InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Laying Down the Law ❯ Operation Hook-Up in Motion ( Chapter 10 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: The Kouga Lucius Connection 
Operation hookup takes its first steps at the garage and people get horny...
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Action | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 05.16.2006 | Pages: 4 | Words: 6.2K | Visits: 1.7K | Status: Completed
Operation hookup takes its first steps at the garage and people get horny...
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Action | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 05.16.2006 | Pages: 4 | Words: 6.2K | Visits: 1.7K | Status: Completed
Woot! I'm turning out the chapter now! I do this, where I get inspiration and motivation in little spurts and I run with it. Thanks for all the positive feed back guys, knowing you have support makes it easier to write! Okay, on with the story...
P.S, sorry for any errors but I'm using word pad and I proof read as best I could. Sometimes I put 'd' instead of 's' at the end of a word, so sorry.
"...good morning Tokyo! It looks like it will be another scorcher out here today, folks, ranging from a low of 97 to a high of 108! National census says that this summer ranks among the most virile in years in history and it looks like farmers in the north will have a difficulty cultivating much of anything this year. In other news, the NAMO exploratory weapons factory was robbed last night at 2:07 by an unidentified group of vagrants. Police say they have no immedeate leads, but have concluded that whoever planned the attack went in with malicious intent. If you see anything strange or know something that might be connected to the robbery, please call the Tokyo Anonymous Tip line. The number is coming right along after these sponsors..."
The radio echoed around the warehouse, creating a hum of background noise behind the wrenching and screeching of drills. A big race was taking place in four days and, due to this fact, many other gang members had brought in their cars to be worked on. At the current time, each elevator held a vehicle while seven motorcycles were parked further back in the building. Outside, Sango was working away on someone's black RX-7, tuning up the engine and upping the mods.
Sesshomaru, who was wrenching away at a lug nut, listened half heartedly to the radio announcer. The factory robbery had been plaguing the news since that morning, squeezing into the corners of Sesshomaru's mind like an itch he couldn't scratch. Something about the circumstances annoyed him, as though somehow he thought the gangs and this incident were involved, yet the dog demon quickly brushed aside the very idea. He knew none of the Southerners would do something that openly illegal, and the Northerners were none of his concern until they pointed the weapons at his head. In this instance, the only thing Sesshomaru could do was bide his time and see how the events unfolded.
Hakkaku wiped beads of sweat from his forehead, regripping a wrench as more sweat trickled down his bare chest. He and Kouga had been working on this damned Harley Davidson for two hours now and neither could figure out why the engine wouldn't start. Hakkaku hesitated a glance at his leader, whose ice blue eyes were narrowed in concentration, long dark hair swung up in its usual high ponytail. Now would be a good time to slip in a casual word about Shitora, in accordance with Operation Hookup, but he had to make it subtle.
"So, Bo, whadya think about Shitora coming back to town?" Hakkaku asked casually.
Shrugging, Ranbou never removed his eyes from the underbelly of the motorcycle. "Was only a matter of time, I guess. Sukini plus a prep school couldn't have equalled a good time, know what I mean?"
"Heh heh, yeah," the wolf demon chuckled, running a hand nervously along the ridge of his mohawk. "She sure pays you a lot of attention, huh?"
Ranbou paused in his work, staring up at Hakkaku from the floor. "What?"
Hakkaku swallowed and continued bravely on. "Well, yeah, I mean she's always talking to you, even if she does call you shit and tell you to go to hell. And then when you aren't together, she talks more shit about you. It's like you're always on her mind."
When Ranbou said nothing and only continued to stare up at Hakkaku with his piercing blue eyes, Hakkaku began to feel slightly uncomfortable. The Reikon leader said finally, "Hakkaku, what exactly are you tryin' to say?"
Shifting his eyes back and forth, Hakkaku finally managed to say, "I think Shitora...likes you. I mean, likes you likes you."
"WHAT?!" Ranbou yelled, eyes blazing with unbidden fire and fangs barring at the very idea.
Swiftly accompanying this yell were several successive bangs as mechanics hit their heads on car hoods, groaning as they massaged their skulls. From where he was working on a yellows Corvette, Inuyasha screamed, "God damnit, Ranbou! What the hell was that for?!"
Ranbou, whose anger seemed to have faded almost instantly into disbelief, called out a dazed, "Sorry," before turning back to Hakkaku, who seemed pleased by this reaction. "She...likes me? Like, relationship, hugs and kisses, dating likes me? What makes you think that?"
Hakkaku shrugged menially, leaning back against the motorcycle to stare at his leader. "Just call it intuition; I'm not the only one that thinks so. She's so love sick and idiot could figure it out. Maybe you're just blinded by your own feelings for her."
Snorting, Ranbou replied, "My feelings of hatred?"
"No," Hakkaku replied silkily, "Your feelings of love."
There was a brief pause as Ranbou regarded his smug friend with a look of absolutely silent loathing. "You think that I love Sukini," he growled lowly.
Hakkaku, still running off the success from their previous conversation, responded smoothly, "In you own way, yeah."
"Look, Hak. She may love me but I'm miles away from loving her back. Alright? To me, she'll always be Shomo's annoying little sister with the flat chest," Ranbou replied shortly, crossing his arms to emphasize his point.
Shrugging, Hakkaku said, "Suit yourself. But in case you haven't noticed, more than one guy is waiting to move in on her. She isn't Sukini anymore, Bo. She's a hot Wildcat chick with a great ass." When Ranbou opened his mouth to protest, Hakkaku cut in, "Don't pretend like you haven't noticed."
While Hakkaku leaned down to tweak some mods on the motorcycle, Ranbou hestitated a glance over at Shitora, who was working on a Porsche with her back to him. It looked as though she were installing a new tail pipe, though Ranbou hardly took notice of that; he was just content to look at her. Truly, she wasn't Sukini anymore, was she? Her white hair, which used to be ratty and mangled, was now shimmering and healthy, flowing in straight sheets down her back. Her body, as well, had grown over time. When the girl crouched down, bending forward slightly to adjust the pipe position, Ranbou bit back a groan; there was that perfect ass again. Damn it all to hell.
Kagome and Inuyasha were working silently on the engine of a Mazda CX-7, never meeting eyes and never speaking except for Inuyasha's tool requests. The pair had been awkward since the beach yesterday, when Inuyasha had used Kagome's insecurities about the gangs against her. Just when one would try to say something, the other would open their mouth and both would shut them again, returning quietly to their work.
Inuyasha, who had never much been one for silence, was overcome with a soul-eating guilt; the day before, he'd seen the hurt in Kagome's eyes when he'd mentioned how she wasn't part of a gang. It was as though someone had just confirmed her greatest fears and Inuyasha couldn't have felt worse. Just seeing Kagome sad ruined his day and damn him if he couldn't understand why.
"Kagome," he started quietly, setting down his wrench on the car's fender. The girl looked up at him, brown eyes slightly duller than normal; Inuyasha hated to admit it, but he sorely missed her smile. When she said nothing, he continued. "About what I said yesterday..."
"Don't worry about it, Inuyasha, I was just being stupid," Kagome said dismissively, looking down again and reaching into the tool box. "Don't you need a lugnut wrench for the pistons?"
"Kagome, stop it," Inuyasha commanded.
Yet, Kagome paid him no heed. "That engine looked pretty messed up as far as I could see, though I really wouldn't know. Perhaps a 3 mm?"
"Kagome..."
"Yes, I think a 3 mm will do just fine. If not we can try th-"
"Kagome, cut it out and look at me!" Inuyasha said with a hint of desperation.
Sighing, Kagome let the lugnut wrench drop back into the tool box and turned to face him, seeming slightly ashamed. "Sorry. I just...I know I shouldn't expect to be part of the Wildcats right away, and it's not like I want to fill Kikyo's place, but they string me along and treat me like their friend everyday. So...what does that mean, huh? That I'm the stupid mascot? Or does it mean something worse, like that they don't trust me." Kagome looked so disheartened and her voice became so quiet that Inuyasha feared she might burst into tears.
"Kagome," Inuyasha started, crouching down at taking a seat on the floor, "We all trust you, believe me; you haven't given anybody a reason not to. Besides that, it isn't normal for an outsider to come in and accept the whole gang thing; most of them would freak out and call the police or some shit. But you were different and we could all see that. It isn't that the Wildcats don't trust you...I have a theory, but it might be totally off."
Startled by Inuyasha's suddenly wise words, Kagome cocked her head to the side and murmured, "Tell me; I bet you're closer than you think."
"Well, I think it might be about the Wildcats hoping Kikyo will get better and come back in a few weeks time. We all know it'll take a lot longer than that, but they all miss her. Kikyo leaving made this huge void and I bet you understand that if you've met her. You have, haven't you?"
Kagome nodded, adjusting her crossed legs. "Yeah. I can't explain it, but she seemed so...big. Not in the size way, but in a different way. Like there was too much person for one body. Even in the hospital, she seemed totally full of life and even a little bit crazy. I felt intimidated, but welcomed at the same time."
Smiling, Inuyasha leaned back against the car's grill and replied quietly, "You really get her. That's Kikyo, alright, too much person for one body. I think maybe that's her problem; a beautiful girl walking around with a huge personality is like a hotel for all sorts of disorders. You know?"
"I guess you're right," Kagome agreed, leaning back on her hands. "She was Sango's best friend, right?"
The hanyou shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. Sango balanced out Kikyo's wacky shit most of the time. Like ying and yang, almost. If this whole thing bothers Sango, we'd never know it though. Talk about a person who keeps what they think quiet."
Kagome glanced out the warehouse at Sango, who was working busily away in the scorching heat. Truth be told, Kagome had never met a person with more discipline and work ethic than Sango. The girl was also reliable and loyal, making her the perfect member of the Wildcats; everyone could trust her.
"Yeah, I've noticed that. It can't be healthy, can it? Keeping it all inside?" Kagome asked thoughtfully.
Inuyasha shrugged. "Who knows. One day, Sango might blow shit side up. But, until then, we just gotta figure she doesn't care."
As Sango worked busily away on the RX-7, trying to ignore the sun as it beat down on her bare skin, she tried to think of nothing but the engine. Fuel into the chamber, compression, combustion, exit through the valve. Engines made a ridiculous amount of sense in the fact that problems could be predicted by another problem. Problem A could lead to complication B, which could call for the replacement of Part C and so on. Sango liked her cars that way and, frankly, would've appreciated her life that way. If perhaps she could predict problems or systematically pick apart every tribulation, she could finally feel as though she, Sango Tajiya, was in control of her own life.
Bankotsu, unaware of this great internal struggle which was taking place within Sango, strolled up wiping his hands on a grease rag. Glancing briefly up at the sky, blinking against the heat of the sun, Bankotsu strolled up to Sango and leaned against the passenger's side of the car.
"Hey."
Without looking up from her work, Sango replied, "Yeah."
"So, you got a date to the race?"
A muffled volice from under the hood replied, "Nope. I don't plan on getting one and I know you're not asking me."
Shrugging, Bankotsu pushed himself up until he was sitting on the roof. "I dunno," he said menially, resting his feet on the bottom of the windshield and balancing his elbows on his knees. "Maybe someone actually will ask you. Someone you really want to go with. You know who I'm talking about."
"No, sorry, don't know who you're talking about," Sango replied dully as she methodically cleaned a piston.
"I think you do," Bankotsu said quietly. "And his name is Miroku Houshi."
There was a brief silence, during which the only sound was the strain of Sango's grease rag against the metal of the piston. As she held the piston up to the sunlight, examining her work with a critical eye, Sango murmured, "This piston would fit nicely up your ass."
Holding up his hands in a surrendering sort of gesture, Bankotsu jumped casually off the car and began a steady walk towards the warehouse. "Just think about it."
And with that he was gone, hands in his pockets and mouth whistling a far away tune. For the first time during the conversation, Sango let her eyes drift from her work towards a familiar figure inside. Miroku was elbow deep in the guts of a rather greasy Mitsubishi, asking Ginta for tools every so often. In that moment, he looked totally focused and not the least bit perverted, a feat with Sango had great appreciation for. Sighing, Sango turned back to the car and focused her mind. Problem A leads to complication B, which calls for Part C to be replaced. Nice and predictable.
Rin took a deep breath and recradled the phone against her ear. "Jakotsu, I'm sure we can do something. I mean, it's just the transmission, right?"
"Just the transmission?! Bitch, please! It's the whole inside! I thought Inuyasha fixed it!" came the feminine voice across the line.
At that moment, Rin became aware of footsteps behind her and she turned, smiling as a shirtless and sweaty Sesshomaru came strolling up to her. Turning back dutifully to her phone call, Rin reasoned, "But did you check the fluids? What about the warranty?"
"Warranty? Rin, we stole the pickup three years ago! You can't pick up a warranty on stolen cars!" Jakotsu argued shrilly.
Sesshomaru, who seemed to care very little about Rin's current engagement, leaned down and began planting soft kissed on the flesh of her neck. Squeaking slightly at the sudden contact, Rin moved her head to allow him better access as she tried to continue with her phone call. "Right. Stolen, I forgot. Well, bring it on in and we'll take...look...another...bring in..."
The girl's words became increasingly incoherent as Sesshomaru moved farther downward, threatening to move underneath Rin's sports bra into a far more forbidden area. As her boyfriend's beautiful silver hair fell around her like a curtain, Rin gasped and bit her lip; just a minute more. "Bring it in and we'll look at it. Bye."
With that, Rin allowed the phone to drop from her ear onto the table and she turned in her seat, intercepting Sesshomaru's lips in a powerful kiss. The two were becoming increasingly intimate when Inuyasha walked by, rolling his eyes and exclaiming loudly, "Oh, get a room."
Breaking the kiss, Sesshomaru sighed heavily and rested his forehead against Rin's. "Is it still a felony to kill a relative?"
"I wouldn't know, but I wouldn't try," Rin giggled, kissing the tip of Sesshomaru's nose in her typical cute way.
While Inuyasha fiddled with the cap of his beer in the back, Ayame took the opportunity to work her way towards Kagome, smiling and glancing inside the car to examine Inuyasha's work. "Hey Kags, how we doin?"
"Good," Kagome replied blithely. "You?"
"Fine, just fine," Ayame replied listlessly, totally focused on the cars inards...or at least she appeared to be. Inside the redhead's head, cogs were turning at lightning speed as she tried desperately to devise a plan. As a vital member of Operation Hookup, Ayame felt it her duty to convince Kagome of her love for Inuyasha; unfortunately, the girl wouldn't be easily persuaded. Ayame would need to work up something totally outlandish to even buy Kagome's attention.
"You know," Ayame began casually, "guys around here have a thing for girls who race cars."
Kagome blinked, cocking her head to the side. "Really? I hadn't noticed. I thought they had a thing for girls who sat on the sideline and shook their ass."
Ayame laughed heartily, recognizing this comment as just another example of Kagome's sarcastic humor. "Well, that too. No, I'm talking about a few guys in particular. I mean, you have Ranbou," Ayame continued, glancing over at Ranbou, who was still working on the Harley. "In case you couldn't tell, he's a sucker for Shitora. You could see that, right?"
Kagome nodded, giggling. "They're so in love it's cute."
Sighing at the usage of the word "cute," perhaps her least favorite word in the whole of any language, Ayame replied dryly, "Yeah, cute. Then you have Bankotsu, who hooks up with about any racer with a vagina."
The two girls looked over at Bankotsu, who was taking a break and sipping beers with Hiten. "Then there's one we know a lot better. Inuyasha."
Kagome instinctively glanced over at Inuyasha, who was popping the top on a Budweiser in the corner. Narrowing her eyes slightly, Kagome repeated, "Inuyasha?"
"Mhmm," Ayame replied slowly, knowing she had Kagome hooked. Picking up a wrench in her hand, Ayame leaned in to continue Inuyasha's work where he'd left off, pretending as though everything were normal. "Inuyasha. He can't stand his women helpless and giggly. Wearing their Abercrombie and shaking their breasts in his face, nope, Inuyasha needs a real woman. Kikyo came close, but no cigar. She couldn't race to save her life; I think that chick got more speeding tickets for going under the speed limit than she did for going over. But if some girl came along like a devil in leather racing fast machines, I bet she'd steal Inuyasha pretty fast."
Kagome was quiet for a moment, digesting this information while trying, subconciously, to divide the information logically. Her first inclination was to believe Ayame was setting her up, trying to get her to conform to Wildcat standards and take Kikyo's place in the core. But Kagome didn't want that, not Kikyo's place. She wanted to carve out her own place in the core and take her spot like a brave woman would, without the pittering and pattering around Kikyo's loss. But besides this, why would Ayame want to set Kagome up? Did she want her and Inuyasha to get together? But why? What was her motive? Still, Kagome had to admit the idea of calling Inuyasha her's was rather pleasing.
Wait a god damn second! Kagome! What the hell are you thinking? Inuyasha? And you? Dare to dream, girl, he's like a wildfire; he can't be tamed. But wouldn't it be great if you could...no, no, no, there's no way. Unless...unless I learned how to race...NO! You'd be an awful racer...that isn't true, you'd probably rock at it, but still, it's crazy. It'd be like conforming to the standards, giving in to the man! Racing just to get Inuyasha's attention, pah, that's retarded. Oh crap, now I can't stop seeing his face. Damnit, damnit, damnit...
"DAMNIT!" Kagome exclaimed aloud, drawing quite a bit of attention to herself.
The others stopped in the work, turning to face Kagome with questioning eyes. Laughing nervously, Kagome waved away their concern. "Haha, it's nothing, just...banged my thumb is all..."
Shrugging, the others returned to their business while Inuyasha came strutting purposefully over. "Kagome, what's up?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"Nothing," she muttered, glancing down into the tool box.
Ayame removed her hands from the car's guts, wiping her hand on a grease rag and placing the wrench in Inuyasha's outstretched hand. "She was thinking a little too hard and she hit her thumb on the toolbox. Nothing a little kiss couldn't fix."
With that, the redhead strolled languidly away from the scene of her crimes, smiling devilishly to herself as she imagined the stunned looks on both Inuyasha and Kagome's faces. What could they possibly be thinking right then? How embarassed they were? Or how they wished Ayame was right and it was all that simple? Just one kiss could fix it all, couldn't it? Just one kiss...
"I'm worried."
Shitora glanced up from the car blueprints she'd been examining on the work table, raising an eyebrow at Ranbou's random comment. "About..." she trailed off, leaving him to fill in the blank.
Trying to ignore her cute confused stare, Ranbou sighed and hopped up on the tool table, sitting back against the wall to enjoy his beer. "About all of them." Using the bottle to gesture around the warehouse, Ranbou indicated the plethera of people working busily away on their machines.
Shitora blinked, ears twitching back and forth like satellites, before she returned her amber stare to Ranbou. "They look okay to me," she commented, returning to her blueprints.
Ranbou gave an irritated growl, an animalistic wolf sound in the back of his throat, and leapt down from the table, slamming his beer down in the middle of the car plans.
"No, Sukini, I mean worried about something they might be planning. Did you notice anything funny with them today? How they kept on looking at us, giggling, being weird?"
Shitora, who's left eyebrow was beginning to twitch restlessly, only crossed her arms and regarded Ranbou with mild disdain. "No, I didn't notice, because there was nothing to notice, because I'm not ridiculously paranoid, like you. Now, if you'll excuse me, some of us have real work to do."
Without so much as another word, Shitora set Ranbou's beer bottle to the side and continued reviewing the papers. Rolling his eyes desperately, Ranbou continued, "No, I think they got a plan or somethin! I mean, out of the blue Hakkaku brings up some shit about...well, about a subject that could only have a plan behind it! And then Kagome over there 'bangs her thumb.' What's that about? Kagome ain't careless, far as I can tell. And then Sango makes some kinda threat bad enough to make Bankotsu skedaddle back inside like she'd lit his underwear on fire. Don't you see what they're doin?"
Eyes completely blank, Shitora glanced tiredly back up at the frazzled wolf demon; she knew that, until she gave his proposal some kind of thought, he wouldn't leave her alone. "Fine, Bou, I'll bite. No, what are they doing?"
"They're trying to get us all to fall fer each other!" Ranbou exclaimed.
Unbeknownst to Shitora, Sango, Miroku, Kagome or Inuyasha, Ranbou was absolutely right. He'd hit the nail right on the head, the nail being Operation Hookup, but it was merely coincidence that he'd guessed correctly. Wolf demons are notorious for their ridiculously heightened instincts, so his paranoia seemed normal. Yet, somehow, the garrulous and normally slow on the up-take Ranbou Ookami had stumbled upon the solid truth; his friends were organized in a plan to rally against his will.
But Shitora, who was a rather intelligent girl for her age, found the idea proposterous. "Wolf-boy, I think you've officially lost your mind. You can join Kikyo in the Pysch Ward cause you ain't gettin better any time soon." And with that cold comment, Shitora returned, for the umpteenth time, to her work.
Ranbou furrowed his brow. "Wait, you think she'll never get better?"
Shitora paused, still staring down at the pages though her eyes never moved. Had she seriously just said that outloud? Sure, Shitora had just come back to town recently, but she'd taken time to visit Kikyo; they were old friend too, weren't they? Shitora was a people oriented person, one who made it her business to understand the working of human and demon beings. As a self proclaimed anthropologist, Shitora could tell Kikyo wasn't really going to get better. It was something in her eyes, those cold, looming pools of grease, that let it out. Like she didn't even want to get better.
"I don't wanna talk about it," Shitora mumbled under her breath, walking to the tool bench to grab a wrench, socket and four lugnuts. Ranbou followed her, seeming concerned about her idea.
"Sukini...I mean, c'mon, it's Kikyo! She can beat this thing!" He exclaimed, throwing his arms akimbo and unintentionally sending some beer sloshing out of the bottle.
Shitora didn't respond and only carried everything back to the work bench, setting down the tools and using a ruler and pencil to make some tick marks on the blueprints. When his encouraging words didn't illicit a reaction, Ranbou sighed and set his neglected beer down on the tool table, shuffling over to where Shitora was standing, frozen. She'd paused in her work and her head was angle down, as though she didn't want Ranbou to see her eyes.
"You gotta have more faith than that, Sukini. Kikyo's a strong lady, I oughta know. She kicked my ass more than once. And besides...I believe that everything happens for a reason," Ranbou said quietly, all trace of humor gone.
Without glancing up, Shitora asked dully, "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Well," Ranbou began, saddling up beside the girl, "It's like this. I think that Kikyo was meant to cheat on Inuyasha, who was meant to catch her and break up with her, and he was meant to tell us all it happened. Sesshomaru was meant to tell Rin she needed to kick Kikyo out, Rin was meant to be brave enough to do it. Kikyo was meant to break down into hysteria when Rin told her she was out and Rin was meant to be rich so that she could sign up Kikyo in the hospital. I don't think fate would've put us through all that just to have Kikyo die a crazed depressed nympho."
Blinking as she tried to take in all this information, Shitora glanced up mildly at Ranbou and said bewilderdly, "How do you know? What if fate just wants to kick the shit out of us?"
Ranbou just smiled in his teasing way, ice blue eyes twinkling with good humor. "I have more faith in fate than that. And you should too, Sukini."
Giving the girl a brief squeeze on the shoulders, Ranbou strolled back over to continue his work on the Harley Davidson, leaving Shitora standing there with her mouth gaping. Had Ranbou just bested her in a conversation of wits? And had he just made a ridiculous amount of sense? And had he been...nice to her?
Before Shitora could continue sorting out these odd details, Rin bounced up and planted herself right in the middle of Shitora's blue prints. "Heya!"
Jumping slightly at Rin's appearance, Shitora took in a breath and mumbled, "Yeah, hi."
"You look so angsty right now, I won't lie," Rin said conversationally, swinging her legs back and forth off the edge of the work desk.
Shitora rolled her eyes and said moodily, "Whadya want?"
Puckering her lips in a heart breaking pouty face, Rin said sadly, "Onwy to invite you to a pawty!"
"A party?" Shitora asked suddenly, ears perking up at the very word.
Delighted by the girl's change in attitude, Rin clapped her hands together and repeated, "A party! Girls night out at my house tonight, gossiping, stupid girl things we never do like painting finger nails and lots of junk food. I think men are starting to rub off on all of us."
"I don't know what you mean," Shitora said with a grin threatening to overcome her face; right behind Rin's head, Ayame and Kouga were engaged in a spitting contest, seeing who could spit around a cigarette onto the beer bottle ten feet away. But Rin didn't have to know that, right?
"Psht, well, they are. We're leaving in five, so get your shit together," Rin finished, leaping off the desk to go gather her papers.
Sesshomaru walked up behind his girlfriend, who was putting things in order at the work desk near the living quarters. Furrowing his brow, Sesshomaru asked, "Going somewhere?"
"Girl's night out tonight," Rin replied excitedly, putting some work in her purse to take home. "You know, gossiping, and stories, and junk food. Girls do that kind of thing, we're all going."
"Tonight? Like the whole night?" Sesshomaru all but groaned, closing the gap between them and snaking his arms around her waist.
Rin giggled naughtily, winking at Sesshomaru. "Yes the whole night, you horn dog. Tomorrow night we'll have a sleep over, just the two of us, I promise."
Sesshomaru sighed, leaning down to place a big sloppy kiss on Rin's cheek. The girl let out a shrieking laugh, struggling against Sesshomaru's hold while he grinned in her face. Inuyasha glanced over and rolled his eyes, cleaning grease off his drill cap.
"Man, those two are gross," he exclaimed, shaking his head.
Kagome followed his gaze and smiled. "I dunno, I think they're cute. Who would figure a guy like Sesshomaru for a girl like Rin?"
"I dunno, I'll just tell ya it's been a long three years fer me," Inuyasha muttered, tossing the grill cap into the toolbox. Glancing up, the boy noticed Kagome grabbing for her white singlet and slipping it on, preparing to grab her purse. "Leaving early?" he asked, secretly sad to see her go.
"Yeah, girls night out at Rin's tonight. Something she came up with, I don't know. All of us are going," Kagome replied, adjusting her top irritatedly; it was already sticking to her skin in the heat.
Setting his jaw, Inuyasha replied in mock proudness, "Well, maybe we'll just have a guys night out at my house. You know, can't have you girls setting the standards or nuthin."
Kagome just laughed, swiping his furry ears as she walked past him. "Chauvinist pig," she joked, winking at him before hurrying to join the gathering group of girls near the entrance.
The scene right now was Kouga refusing to let Ayame go, much to Ayame's simultaneous irritation and delight. "Kouga, let go," she whined, struggling against his hold around her waist.
"C'mon, baby, I thought tonight we'd have some alone time," he chuckled, growling suggestively in the back of his throat.
Even though his actions were ridiculous, they were part of the reason Ayame had fallen for him in the first place. Laughing at the ridiculous statement, she replied, "One more comment like that and I'm screaming 'rape.'"
Sango, who had since finished up her work on the RX-7, walked boldly over and grabbed Ayame by the arm, tugging her bodily away from Kouga's grip. "C'mon you two, we're ready to go, give it up."
The boys had gathered where the girls were likewise gathering, hoping to either prevent them for going or to see them off with their pride intact. It wasn't everyday that the girls just got up and left them for a girl's night out. What kind of message were they sending? Were the boys boring?
"I can't believe you all are just leaving us with all this work, shameful ladies," Miroku joked, earning chuckles from the girls.
"Don't you worry, Miroku. We're having a guys night out at my house," Inuyasha announced triumphantly, soliciting a shout of triumph from the crowd of males.
Sesshomaru raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms placidly. "At your house? You mean my house, little brother."
Inuyasha just turned up his nose slightly, replying arrogantly, "It's more than one person's house, you know."
"Yeah," Shitora interrupted, "Like mine. You break shit, you die. And Shomo, lock my room, I don't want anything...taken...or...used for something nasty."
The girls all scrunched up their noses and made faces of disgust, giggling slightly at the images Shitora's insinuation evoked. Inuyasha rolled his eyes, ushering his sister out of the warehouse. "Yeah, yeah, none of your precious junk'll be touched. You're going home to get clothes right?"
"Duh," Shitora replied disdainfully, rolling her eyes at her brother's ignorance.
"Shitora, grab a house key," Sesshomaru reminded gently. "Have a good time," he added as an afterthought.
Shitora gave both her brother's brief hugs, waving good bye to the others as she joined the girls outside. They all got in their separate cars and motorcycles, following Rin's convertible as it pulled out of the gravel driveway. In no time, they were gone.
Kouga sighed, content to just stare at the horizon. "I wonder what they do at those girl parties."
"I dunno," Inuyasha mused. "You think we should...find out?"
Miroku blinked, glancing over at his best friend. "You're not thinking what I think you're thinking...are you?"
"Oh, you know he is," Sesshomaru moaned, placing an agonized hand over his eyes. "How am I related to this person?"
"You know you want to see Rin in skimpy underwear, Shomo, don't even lie," Inuyasha joked, jabbing his brother in the side.
"I can see her in less than that if I choose," came Sesshomaru's reply, which illicited low sounds of approval from the other boys.
Trying to ignore the images in his mind, Inuyasha motioned for the guys to join him in a completely unnecessary huddle. "Okay guys, here's the plan. We'll call it 'Operation Corona'..." Upon receiving several odd glances, Inuyasha explained, "I'm really thirsty, so a guy thinks about his favorite beer, right?"
"How many Operations are we gonna have?" Ginta mumbled, earning a few sharp jabs to his abdomen, lest he reveal Operation Hookup.
As Inuyasha began to tell the details of his immature and irrational plan, the other boy's lapped up the very idea of crashing the girls' party. Sesshomaru only listened half heartedly to his brother's idiotic ideas, rolling his eyes skyward. This was going to be a very long night.
Sweet! Chapter 10 and counting up. I'm guesstimating around 30 chapters there abouts, but I'm not sure. You never really know and I only plan about three chapters ahead so, really, there's no telling. Anyway, I thought I ought to let you know: this next chapter about the girls/guys night outs is gonna be hard to right and rather long, so don't expect it right away. This story is my prime objective right now, though, so I'll be focusing on it, not to worry. Thanks again for reviews! I love them dearly!
KOLU
P.S, sorry for any errors but I'm using word pad and I proof read as best I could. Sometimes I put 'd' instead of 's' at the end of a word, so sorry.
"...good morning Tokyo! It looks like it will be another scorcher out here today, folks, ranging from a low of 97 to a high of 108! National census says that this summer ranks among the most virile in years in history and it looks like farmers in the north will have a difficulty cultivating much of anything this year. In other news, the NAMO exploratory weapons factory was robbed last night at 2:07 by an unidentified group of vagrants. Police say they have no immedeate leads, but have concluded that whoever planned the attack went in with malicious intent. If you see anything strange or know something that might be connected to the robbery, please call the Tokyo Anonymous Tip line. The number is coming right along after these sponsors..."
The radio echoed around the warehouse, creating a hum of background noise behind the wrenching and screeching of drills. A big race was taking place in four days and, due to this fact, many other gang members had brought in their cars to be worked on. At the current time, each elevator held a vehicle while seven motorcycles were parked further back in the building. Outside, Sango was working away on someone's black RX-7, tuning up the engine and upping the mods.
Sesshomaru, who was wrenching away at a lug nut, listened half heartedly to the radio announcer. The factory robbery had been plaguing the news since that morning, squeezing into the corners of Sesshomaru's mind like an itch he couldn't scratch. Something about the circumstances annoyed him, as though somehow he thought the gangs and this incident were involved, yet the dog demon quickly brushed aside the very idea. He knew none of the Southerners would do something that openly illegal, and the Northerners were none of his concern until they pointed the weapons at his head. In this instance, the only thing Sesshomaru could do was bide his time and see how the events unfolded.
Hakkaku wiped beads of sweat from his forehead, regripping a wrench as more sweat trickled down his bare chest. He and Kouga had been working on this damned Harley Davidson for two hours now and neither could figure out why the engine wouldn't start. Hakkaku hesitated a glance at his leader, whose ice blue eyes were narrowed in concentration, long dark hair swung up in its usual high ponytail. Now would be a good time to slip in a casual word about Shitora, in accordance with Operation Hookup, but he had to make it subtle.
"So, Bo, whadya think about Shitora coming back to town?" Hakkaku asked casually.
Shrugging, Ranbou never removed his eyes from the underbelly of the motorcycle. "Was only a matter of time, I guess. Sukini plus a prep school couldn't have equalled a good time, know what I mean?"
"Heh heh, yeah," the wolf demon chuckled, running a hand nervously along the ridge of his mohawk. "She sure pays you a lot of attention, huh?"
Ranbou paused in his work, staring up at Hakkaku from the floor. "What?"
Hakkaku swallowed and continued bravely on. "Well, yeah, I mean she's always talking to you, even if she does call you shit and tell you to go to hell. And then when you aren't together, she talks more shit about you. It's like you're always on her mind."
When Ranbou said nothing and only continued to stare up at Hakkaku with his piercing blue eyes, Hakkaku began to feel slightly uncomfortable. The Reikon leader said finally, "Hakkaku, what exactly are you tryin' to say?"
Shifting his eyes back and forth, Hakkaku finally managed to say, "I think Shitora...likes you. I mean, likes you likes you."
"WHAT?!" Ranbou yelled, eyes blazing with unbidden fire and fangs barring at the very idea.
Swiftly accompanying this yell were several successive bangs as mechanics hit their heads on car hoods, groaning as they massaged their skulls. From where he was working on a yellows Corvette, Inuyasha screamed, "God damnit, Ranbou! What the hell was that for?!"
Ranbou, whose anger seemed to have faded almost instantly into disbelief, called out a dazed, "Sorry," before turning back to Hakkaku, who seemed pleased by this reaction. "She...likes me? Like, relationship, hugs and kisses, dating likes me? What makes you think that?"
Hakkaku shrugged menially, leaning back against the motorcycle to stare at his leader. "Just call it intuition; I'm not the only one that thinks so. She's so love sick and idiot could figure it out. Maybe you're just blinded by your own feelings for her."
Snorting, Ranbou replied, "My feelings of hatred?"
"No," Hakkaku replied silkily, "Your feelings of love."
There was a brief pause as Ranbou regarded his smug friend with a look of absolutely silent loathing. "You think that I love Sukini," he growled lowly.
Hakkaku, still running off the success from their previous conversation, responded smoothly, "In you own way, yeah."
"Look, Hak. She may love me but I'm miles away from loving her back. Alright? To me, she'll always be Shomo's annoying little sister with the flat chest," Ranbou replied shortly, crossing his arms to emphasize his point.
Shrugging, Hakkaku said, "Suit yourself. But in case you haven't noticed, more than one guy is waiting to move in on her. She isn't Sukini anymore, Bo. She's a hot Wildcat chick with a great ass." When Ranbou opened his mouth to protest, Hakkaku cut in, "Don't pretend like you haven't noticed."
While Hakkaku leaned down to tweak some mods on the motorcycle, Ranbou hestitated a glance over at Shitora, who was working on a Porsche with her back to him. It looked as though she were installing a new tail pipe, though Ranbou hardly took notice of that; he was just content to look at her. Truly, she wasn't Sukini anymore, was she? Her white hair, which used to be ratty and mangled, was now shimmering and healthy, flowing in straight sheets down her back. Her body, as well, had grown over time. When the girl crouched down, bending forward slightly to adjust the pipe position, Ranbou bit back a groan; there was that perfect ass again. Damn it all to hell.
Kagome and Inuyasha were working silently on the engine of a Mazda CX-7, never meeting eyes and never speaking except for Inuyasha's tool requests. The pair had been awkward since the beach yesterday, when Inuyasha had used Kagome's insecurities about the gangs against her. Just when one would try to say something, the other would open their mouth and both would shut them again, returning quietly to their work.
Inuyasha, who had never much been one for silence, was overcome with a soul-eating guilt; the day before, he'd seen the hurt in Kagome's eyes when he'd mentioned how she wasn't part of a gang. It was as though someone had just confirmed her greatest fears and Inuyasha couldn't have felt worse. Just seeing Kagome sad ruined his day and damn him if he couldn't understand why.
"Kagome," he started quietly, setting down his wrench on the car's fender. The girl looked up at him, brown eyes slightly duller than normal; Inuyasha hated to admit it, but he sorely missed her smile. When she said nothing, he continued. "About what I said yesterday..."
"Don't worry about it, Inuyasha, I was just being stupid," Kagome said dismissively, looking down again and reaching into the tool box. "Don't you need a lugnut wrench for the pistons?"
"Kagome, stop it," Inuyasha commanded.
Yet, Kagome paid him no heed. "That engine looked pretty messed up as far as I could see, though I really wouldn't know. Perhaps a 3 mm?"
"Kagome..."
"Yes, I think a 3 mm will do just fine. If not we can try th-"
"Kagome, cut it out and look at me!" Inuyasha said with a hint of desperation.
Sighing, Kagome let the lugnut wrench drop back into the tool box and turned to face him, seeming slightly ashamed. "Sorry. I just...I know I shouldn't expect to be part of the Wildcats right away, and it's not like I want to fill Kikyo's place, but they string me along and treat me like their friend everyday. So...what does that mean, huh? That I'm the stupid mascot? Or does it mean something worse, like that they don't trust me." Kagome looked so disheartened and her voice became so quiet that Inuyasha feared she might burst into tears.
"Kagome," Inuyasha started, crouching down at taking a seat on the floor, "We all trust you, believe me; you haven't given anybody a reason not to. Besides that, it isn't normal for an outsider to come in and accept the whole gang thing; most of them would freak out and call the police or some shit. But you were different and we could all see that. It isn't that the Wildcats don't trust you...I have a theory, but it might be totally off."
Startled by Inuyasha's suddenly wise words, Kagome cocked her head to the side and murmured, "Tell me; I bet you're closer than you think."
"Well, I think it might be about the Wildcats hoping Kikyo will get better and come back in a few weeks time. We all know it'll take a lot longer than that, but they all miss her. Kikyo leaving made this huge void and I bet you understand that if you've met her. You have, haven't you?"
Kagome nodded, adjusting her crossed legs. "Yeah. I can't explain it, but she seemed so...big. Not in the size way, but in a different way. Like there was too much person for one body. Even in the hospital, she seemed totally full of life and even a little bit crazy. I felt intimidated, but welcomed at the same time."
Smiling, Inuyasha leaned back against the car's grill and replied quietly, "You really get her. That's Kikyo, alright, too much person for one body. I think maybe that's her problem; a beautiful girl walking around with a huge personality is like a hotel for all sorts of disorders. You know?"
"I guess you're right," Kagome agreed, leaning back on her hands. "She was Sango's best friend, right?"
The hanyou shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. Sango balanced out Kikyo's wacky shit most of the time. Like ying and yang, almost. If this whole thing bothers Sango, we'd never know it though. Talk about a person who keeps what they think quiet."
Kagome glanced out the warehouse at Sango, who was working busily away in the scorching heat. Truth be told, Kagome had never met a person with more discipline and work ethic than Sango. The girl was also reliable and loyal, making her the perfect member of the Wildcats; everyone could trust her.
"Yeah, I've noticed that. It can't be healthy, can it? Keeping it all inside?" Kagome asked thoughtfully.
Inuyasha shrugged. "Who knows. One day, Sango might blow shit side up. But, until then, we just gotta figure she doesn't care."
As Sango worked busily away on the RX-7, trying to ignore the sun as it beat down on her bare skin, she tried to think of nothing but the engine. Fuel into the chamber, compression, combustion, exit through the valve. Engines made a ridiculous amount of sense in the fact that problems could be predicted by another problem. Problem A could lead to complication B, which could call for the replacement of Part C and so on. Sango liked her cars that way and, frankly, would've appreciated her life that way. If perhaps she could predict problems or systematically pick apart every tribulation, she could finally feel as though she, Sango Tajiya, was in control of her own life.
Bankotsu, unaware of this great internal struggle which was taking place within Sango, strolled up wiping his hands on a grease rag. Glancing briefly up at the sky, blinking against the heat of the sun, Bankotsu strolled up to Sango and leaned against the passenger's side of the car.
"Hey."
Without looking up from her work, Sango replied, "Yeah."
"So, you got a date to the race?"
A muffled volice from under the hood replied, "Nope. I don't plan on getting one and I know you're not asking me."
Shrugging, Bankotsu pushed himself up until he was sitting on the roof. "I dunno," he said menially, resting his feet on the bottom of the windshield and balancing his elbows on his knees. "Maybe someone actually will ask you. Someone you really want to go with. You know who I'm talking about."
"No, sorry, don't know who you're talking about," Sango replied dully as she methodically cleaned a piston.
"I think you do," Bankotsu said quietly. "And his name is Miroku Houshi."
There was a brief silence, during which the only sound was the strain of Sango's grease rag against the metal of the piston. As she held the piston up to the sunlight, examining her work with a critical eye, Sango murmured, "This piston would fit nicely up your ass."
Holding up his hands in a surrendering sort of gesture, Bankotsu jumped casually off the car and began a steady walk towards the warehouse. "Just think about it."
And with that he was gone, hands in his pockets and mouth whistling a far away tune. For the first time during the conversation, Sango let her eyes drift from her work towards a familiar figure inside. Miroku was elbow deep in the guts of a rather greasy Mitsubishi, asking Ginta for tools every so often. In that moment, he looked totally focused and not the least bit perverted, a feat with Sango had great appreciation for. Sighing, Sango turned back to the car and focused her mind. Problem A leads to complication B, which calls for Part C to be replaced. Nice and predictable.
Rin took a deep breath and recradled the phone against her ear. "Jakotsu, I'm sure we can do something. I mean, it's just the transmission, right?"
"Just the transmission?! Bitch, please! It's the whole inside! I thought Inuyasha fixed it!" came the feminine voice across the line.
At that moment, Rin became aware of footsteps behind her and she turned, smiling as a shirtless and sweaty Sesshomaru came strolling up to her. Turning back dutifully to her phone call, Rin reasoned, "But did you check the fluids? What about the warranty?"
"Warranty? Rin, we stole the pickup three years ago! You can't pick up a warranty on stolen cars!" Jakotsu argued shrilly.
Sesshomaru, who seemed to care very little about Rin's current engagement, leaned down and began planting soft kissed on the flesh of her neck. Squeaking slightly at the sudden contact, Rin moved her head to allow him better access as she tried to continue with her phone call. "Right. Stolen, I forgot. Well, bring it on in and we'll take...look...another...bring in..."
The girl's words became increasingly incoherent as Sesshomaru moved farther downward, threatening to move underneath Rin's sports bra into a far more forbidden area. As her boyfriend's beautiful silver hair fell around her like a curtain, Rin gasped and bit her lip; just a minute more. "Bring it in and we'll look at it. Bye."
With that, Rin allowed the phone to drop from her ear onto the table and she turned in her seat, intercepting Sesshomaru's lips in a powerful kiss. The two were becoming increasingly intimate when Inuyasha walked by, rolling his eyes and exclaiming loudly, "Oh, get a room."
Breaking the kiss, Sesshomaru sighed heavily and rested his forehead against Rin's. "Is it still a felony to kill a relative?"
"I wouldn't know, but I wouldn't try," Rin giggled, kissing the tip of Sesshomaru's nose in her typical cute way.
While Inuyasha fiddled with the cap of his beer in the back, Ayame took the opportunity to work her way towards Kagome, smiling and glancing inside the car to examine Inuyasha's work. "Hey Kags, how we doin?"
"Good," Kagome replied blithely. "You?"
"Fine, just fine," Ayame replied listlessly, totally focused on the cars inards...or at least she appeared to be. Inside the redhead's head, cogs were turning at lightning speed as she tried desperately to devise a plan. As a vital member of Operation Hookup, Ayame felt it her duty to convince Kagome of her love for Inuyasha; unfortunately, the girl wouldn't be easily persuaded. Ayame would need to work up something totally outlandish to even buy Kagome's attention.
"You know," Ayame began casually, "guys around here have a thing for girls who race cars."
Kagome blinked, cocking her head to the side. "Really? I hadn't noticed. I thought they had a thing for girls who sat on the sideline and shook their ass."
Ayame laughed heartily, recognizing this comment as just another example of Kagome's sarcastic humor. "Well, that too. No, I'm talking about a few guys in particular. I mean, you have Ranbou," Ayame continued, glancing over at Ranbou, who was still working on the Harley. "In case you couldn't tell, he's a sucker for Shitora. You could see that, right?"
Kagome nodded, giggling. "They're so in love it's cute."
Sighing at the usage of the word "cute," perhaps her least favorite word in the whole of any language, Ayame replied dryly, "Yeah, cute. Then you have Bankotsu, who hooks up with about any racer with a vagina."
The two girls looked over at Bankotsu, who was taking a break and sipping beers with Hiten. "Then there's one we know a lot better. Inuyasha."
Kagome instinctively glanced over at Inuyasha, who was popping the top on a Budweiser in the corner. Narrowing her eyes slightly, Kagome repeated, "Inuyasha?"
"Mhmm," Ayame replied slowly, knowing she had Kagome hooked. Picking up a wrench in her hand, Ayame leaned in to continue Inuyasha's work where he'd left off, pretending as though everything were normal. "Inuyasha. He can't stand his women helpless and giggly. Wearing their Abercrombie and shaking their breasts in his face, nope, Inuyasha needs a real woman. Kikyo came close, but no cigar. She couldn't race to save her life; I think that chick got more speeding tickets for going under the speed limit than she did for going over. But if some girl came along like a devil in leather racing fast machines, I bet she'd steal Inuyasha pretty fast."
Kagome was quiet for a moment, digesting this information while trying, subconciously, to divide the information logically. Her first inclination was to believe Ayame was setting her up, trying to get her to conform to Wildcat standards and take Kikyo's place in the core. But Kagome didn't want that, not Kikyo's place. She wanted to carve out her own place in the core and take her spot like a brave woman would, without the pittering and pattering around Kikyo's loss. But besides this, why would Ayame want to set Kagome up? Did she want her and Inuyasha to get together? But why? What was her motive? Still, Kagome had to admit the idea of calling Inuyasha her's was rather pleasing.
Wait a god damn second! Kagome! What the hell are you thinking? Inuyasha? And you? Dare to dream, girl, he's like a wildfire; he can't be tamed. But wouldn't it be great if you could...no, no, no, there's no way. Unless...unless I learned how to race...NO! You'd be an awful racer...that isn't true, you'd probably rock at it, but still, it's crazy. It'd be like conforming to the standards, giving in to the man! Racing just to get Inuyasha's attention, pah, that's retarded. Oh crap, now I can't stop seeing his face. Damnit, damnit, damnit...
"DAMNIT!" Kagome exclaimed aloud, drawing quite a bit of attention to herself.
The others stopped in the work, turning to face Kagome with questioning eyes. Laughing nervously, Kagome waved away their concern. "Haha, it's nothing, just...banged my thumb is all..."
Shrugging, the others returned to their business while Inuyasha came strutting purposefully over. "Kagome, what's up?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"Nothing," she muttered, glancing down into the tool box.
Ayame removed her hands from the car's guts, wiping her hand on a grease rag and placing the wrench in Inuyasha's outstretched hand. "She was thinking a little too hard and she hit her thumb on the toolbox. Nothing a little kiss couldn't fix."
With that, the redhead strolled languidly away from the scene of her crimes, smiling devilishly to herself as she imagined the stunned looks on both Inuyasha and Kagome's faces. What could they possibly be thinking right then? How embarassed they were? Or how they wished Ayame was right and it was all that simple? Just one kiss could fix it all, couldn't it? Just one kiss...
"I'm worried."
Shitora glanced up from the car blueprints she'd been examining on the work table, raising an eyebrow at Ranbou's random comment. "About..." she trailed off, leaving him to fill in the blank.
Trying to ignore her cute confused stare, Ranbou sighed and hopped up on the tool table, sitting back against the wall to enjoy his beer. "About all of them." Using the bottle to gesture around the warehouse, Ranbou indicated the plethera of people working busily away on their machines.
Shitora blinked, ears twitching back and forth like satellites, before she returned her amber stare to Ranbou. "They look okay to me," she commented, returning to her blueprints.
Ranbou gave an irritated growl, an animalistic wolf sound in the back of his throat, and leapt down from the table, slamming his beer down in the middle of the car plans.
"No, Sukini, I mean worried about something they might be planning. Did you notice anything funny with them today? How they kept on looking at us, giggling, being weird?"
Shitora, who's left eyebrow was beginning to twitch restlessly, only crossed her arms and regarded Ranbou with mild disdain. "No, I didn't notice, because there was nothing to notice, because I'm not ridiculously paranoid, like you. Now, if you'll excuse me, some of us have real work to do."
Without so much as another word, Shitora set Ranbou's beer bottle to the side and continued reviewing the papers. Rolling his eyes desperately, Ranbou continued, "No, I think they got a plan or somethin! I mean, out of the blue Hakkaku brings up some shit about...well, about a subject that could only have a plan behind it! And then Kagome over there 'bangs her thumb.' What's that about? Kagome ain't careless, far as I can tell. And then Sango makes some kinda threat bad enough to make Bankotsu skedaddle back inside like she'd lit his underwear on fire. Don't you see what they're doin?"
Eyes completely blank, Shitora glanced tiredly back up at the frazzled wolf demon; she knew that, until she gave his proposal some kind of thought, he wouldn't leave her alone. "Fine, Bou, I'll bite. No, what are they doing?"
"They're trying to get us all to fall fer each other!" Ranbou exclaimed.
Unbeknownst to Shitora, Sango, Miroku, Kagome or Inuyasha, Ranbou was absolutely right. He'd hit the nail right on the head, the nail being Operation Hookup, but it was merely coincidence that he'd guessed correctly. Wolf demons are notorious for their ridiculously heightened instincts, so his paranoia seemed normal. Yet, somehow, the garrulous and normally slow on the up-take Ranbou Ookami had stumbled upon the solid truth; his friends were organized in a plan to rally against his will.
But Shitora, who was a rather intelligent girl for her age, found the idea proposterous. "Wolf-boy, I think you've officially lost your mind. You can join Kikyo in the Pysch Ward cause you ain't gettin better any time soon." And with that cold comment, Shitora returned, for the umpteenth time, to her work.
Ranbou furrowed his brow. "Wait, you think she'll never get better?"
Shitora paused, still staring down at the pages though her eyes never moved. Had she seriously just said that outloud? Sure, Shitora had just come back to town recently, but she'd taken time to visit Kikyo; they were old friend too, weren't they? Shitora was a people oriented person, one who made it her business to understand the working of human and demon beings. As a self proclaimed anthropologist, Shitora could tell Kikyo wasn't really going to get better. It was something in her eyes, those cold, looming pools of grease, that let it out. Like she didn't even want to get better.
"I don't wanna talk about it," Shitora mumbled under her breath, walking to the tool bench to grab a wrench, socket and four lugnuts. Ranbou followed her, seeming concerned about her idea.
"Sukini...I mean, c'mon, it's Kikyo! She can beat this thing!" He exclaimed, throwing his arms akimbo and unintentionally sending some beer sloshing out of the bottle.
Shitora didn't respond and only carried everything back to the work bench, setting down the tools and using a ruler and pencil to make some tick marks on the blueprints. When his encouraging words didn't illicit a reaction, Ranbou sighed and set his neglected beer down on the tool table, shuffling over to where Shitora was standing, frozen. She'd paused in her work and her head was angle down, as though she didn't want Ranbou to see her eyes.
"You gotta have more faith than that, Sukini. Kikyo's a strong lady, I oughta know. She kicked my ass more than once. And besides...I believe that everything happens for a reason," Ranbou said quietly, all trace of humor gone.
Without glancing up, Shitora asked dully, "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Well," Ranbou began, saddling up beside the girl, "It's like this. I think that Kikyo was meant to cheat on Inuyasha, who was meant to catch her and break up with her, and he was meant to tell us all it happened. Sesshomaru was meant to tell Rin she needed to kick Kikyo out, Rin was meant to be brave enough to do it. Kikyo was meant to break down into hysteria when Rin told her she was out and Rin was meant to be rich so that she could sign up Kikyo in the hospital. I don't think fate would've put us through all that just to have Kikyo die a crazed depressed nympho."
Blinking as she tried to take in all this information, Shitora glanced up mildly at Ranbou and said bewilderdly, "How do you know? What if fate just wants to kick the shit out of us?"
Ranbou just smiled in his teasing way, ice blue eyes twinkling with good humor. "I have more faith in fate than that. And you should too, Sukini."
Giving the girl a brief squeeze on the shoulders, Ranbou strolled back over to continue his work on the Harley Davidson, leaving Shitora standing there with her mouth gaping. Had Ranbou just bested her in a conversation of wits? And had he just made a ridiculous amount of sense? And had he been...nice to her?
Before Shitora could continue sorting out these odd details, Rin bounced up and planted herself right in the middle of Shitora's blue prints. "Heya!"
Jumping slightly at Rin's appearance, Shitora took in a breath and mumbled, "Yeah, hi."
"You look so angsty right now, I won't lie," Rin said conversationally, swinging her legs back and forth off the edge of the work desk.
Shitora rolled her eyes and said moodily, "Whadya want?"
Puckering her lips in a heart breaking pouty face, Rin said sadly, "Onwy to invite you to a pawty!"
"A party?" Shitora asked suddenly, ears perking up at the very word.
Delighted by the girl's change in attitude, Rin clapped her hands together and repeated, "A party! Girls night out at my house tonight, gossiping, stupid girl things we never do like painting finger nails and lots of junk food. I think men are starting to rub off on all of us."
"I don't know what you mean," Shitora said with a grin threatening to overcome her face; right behind Rin's head, Ayame and Kouga were engaged in a spitting contest, seeing who could spit around a cigarette onto the beer bottle ten feet away. But Rin didn't have to know that, right?
"Psht, well, they are. We're leaving in five, so get your shit together," Rin finished, leaping off the desk to go gather her papers.
Sesshomaru walked up behind his girlfriend, who was putting things in order at the work desk near the living quarters. Furrowing his brow, Sesshomaru asked, "Going somewhere?"
"Girl's night out tonight," Rin replied excitedly, putting some work in her purse to take home. "You know, gossiping, and stories, and junk food. Girls do that kind of thing, we're all going."
"Tonight? Like the whole night?" Sesshomaru all but groaned, closing the gap between them and snaking his arms around her waist.
Rin giggled naughtily, winking at Sesshomaru. "Yes the whole night, you horn dog. Tomorrow night we'll have a sleep over, just the two of us, I promise."
Sesshomaru sighed, leaning down to place a big sloppy kiss on Rin's cheek. The girl let out a shrieking laugh, struggling against Sesshomaru's hold while he grinned in her face. Inuyasha glanced over and rolled his eyes, cleaning grease off his drill cap.
"Man, those two are gross," he exclaimed, shaking his head.
Kagome followed his gaze and smiled. "I dunno, I think they're cute. Who would figure a guy like Sesshomaru for a girl like Rin?"
"I dunno, I'll just tell ya it's been a long three years fer me," Inuyasha muttered, tossing the grill cap into the toolbox. Glancing up, the boy noticed Kagome grabbing for her white singlet and slipping it on, preparing to grab her purse. "Leaving early?" he asked, secretly sad to see her go.
"Yeah, girls night out at Rin's tonight. Something she came up with, I don't know. All of us are going," Kagome replied, adjusting her top irritatedly; it was already sticking to her skin in the heat.
Setting his jaw, Inuyasha replied in mock proudness, "Well, maybe we'll just have a guys night out at my house. You know, can't have you girls setting the standards or nuthin."
Kagome just laughed, swiping his furry ears as she walked past him. "Chauvinist pig," she joked, winking at him before hurrying to join the gathering group of girls near the entrance.
The scene right now was Kouga refusing to let Ayame go, much to Ayame's simultaneous irritation and delight. "Kouga, let go," she whined, struggling against his hold around her waist.
"C'mon, baby, I thought tonight we'd have some alone time," he chuckled, growling suggestively in the back of his throat.
Even though his actions were ridiculous, they were part of the reason Ayame had fallen for him in the first place. Laughing at the ridiculous statement, she replied, "One more comment like that and I'm screaming 'rape.'"
Sango, who had since finished up her work on the RX-7, walked boldly over and grabbed Ayame by the arm, tugging her bodily away from Kouga's grip. "C'mon you two, we're ready to go, give it up."
The boys had gathered where the girls were likewise gathering, hoping to either prevent them for going or to see them off with their pride intact. It wasn't everyday that the girls just got up and left them for a girl's night out. What kind of message were they sending? Were the boys boring?
"I can't believe you all are just leaving us with all this work, shameful ladies," Miroku joked, earning chuckles from the girls.
"Don't you worry, Miroku. We're having a guys night out at my house," Inuyasha announced triumphantly, soliciting a shout of triumph from the crowd of males.
Sesshomaru raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms placidly. "At your house? You mean my house, little brother."
Inuyasha just turned up his nose slightly, replying arrogantly, "It's more than one person's house, you know."
"Yeah," Shitora interrupted, "Like mine. You break shit, you die. And Shomo, lock my room, I don't want anything...taken...or...used for something nasty."
The girls all scrunched up their noses and made faces of disgust, giggling slightly at the images Shitora's insinuation evoked. Inuyasha rolled his eyes, ushering his sister out of the warehouse. "Yeah, yeah, none of your precious junk'll be touched. You're going home to get clothes right?"
"Duh," Shitora replied disdainfully, rolling her eyes at her brother's ignorance.
"Shitora, grab a house key," Sesshomaru reminded gently. "Have a good time," he added as an afterthought.
Shitora gave both her brother's brief hugs, waving good bye to the others as she joined the girls outside. They all got in their separate cars and motorcycles, following Rin's convertible as it pulled out of the gravel driveway. In no time, they were gone.
Kouga sighed, content to just stare at the horizon. "I wonder what they do at those girl parties."
"I dunno," Inuyasha mused. "You think we should...find out?"
Miroku blinked, glancing over at his best friend. "You're not thinking what I think you're thinking...are you?"
"Oh, you know he is," Sesshomaru moaned, placing an agonized hand over his eyes. "How am I related to this person?"
"You know you want to see Rin in skimpy underwear, Shomo, don't even lie," Inuyasha joked, jabbing his brother in the side.
"I can see her in less than that if I choose," came Sesshomaru's reply, which illicited low sounds of approval from the other boys.
Trying to ignore the images in his mind, Inuyasha motioned for the guys to join him in a completely unnecessary huddle. "Okay guys, here's the plan. We'll call it 'Operation Corona'..." Upon receiving several odd glances, Inuyasha explained, "I'm really thirsty, so a guy thinks about his favorite beer, right?"
"How many Operations are we gonna have?" Ginta mumbled, earning a few sharp jabs to his abdomen, lest he reveal Operation Hookup.
As Inuyasha began to tell the details of his immature and irrational plan, the other boy's lapped up the very idea of crashing the girls' party. Sesshomaru only listened half heartedly to his brother's idiotic ideas, rolling his eyes skyward. This was going to be a very long night.
Sweet! Chapter 10 and counting up. I'm guesstimating around 30 chapters there abouts, but I'm not sure. You never really know and I only plan about three chapters ahead so, really, there's no telling. Anyway, I thought I ought to let you know: this next chapter about the girls/guys night outs is gonna be hard to right and rather long, so don't expect it right away. This story is my prime objective right now, though, so I'll be focusing on it, not to worry. Thanks again for reviews! I love them dearly!
KOLU