wanting anything to do with Inuyasha. Subtly, her wrist began throbbing.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha called. She stopped but didn't turn around.

"I have to go to Canada for a business trip on Monday," she could hear the glee oozing from his voice, "I'll be gone for the week."

Her soul froze. Yura's words echoed in her head:

Demons bite the wrist of women they intend to court. For fourteen days, you'll eat, sleep, breathe, drink, pretty much need Inuyasha until either the two weeks wear off or he bites you as his intended mate.

So that meant that…

He's gonna make me want to be around him constantly and then leave the country for a week? Slowly turning around, she glared at him with all the anger she could muster up.

If looks could kill…

"You are sick," she hissed, "you're a sick and very twisted man."

His grin became wider. "I love you too, dear." Kagome stomped into her office and slammed the door shut. Yura shook her head.

"Inuyasha, that was mean…"

His eyes flickered to her. "Mean? Yura, what you two did was mean. Come to my office right now, I'm giving you a disciplinary notice and putting it in your employment file."

"WHY COULDN'T YOU FUCKING WRITE ME UP TOO?" Kagome's voice resonated from her office. Inuyasha couldn't help it.

He laughed.

.xx.

So, I made up renchaku. It's like a pre-courting courting thing. The person that is bitten will constantly want to be around their intended mate for fourteen days. That's because while they're courted, the demon will always want to be around their significant other and this way, the renchaku prepares them.