InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Latex Blues ❯ Chapter 4

Part 4

Kagome stood staring at Inuyasha in shock and dismay. She opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again as she tried to find her voice. When nothing would come, she raised her hand as if to touch him and took a step forward.

"Just stay the hell away from me!" he roared, scooting away from her on his backside. It would have been funny if she hadn't been feeling so hurt. Undaunted, she took another step toward him, so he grabbed a handful of dirt and threw it at her. Kagome shielded her eyes until the dust settled, then returned the favor by kicking dirt in his face.

"What is wrong with you?" she finally asked. She was still advancing on him, so he reached back to grab another fistful of dirt. Instead, his hand landed on the cardboard box he'd dissected the night before. Once he realized what it was that he held, he leapt to his feet and shoved the crumpled box in the face of the startled girl.

"I'm not stupid!" he growled, crushing the box between his fingers. "I figured out what these things are!" It was at that moment that it finally occurred to Kagome what Inuyasha was upset about. Suddenly, she felt very guilty and ashamed. Her eyes dropped contritely from his heated gaze to the ground as she tried to think of the best way to defend herself. A moment later, it occurred to her that she didn't have to. She had been taken aback by his tirade, but anger and indignation were helping her to recover quickly. She forced her gaze upwards to meet his eyes, and stood toe to toe with the angry demon.

"S-so?!" she retorted. "I don't see why it's any of your business!" Inuyasha was astounded by the human girl's brazenness. He was livid, and felt as if his brain were about to explode out of his head. He turned on Kagome, bearing his teeth and claws at her.

"SLUT!" he screamed in her face. "WHORE! STUPID WHORE!"

"WHY THE HELL DO YOU CARE?!" she countered.

"Who is it? Kouga?!" he roared. "That stupid Houjou guy?"

"What possible difference could it make to you what I do or who I do it with?" she cried, her voice beginning to break as tears welled up in her eyes. He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her violently.

"Because you belong to me, Goddamn it!"

"OSUWARI!" she cried out. The second he was felled, she stood over his prone body and began to kick him in the solar plexus.

"You son of a bitch! You lousy fleabag! Mongrel!" she screamed at him, each word emphasized by a hard, accurate kick. "How dare you! I do everything-"

*UFF!*

"-you ask of me!"

*Ouch!*

"I've stayed by your nasty-"

*ughn!*

"-violent, side even though you're MEAN-"

*Hey!*

"-to me every chance you get!"

*but!*

"You've made it perfectly clear that you love KIKYO-"

*STOP!*

"-and not me." She backed away as the spell wore off, allowing him to struggle into a sitting position. He moaned and rubbed his side, giving her the evilest glare he could manage under the circumstances.

"Bitch," he muttered, but he persisted. "Who is it?"

"Why do you care?" she asked him again. When he didn't answer, she hazarded a guess. "Is it the shards? Look, I haven't run off with them yet, and I've had plenty of opportunities! Besides, I couldn't gather them alone, and even if I could, I wouldn't! Why can't you trust me?"

"Words!" he snorted disdainfully. "If you're so devoted to… our cause, then why are you trying to sabotage it?"

"Sabotage? Listen, even if there was someone, and there isn't," she insisted, giving him a pointed look that she hoped would quiet the rumble emanating from his chest that had begun the moment she mentioned 'someone,' "Do you think that I'm such a flake that I would let them distract me from our mission here? Don't you get it? I-I care about you, you selfish jerk! And if you're that concerned," she continued, her voice softening, "then I might as well tell you that my friend Eri made me buy those things on a dare. I was going to throw them away as soon as I had the chance!" At this news, some of the tension seemed to lift from Inuyasha's shoulders, but a scowl remained on his face.

"Feh!" he huffed, crossing his arms and raising his nose into the air. "Yeah, right! Why would she want you to get those things if there wasn't some guy?"

"Actually, there is." Kagome confessed. "She said that they were for my 'mystery man'." She smiled timidly at Inuyasha, her cheeks coloring slightly, her eyes sparkling hopefully. He didn't notice.

"Ha!" he barked, "See! I knew it!" The look on Kagome's face immediately transformed from misty-eyed longing to unbridled rage.

"Baka! she screamed to the heavens. BAKA! BAKAAAAAAAAA!" The sound made Inuyasha flinch. He flattened his ears against his head and stumbled backward.

"N-nani?" he stammered when she had finished. Kagome balled her hands into tight little fists that she kept rigidly by her sides and stomped her foot in the dirt, sending up a tiny cloud of dust.

"That is it!" she cried, "I am going home! And I am never, ever coming back again!!!!" That said, she turned away from the incredulous hanyou and stormed off in the direction of the well. Inuyasha followed her in hot pursuit.

"Hey! Wait a minute! Kagome!" he called after her.

"GO AWAY!" she yelled back.

"But what about the shikon no tama?" he whined, almost pleading.

"Stuff the shikon no tama!" she snarled.

"You'll be back!" he cried frantically.

"No, I WON'T! Here!" She reached into her blouse and pulled out the small jar that contained the few shards of the shikon no tama that they had managed to collected together. She hurled it at him with all of her might. It bounced off his forehead and fell to the ground near his feet. Without missing a beat, he scooped up the jar and followed her retreating form. She had reached the well and was swinging one leg over the edge when he caught her arm.

"What do you want?" she asked irritably, wrenching her arm out of his grasp.

"Well, if you're going home for good, then take this ward off of me." he said, tugging at the prayer beads around his neck. She frowned at him.

"No."

"Cause you know you'll be back!" he said as if stating a fact.

"No." she said evenly. "Because I want you to suffer!" Before he had time to react, she swung her other leg over the side of the well and leapt in, disappearing into the darkness that awaited below. Inuyasha stood as if rooted to the ground for several minutes, peering into the murky depths of the well. Eventually, he let out the breath he'd been unconsciously holding since she'd jumped with a loud "whoosh!" He then breathed in slowly through his nose, then out through his mouth again in a long sigh.

"Shit."

Five centuries later, Kagome sat quietly on the steps that lead up to her family's shrine house, trying not to cry.

"Baka Inuyasha, baka…" she sniffled miserably, rubbing furiously at her eyes, trying to erase any evidence of tears from them. "What a jerk!" she moaned. She wrapped her arms around her legs and rested her chin on her knees. 'I should've thrown those things out right away…' she thought to herself. 'He's right, in a way. It was suspicious. So why did I hold on to them? What was I hoping for?' Kagome was suddenly roused from her melancholy reverie by a tiny, cold nose poking at her elbow. She looked to her side and noticed that her fat cat, Buyo, was sitting placidly beside her.

"Hi boy." she sniffed. "How did you find me?"

"Mrrrow." Buyo answered, staring at her intently and waving his tail languidly side to side. Grateful for the momentary distraction, Kagome scratched near the base of his tail. The cat arched his back in sheer bliss, purring madly.

"At least you love me…" Kagome said softly as Buyo crawled into her lap. Her fingers traced absently up his spine to the tip of his tail, then back to his head and up to the tips of his ears. She stroked the fine hairs that adorned the entrance to one of his ears, causing them to twitch and flick in mild annoyance.

"Sorry." she whispered. "You think I'd know by now not to touch those." A bird chirped somewhere off in the distance, and the cat's ear pivoted, trying to find where the sound was coming from. That tiny, insignificant movement was painfully familiar to Kagome, causing her to think of someone that she would rather have forgotten at that moment.

"Beat it." she sighed, suddenly annoyed, and tossed the cat off her lap. Her bottom was starting to go numb from sitting on the concrete for too long. She was tired and drained, and more than anything else, she wanted to go home. Standing up, she smoothed her skirt and began the long, slow climb up the steps.

"Kagome!" her mother exclaimed as she walked in the front door.

"I wasn't expecting you home for a few days."

"I decided to take some time off." Kagome said as she stood in the hallway, slipping out of her shoes.

"I see." her mother stated, trying to sound cheerful, as if she hadn't noticed Kagome's puffy eyes and morose tone of voice. "And your friend, he doesn't mind?"

"Honestly, Mama, no. I don't think he minds at all." Kagome said flatly. She sat down in the living room and turned on the television. She wanted to squash her unhappiness with the loud, garish, images on the TV screen. She was tired of thinking.

"Well, you must be hungry." her mother said, raising her voice over the noise of the television. "I'll make you some lunch."

"kay." Kagome mumble absently, wide eyes fixed to the bright screen. When he mother brought her lunch, she dutifully ate it. When she had to go to the bathroom, she got up and went. Other than that, she didn't move from her spot in the living room for the remainder of the day. Finally, as night began to fall, Kagome's mother walked over to the television and shut it off. There was a tiny 'snap! hisssssss' noise as the overworked set shut down.

"Alright Kagome," her mother said softly, "I think that's enough. Why don't you get ready for bed?" Kagome nodded, rubbing her eyes as they readjusted to the world around her. Her mother gave her a hug and kissed her on the forehead, then sent her on her way. She climbed the stairs up to her bedroom, closed the door gently and quietly behind her, then flopped down face first upon the bed.

"Won't this day ever end?" she moaned. Within minutes, she was asleep. Her mother came in a little later and turned out the light. Kagome didn't notice. In fact, she didn't notice when her bedroom window slid open, either. She never saw the dark figure sneak into her room like a thief in the night, or the bright pair of eyes that hung like two golden lanterns over her sleeping body. She didn't hear as he rummaged through her drawers, and she didn't feel the comforter when it was pulled up to her chin. When the window slid closed again, all she did was roll over in her sleep.