InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Kindergarten Flirting ❯ Same Old, Same Old ( Chapter 30 )

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.

Everything around Kagome froze. Inuyasha was leaping from rooftop to rooftop, taking her somewhere she didn't even know—but her mind rung with one thing and one thing only; what Inuyasha said moments prior.

"Where are you taking me?"

He was silent momentarily before responding to her question.

"To reverse the renchaku."

Inuyasha was aware of her silence, aware of how fast her heart was racing, and was aware of her mental turmoil. She was trying to register what he said but he didn't care. He had one mission and that was to confront the stupid old man in giving him false information. He knew he should've asked Sesshomaru—a couple of eons spent hearing his brother poke fun at him would've been far, far better than putting Kagome through physical pain.

I'd take Sesshomaru making fun of me anyday, he thought rather brashly. Kagome's arms tightened around Inuyasha's neck as he leapt higher, scaling taller buildings and plunging down to low trees. Kagome inhaled sharply and snapped her eyes shut. Oh God…

"You okay back there?" Inuyasha roared over the howl of the wind.

"Yeah!" she yelled back, but she said nothing more.

.xx.

Inuyasha landed smack in the middle of a creepy forest, after running for quite some time. Kagome looked around, a nervous feeling beginning to bubble in the deepest pit of her stomach. Apprehensively, she glanced at Inuyasha. "Are you out to rape me?"

"Yep." Inuyasha responded almost instantly. "Because I totally had to run for about an hour to mercilessly rape you when I could've done that in the comfort of my own office. I'm twisted and psychotic like that."

"I knew it," Kagome muttered under her breath. "And how dare you bring me here, without asking me, to remove something without my consent."

Inuyasha stared at her, incredulously. "Seriously? Seriously? You have to be the weirdest wench I've ever met. Not too long ago you're telling Yura that you can't fucking breathe when I'm not around and now you're arguing with me for taking initiative and coming to remove it?"

Kagome crossed her arms. "Yes."

"Keh!" Inuyasha crossed his arms rather furiously. "Sometimes I wonder what the hell possessed me to fall in love with you." Upon saying his statement, he winked at Kagome. "Though, I usually don't regret it…"

Kagome snorted. "Just lead the way, Takahashi. You dragged me to the forest of no return to ponder why you love me or not? We could've done that back at work."

"We could do anything at work… and we have." He ducked the punch she threw at him. Laughing to himself, he began following a familiar path that led to a little hut surrounded by a cute little farm. Kagome wanted to aww at the adorableness of the little place of residence. Inuyasha shook his head.

Keh, women…

"TOTOSAI— TOTOSAIIII!" he yelled before he even approached ten feet of the vicinity. Grudgingly, a wrinkly old man opened the front door, glaring daggers at the half-demon.

"Inuyasha? What are you doing here at such an ungodly hour and who is— Ohhh…" Totosai looked like he saw a ghost. He knew exactly what was coming next… Inuyasha was out seeking revenge for him not giving him the full details of the renchaku. But it's not my fault! Totosai told himself. He left before I could tell him the side effects of the mark. I'm not liable for his stupidity!

"Take it off of her." Inuyasha growled as he neared the old man—an advisor to his family since his father's time. "You didn't tell me it could fucking kill her."

Kagome watched the interlude. It was rather entertaining; mad Inuyasha versus annoyed old man. Granted, the old man looked like he could outwit Inuyasha any day of the week, but Inuyasha looked so… wonderful when he was seething in livid anger, all for the sake of her.

Sango and Yura are right, Kagome thought dryly. I need to get laid.

"You left before I could get to that part!" Totosai defended.

"There's something called a telephone, call me!"

"Does it look like I have electricity here?"

"Who told you to live in the middle of a stupid forest?"

"That's rich, coming from mister 'oh the industrial revolution is gonna destroy my forest! Wah, wah—' OW!" Totosai nursed a bruise on his head thanks to Inuyasha bonking him. Kagome sighed and intervened.

"Inuyasha, don't hit old people." Inuyasha raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm sorry on his behalf," Kagome held a hand out to shake Totosai's hand. "I'm Higurashi Kagome."

"Totosai." He shook her hand. "You're the victim?"

"Aren't we all?" Kagome responded with a rather snarky undertone. Totosai had to laugh and Inuyasha pouted.

"Well," Totosai said, and crossed his arms and closed his eyes showing that he was deep in thought, "there is one way to remove it…"

"Tell me!" Inuyasha yelled. Kagome glared at him and he winked in return, trying to rile her up.

"You place the Mark of Intention on her."

Inuyasha face-palmed. "I put the Mark of Renchaku on her because I didn't wanna put the Mark of Intention on her yet, dimwit. Just take the fucking thing off of her altogether!"

"Then there's no such way!" Totosai whimpered, watching Inuyasha's fisted hand. Kagome placed a hand on Inuyasha's shoulder and looked apologetically at Totosai.

"Ignore him," she said softly. "You and I both know how angry he can get."

"Tell me about it," Totosai muttered, rubbing the lump on his head once more. "I'm sorry Inuyasha but you have to wait out the fortnight before the mark disappears. Then you don't have to remark her, simple… just… make sure that the Demon High Court doesn't find out you put it on her… it's kind of…"

"Outlawed? Yeah, I know that now," Inuyasha snarled. "Thanks for nothing, old man."

"Anytime!" Totosai, oblivious, waved at the two retreating figures. "Tell your mother I said hi!"

Inuyasha didn't respond. Wordlessly, he lifted Kagome bridal style and jumped onto a high branch of a tree. Setting her down, he lowered his head. "I'm sorry…," he finally admitted. Kagome's jaw almost dropped hearing his confession, but before she could say anything, Inuyasha continued his apology. "If I knew," he stressed the word 'knew,' "I wouldn't have done it." He stared into her eyes. "I'm really sorry…"

Kagome exhaled sharply. What could she do? Yell? Be mad? That was unfair, he was genuinely apologizing to her; telling her that he did not, in fact, know that it would hurt her and affect her so badly. It wouldn't be fair by any means to reject the apology…

"I guess there's only one thing to do," Kagome murmured. Inuyasha's expression dropped.

"… Oh…"

Kagome smiled. "Take me out to lunch, silly. I'm kind of hungry and I might run the risk of having a panic attack if I go by myself."

Inuyasha was stunned. Kagome wanted to laugh, watching the various expressions that crossed Inuyasha's face. He seemed confused, surprised, happy, unsure, and happy again. Reluctantly, he took a step towards her. "Ka…gome?"

"Yes?"

"I love you…"

Kagome smiled softly at him, her heart racing in her chest. "I… like you too, Inuyasha…"

Inuyasha closed the space between them and pressed his lips onto hers. Her arms wrapped around his shoulders and she pushed herself deeper into him; his arms holding her around her waist tightly. His heart was pounding against his ribcage, and his mind reeling with many thoughts; a mile a minute. This actually was happening?

Really?

Seriously?

He pulled back and rubbed his nose against hers. Well, now would be the perfect time to tell her—

"Kagome?" His voice was a husky whisper.

"Yes?"

… He would be pushed off the tree, he knew it. "I um… wasn't actually planning on going to Canada."

He felt her grip on his shoulder tighten. Her eyes narrowed and she remained silent. Inuyasha knew it; he was a dead man—

"So, are we gonna go eat?"

"…You're not gonna yell at me?"

"Do you want me to, jerk? You had me alllllll scared that you were going to leave and I was gonna have to stalk you all secretly so that I wouldn't die of a panic attack. You have NO consideration for anybody other than—" He shut her up with a kiss. Kagome screwed her face up and pushed him off.

"Just because I like kissing you, doesn't mean you can do it to make me shut up. Now take me to a good restaurant that has amazing ice cream or I'll be mad at you forever." He saw her eyes twinkling in delight.

This was amazing.

She's not mad at me…

Maybe now he could actually get her to fall in love with him?

.xx.

Inuyasha brought Kagome back to the office and told her he had to quickly run home; he forgot some files in his bedroom and he needed to review them and fax them out within a few hours. Kagome nodded and he instructed her to call him if she starts to feel sick. With a final hug, he turned to head to his car and Kagome entered the building.

Before the elevator doors even opened to let her enter her floor of employment, she was assaulted by Yura.

"TELL ME EVERYTHING!"

Kagome grinned widely. "Well, I do have half an hour available to have a meeting with you."

"Forget that. Cancel your whole damn schedule." Yura dragged Kagome into her office and kicked the door shut. "Did he fuck your brains out?"

"Unfortunately, no." Kagome kicked her heels off and sat down on her chair. Yura lounged on the loveseat, watching her co-worker in sheer amusement. "But we did kiss a lot. And he took me to Red Lobster."

"No way!"

"Yes way," Kagome grinned. "They didn't have amazing ice cream, but their shrimp and scallop dish was so gooood!"

"Forget shrimp and scallop," Yura sat up straight, "you're talking to him now?"

Kagome nodded. "He apologized. He actually didn't know that it was affecting me that badly… and you can't be mad at somebody who actually didn't know."

"Right, right. So?"

"So… we're spending every possible waking moment together so I don't end up dying?"

Yura squealed. "Really? Yes! Now you get to give me lots of puppy dog eared babies!"

Kagome rolled her eyes. "You and Sango both."

Yura laughed. "I am very well aware that he is in love with you… soooo…"

"Soooooo your ass; go get me reports for Puppy Trails and I need the project file from Toyota Inc."

Yura nodded. "Yes ma'am… Oh and by the way?"

Kagome raised her eyebrow at Yura as she got up and opened the door. "You're glowing."

Kagome couldn't help but blush.

.xx.

Kagome was ticking back the official guest list against the invitations that Yura had already sent out. The annual party was coming in closely and Kagome was preparing to present her Graduate Thesis (which she had already finished from beforehand, but she was waiting for the panel of Professors to manage a time where everybody was available to judge her) and the annual party. It was going to be a stressful day because as soon as Inuyasha presents the annual promotions at the party (after debuting Puppy Trails), she was going to high tail it out of there and board a plane to fly to New York.

Oh the wonders of being a full time employee and a graduate student.

Her phone rang and Kagome picked it up, still staring intently at the screen.

"Takahashi Group of Companies, Higurashi Kagome speaking. Mister Takahashi is not in the office at the moment so any questions addressed to him will be answered by me, or you can be redirected to his voicemail; how may I help you today?" Kagome's well-rehearsed line. She had many variations of her greeting, depending on where Inuyasha was or what she was doing at that moment.

"Mister Takahashi wants to know how his beautiful secretary is doing." His husky voice made Kagome's hair stand on end.

"Yura? She's on lunch break now."

"…The beautifuler one."

Kagome smiled. "Working. We have so many guests coming to the annual party."

"Comes with being famous," Inuyasha playfully responded. "You holding up alright?"

"So far so good," Kagome murmured. "It's not as bad now."

"That's good. I'm on my way back now—I have the files and— Oh! Jinenji and Shiori are supposed to be there in ten minutes for a meeting with me. If I'm not back in time, keep them busy?"

"Yes, boss. Anything else?"

"Yeah, one more thing."

"What's up?"

"I love you." Before she had time to react, he hung up. Kagome stared at the phone, her mouth ajar.

What a guy…

.xx.

A knock on Kagome's door made her break her attention away from her work. "Come in." Inuyasha entered the office with a bouquet of roses. Kagome gasped.

"Inuyasha!"

"Hey there, beautiful," he took two long strides and reached her desk. "Beautiful roses for the most gorgeous woman alive."

Kagome couldn't help but blush. "Um… uh… Jinenji and… uh… Shiori are… in the waiting room…"

Inuyasha winked at her and handed her the bouquet. Quickly, he kissed her cheek and briskly left her office, shutting the door behind him. Kagome looked down at the flowers and her heart melted into a puddle of goo… As she brought the bouquet in to smell the flowers, water sprayed all over her face. Spluttering, she threw the bouquet down and noticed a rigged flower hiding among the bundle.

"I SWEAR TO GOD, INUYASHA TAKAHASHI!"

She swung her door open and saw him doubled over in laughter. "I'LL GET YOU BACK."

He was too busy laughing to respond and, embarrassingly enough, Shiori and Jinenji—partners of their firm—were laughing along with him…

The game is back on! she thought as she slammed her door shut. The scoreboard is back at 0 and this time, I won't give him the opportunity to beat me!

Higurashi: 0
Takahashi: 1

.xx.

Sorry for not updating earlier, I just finished final exams for University. One more semester left and I graduate! YAY! This chapter is slightly filler-ish but the good stuff (and the most important stuff) will be rolled out in the next few chapters.

We're at the home stretch guys!

I love and appreciate EACH and every single one of you and your reviews make my day!