InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Little Stone of Secrets ❯ Chapter 13

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Shippo cocked his head to the side “Okay, slow down. So explain what the problem is to me, one more time.”

I tossed the laptop at the couch next to were he was sitting. “FIX IT and do it, now! Damn him, he keeps at it. All my computer does is yell at me with warnings,” I was not in the mood. My day had royally sucked. While I was out chasing, he-who-shall-not-be-named, I missed a pop quiz then there was a test in geography that everything I had memorized for it flew out the window. In art, my expressionism painting made someone cry! I get home and that asshole, Hiten, is still at it.

“I have to go over and finish making calls for Izayoi, soon. Please tell me you can help me, Shippo. I mean look at me, I‘m all hurt and injured. Don‘t you want to help put my mind at ease?” I pushed my bottom lip out as far as I could. “Pwease?”

“This is a new level of pathetic. Very impressive,” Shippo nodded his head in approval.

I squinted my eyes and glared at him. “Die a violent death!!!” sticking my tongue out at him, I grabbed my crutches and angrily wobbled my way to my bedroom as he burst out laughing. “SHUT UP!!!”

Looking at the clock it was almost two. Sitting on my hope chest, I sighed, unwrapped the shiny purple scarf I had wrapped around my neck and looked into the mirror. It wasn’t as dark as it had been. It made since… these things take time but slowly with time it will disappear. Eventually, if you believe it strong enough it will be as if it never existed… I just need to take it one day at a time.

I changed into out from the dirty cloths I had fallen in, into a pair of true religion jeans and a long sleeved black turtleneck. Thank God for fall! Walking back into the living room, Shippo was taping away on the keyboard of my poor little laptop like a mad man.

“Uumm, what’s going on with all this!?”

“He goes by code name ‘Lightning’ but he isn’t nearly as fast as he thinks he is! ” He broke out into a huge smirk and slammed the enter button.

“I‘m very happy you’re having fun but please don‘t kill my poor baby!!!” my heart went out to the poor thing. Shippo grabbed his bag from the side of the couch, took out his laptop and plugged it in. Then hooked are laptops together and started typing away on both of them. “Shippo, don‘t forget we are all meeting at the park at seven O’clock to watch the comet, tonight.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he responded as he waved me off.

“Play fair!” I guess I shouldn’t really complain if they’re busy battling it out that gives him less time to be snooping around my files. Hehehe.

I arrived in a little under twenty minutes, Rose let me in, I slipped into the office and quickly got back to work. I woke the computer of from its sleep mode and opened the file. Cracking open the binder I turned to the page I had dog-eared and started calling again.

“Damn,” growling I slammed the phone back down onto the receiver. It was already 6:10 and I was so wanting to get this all done today! It was getting hard to concentrate with Izayoi flittering around the office. She was checking the clock more then I was. I suppose it must be nice waiting for the one you love to come home to you, especially with how often Mr. Tashio wasn’t home. If things had worked out differently with Sesshomaru would that be my role… I banished the thought from my head and dialed another number, if nothing else I could work till 6:30 then head out.

Rose lightly knocked on the door. “Mrs. Tashio, I‘m informing you, like you wanted, that Mr. Tashio has returned.”

Izayoi‘s eyes happily lit up. “Just in time!”

No matter what my mind thought these people were up to it was really difficult to distrust them. “Well, I should get going so you kids can have some ‘alone’ time,” I started packing up my stuff.

“WHAT!?” she pursed her lips together. “No, no, no. Part of our deal was that in exchange for you helping me, I would provide you with a world class dance teacher and I never go back on my words!!!”

She was like an adorable five year old. “Two things. Izayoi. One is that ‘hello,’ ” I gestured at the walking boot. “My big ugly friend here is not dancing friendly and second, I‘m sure Mr. Tashio is exhausted from working hard all day,” I slid my coat on and shouldered my purse and then slid the crutches into place. “Maybe next time.”

“Nope, everything is fine. Now SIT,” she pushed the desk chair right behind me and stole one of my crutches. “Come on. Come on, do it!”

“Oh my God, alright!” I sat down in the chair and she snagged my other crutch out of my hand.

“Hang on!” she warned as she pushed me down the hallway and all you could hear was the click clack of her heels. We came to a screeching stop in front of the ballroom. She pushed the doors open and wheeled me into the room where some men were helping set it up for the party as well as Mr. Tashio and Sesshomaru… His eyes briefly flashed to me before he turned around and helped hand something to one of the workers.

“Darling!” Izayoi practically bounced into Mr. Tashio’s arms and kissed him. “Now, I promised Kagome that she could have a world class dance partner to practice with, do you mind?”

“Really, it’s all right. I‘m sure you’re tired and I‘m not going to get practice with this boot so if you just give me back my crutches, I‘ll get out of your hair.” I outstretched my hand to try to reach them.

Mr. Tashio burst out laughing. “Kagome, I think you misunderstood the only reason I survived that God awful dance was because Izayoi was so good. I‘m horrible, Sesshomaru is the expert.”

“That’s right!” she waved Sesshomaru over to us. “Sesshy, come on. Show her how we do it!” she bumped her hip into his and winked. “Dance with her like I did when I was first teaching you.”

“I have a date with Kagura, tonight,” using her hand she covered her eyes and did one of the best fake crying performances I had ever witnessed. “However, I suppose if you made a promise, it’s my duty to help you meet your end of the deal.”

“Wonderful!” she smiled brightly before turning on a near by worker. “You, press the play button!”

Walking over to me, Sesshomaru offered his hand to me and helped me up. Effortlessly, he picked me up and set me back down so my feet were standing on top of his feet. The little interaction we had was when he was helping correct my posture and what my stance should look like. We glided across the floor and there was this feeling in me that I had never experienced while practicing with anyone else, it was magical! He dipped me and when he helped me come back, I swear there was a flicker of what use to be in his eyes when he watched me in class… or maybe it could be wishful thinking because they were defiantly fully back to being cold and emotionless.

Before I was ready for it the music stopped and he was helping me stand back on the floor. I was handed back my crutches and that was the first time I had noticed that the entire time while he was holding me I hadn’t felt that freezing cold within myself. It was wonderful while it lasted. After saying my goodbye’s, I got the hell out of there as soon as I could. There should be a law about how much one person should have to go through in one day. I parked my car, grabbed the blanket from the back seat, tossed it over my shoulder and hobbled my way down the road to get to the park. A nice young man driving a golf cart decided I looked like a damsel in distress and offered to give me a ride.

Finally arriving at the spot where everyone else was, all ready spread out and laying on a bunch of overlapped blankets. “Thank you so much!” I hoped off, wobbled over to the blankets and plopped down exhausted.

“Hey, girlie!” Sango yelled from where she was sitting next to Miroku. “Look at you, getting here with a whole fifteen minutes to spare. Go you!”

Inu Yasha handed me a bottle of water. “How are you feeling?”

Snatching the bottle, I gulped it down and leaned my back against him. “I’m fucking exhausted!” looking around I couldn’t see Jak. “Where‘s Jak? I wanted to thank him for the dress. Oh there he is. HI, JAKIE!!!” Jakotsu jogged over and plopped down next to me.

“Kagome, what’s up? Usually, you always answer your cell but I couldn’t get a hold of you so I called the Tashio house but the maid Rose said ‘you were busy getting a dance lesson?!’ ”

My memory snapped back to how he had handled everything before with the ‘incident’. “Yeah, actually Mr. Tashio was there so Izayoi figured, ‘why not?’ ” I felt Inu Yasha shift behind and saw him raise a eyebrow at me and I dug my thumb nail into his hand as a warning. ‘Of course, he knew his dad couldn’t dance. Stupid.’

“AND OH MY GOD, JAK,” I squealed happily as something blue caught my attention reminding me of the dress. “That dress it breath taking but you said you were really busy and weren’t going to have any free time?!”

He smiled broadly and ruffled my hair “For you, kid there‘s always time. Besides, trust me, I really don’t want to have to deal with any of that crap so this was a welcome distraction!”

“Aww, look. Those kind of people actually do stick in herds,” Kagura snickered as she tightened her arm with Sesshomaru’s as he looked off into the distance.

“Could you move on?” Inu Yasha yelled as he plugged his nose, “Your guy‘s stench is starting to wilt the grass.”

“How heart warming. They welcome worthless half demons, fags, perverts, art freaks,” she smirked “and little whores like you, Kagome.”

I could feel Inu Yasha’s muscles tightening behind me, I could see how pissed Jak was and I didn’t even need to look to see what Sango was feeling. I didn’t have to worry about Sango because I know Miroku will keep her from jumping the bitch. I position myself so was leaning on Inu’s lap so he couldn’t move and I set my booted foot on Jak’s lap so he wouldn’t be jumping out. “It was nice seeing you, Kagura but you don‘t want to waste your time on us, do you?” I smiled at politely as I could at them.

“You’re right,” she sneered as she tugged Sesshomaru down to her level and pressed her lips against his affectively killing whatever apatite I had. “Let’s go, babe.”

Tightly closing my eyes I whispered. “Don‘t forget about philosophy,” opening my eye’s I saw him momentarily pause mid step before continuing on his way. ‘If you come to class then I will completely give up on loving you, that’s a promise, so please come.’ Everyone was busy yelling about what a whore she was and how they didn’t think even Sesshomaru could sink that low.

“Everyone shut up, now! We came here to watch the comet and have fun!” using Inu Yasha’s shoulder I pushed myself up and grabbed my crutches. “This is not fun! Miroku, I need you help with something,” everyone’s eyes were glued to me, quickly Miroku was up and following next to me. We walked past a bunch of couples laying together and snuggling waiting for the show to start. Finally, a bench came into view, I hobbled over and sat down with Miroku, soon following suit.

“What up, Kagome? Are you alright?” he asked worried

“No, I‘m alright…” I turned so I was looking at him. “What’s with you and Sango?!”

“Uumm, excuse me?!” he asked in shock.

“She‘s crazy about you. You’re crazy about her. Hell, you are even curving your grouping problems so what the hell is the problem?!”

“Sango has a lot on her mind, lady Kagome,” he smiled sadly and shook his head. “Besides, she disserves more then me. Honestly, as her best friend, you must know this!”

“As her BEST FRIEND, I can honestly say there is no one who would be a better match for my girl,” I glared at him. “Just remember she‘s mine but I suppose this way I can live vicariously through you, crazy kids,” leaning forward I nudged his shoulder with mine. “Come on, dude. Man up.”

“I‘ll think about it,” a big goofy smile found its way onto his lips.

“Yeah, you think about it. Come on, let’s get back.”

By the time we had finally made our way back to the group, Shippo and Britt had finally showed up. All of us had known each other and been so close it was rare that we opened are arms to others but something about both Shippo and Britt called to me. Perhaps what called to me was a feeling of familiarity… The rest of the night was peaceful as we stared into the sky waiting to see what hasn’t been seen in fifty years and wouldn’t be seen again after this for another fifty.

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

Griping the handle bars, I pushed my legs as hard as they could go on the exercise bike. “Is there a problem?” Bending at the side I panted heavily as Inu Yasha stood with his hands folded together behind his head as he whistled.

“Nope, just the first time I’ve seen you actually looking like you’re enjoying working out,” he handed me a water bottle. “How’s the foot doing?”

“I don‘t know. Fricken, Mr. Banryu says ‘he will talk to me about it, tomorrow,’ ” opening the lid, I took a long drink from it. “He‘s just doing it to get me to come in for a check up. Crafty, old man.”

“have I even told you how hilarious I think your effort to curve your cussing problem is, its adorable any ways the professor says ‘class is over.’ Want to go grab something to eat?” he asked as he helped me get off the bike.

“No thanks, I smell. I have class in a little while so I‘m going to head home and take a quick shower.”

Wrapping his arms around me he nuzzled his nose into my neck. “I like when you smell this way. It’s natural.”

“Eeww, You’re all gross and sweaty. You need to shower, too!!!”

Walking into the apartment, I put my keys back in my purse. “When did the living room become a scene from the ‘Matrix?’ ” Shippo had several computers set up and some sort of tower looking thing next to the wall. Sitting down next to him, stared at the screen of the computer and only saw a black screen filled with a lot of green text.

“He‘s good!” he said as a stick of pokey hung loosely between his lips.

I winced, “Is it that bad?”

“I‘m better!” he pressed the enter button and all the computer screens momentarily went blank before starting up again. “In your face,” he stopped and turned to me and sniffed.

Smacking him, I got up. “I know, I stink. Shut up, I‘m taking a shower!!!”

After taking a quick shower, Shippo informed me that my professor had called and canceled the lecture for today so I decided I would head over and finish up making those calls. I was in a frisky mood. Anyway, after finding out my neck had gone from the ugly, deep colors, it had been to a ugly yellow green. Bring on those calls, I’ll make them my bitch. Bwahah. Rose let me in just like she had last time so I got to the office and got to work.

After entering the last of the data, I sat the hard copy next to the computer and checked to make sure they were the same.

“How’s it going?” Izayoi asked as she peeked into the office.

I held up a finger to ‘wait a minute’ as I cross checked the last couple of names and data. “I‘m done. All you need is to print out the pages and you’re golden,” I checked my watch and did a victory wiggle. “And with time to spare!”

“Do you have some romantic plans for tonight?” she giggled.

I put the lose paper back into the binder the best I could and shut it. “No sir. No romance for this girl.”

“Even if Sessy‘s?”

“Especially if its him. I‘m pretty sure he hates me and if he doesn’t, I would be ecstatic to just be friends!” I took a long drink off my water bottle and sighed.

“Why do you think he hates you, Kagome?” She pinned me with her eyes.

“It’s nothing!” The problem is I handle anger a lot better then I handle pain, sadness and that God-awful feeling of loneliness that keeps trying to make itself known. At this point, it would just be so much easier if all the Tashios hated me so I never had to deal with this situation again.

“Do you think I‘m a stupid woman, Kagome?”

“I think you’re a lot of things but no, I highly doubt that you’re stupid. In fact, most of the times I think you just play the part of a stupid, silly woman.”

“Very perceptive and I, also, see you playing the role that others want you to be but even with you trying to hide it. Whenever, I even mentioned ‘Sesshomaru’ around you, its like a whole field of flowers go into bloom.”

“Like I said, it doesn’t matter, anymore!”

“And I asked, ‘why it doesn’t!?’ ”

“I give in. You already know … I care very deeply for Sesshomaru and we got in a fight while I was with him at his house. I was just so angry with how he always talks about Inu Yasha. Just his whole damn rotten attitude and instead of coming to class and facing up the little, coward skipped class. This one night, I go over to Jakotsu’s and Bankotsu‘s apartment because Jak had something he wanted to talk to be about and… well, Sesshomaru was there and answered the door then that damn attitude popped up.”

She pointed at the boot. “Does that have something to do with that?”

“I have a anger management issues and my angry monster got the best of me,” I sighed. “He tried shutting the door on me and I blocked it with my foot.”

“Ahh.”

“Yeah. Then I said the most horrible things that I just knew were pressure points for him like that Inu Yasha is better then him… how no wonder everyone liked him more… and about his mother…”

Her eyes widened in shock, “Oh, dear God! What did you say about her?!”

“I asked him if she was the one who turned him into such a giant asshole!"

“And you limped away? Impressive. The last person who said something like that was Inu Yasha when he was little and Sesshomaru put him in the hospital.”

Pulling down the turtleneck I let her see my bruised neck. “He lost it and now, he won’t even look at me.”

Her eyes bulged out of her head as she jumped out of her seat and was at my side in a instant. “Oh my dear God, are you alright? Well, I guess this explains his even strange behavior then usual.”

I looked at her dumbfounded. “Did you not just hear all the horrible things I’ve said!!!”

“Do you have any idea the kind of things I put Satoshi before we got together but more importantly, honey, your neck is a giant bruise!!!”

“Why…”

She looked at me confused, “Why what?”

“Why do you care so much about me? How are you so sure he doesn’t hate me?!” I clinched my fists in my lap.

She smiled and wrapped her hands around mine. “Do you know that he has never let any of the girls, he‘s been with, go anywhere near his house? Good Lord, the boy hardly lets us in there so I‘m positive that in one way or another he cares very deeply for you even if its in his very own strange special way.”

“Oh…” I played with the hem of my shirt. “He said something else…”

“What was it?” she reached up and securely tucked my hair behind my ear so it was out of my face.

“he said that he killed her… that he killed his mom.”

“Hhmm, kids say the darnedest things, don’t they?”

“So it’s true?”

“Technically, yes,” she checked her watch and sighed. “Maybe, I should tell you a little story, Kagome. However, sadly, I have a meeting I need to go to that I can’t get out of very soon. Can you do lunch, tomorrow?”

Looking around the desk I sighed. “Actually, I’m officially done with the job and I have free time, tomorrow so sure why not?”

“Who said ‘you were done?’ ” she stood up and stretched. “Do you own a digital camera?”

“… Camera?”