InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Love is a Lie ❯ Welling's Escort Service ( Chapter 1 )

Sango looked nervously at her watch while she sat on the barstool in her apartment kitchen. Her hands quivered as she held the short glass of liquor in her hand, realizing the she only had two hours before she needed to leave for the airport. There wasn't enough alcohol in the world to soothe her nerves right now. Nonetheless, she took another gulp of her Jack Daniel's and hoped that it would calm her. Feeling the burning sensation in her throat made her want to gag but she endured it all the same.

 

Her old friend Kagome had called just weeks before to inform her of tremendous news.

 

“Inuyasha and I are getting married, Sango!” she squealed over the phone. So much so that Sango had to pull the phone away from her ear for a moment to stand the volume.

 

“Oh my god, you're getting married?!” she replied in surprise. “Oh my god!”

 

Kagome and Inuyasha had been high school sweethearts, dating since back when the three of them were all teenagers. It had been Kagome's dream since they started dating that they get married in the Higurashi family shrine. She had originally wanted her grandfather to marry them, but not only had he passed away just a few years ago but he wouldn't have legally been allowed to do that anyway. Now Kagome was having her girlhood wish granted and even her silence was oozing with joy.

 

“I know!” Kagome shrieked. Then with a tinge of nervousness in her voice she said, “We're having the wedding at the end of August. Holy shit, it feels so close!”

 

“It is. That's barely six weeks away!” Sango commented. “How come you never told me sooner?”

 

“No offense Sango, but you never were exactly the type who would get excited about this right away. You weren't even that happy when Inuyasha and I started dating. Not only that, do you know how expensive this phone call is costing me? Calling you in California ain't cheep, you know?” Kagome said playfully.

 

Kagome meant it as only teasing, but Sango took the comment about how she would normally react as a bit of a harsh blow. Sure, Sango wasn't exactly the most romantic woman who ever lived, but she still would have liked to know this kind of news right away. Although, she wouldn't have been jumping up and down screaming with delight like Kagome probably would. Sango never really got that excited about love.

 

“So if you weren't coming to me to gush, what is it that you want?” asked Sango a little peevishly.

 

“Why else? I want you to come to the wedding!”

 

“…Wh-what?” Sango stuttered after a short pause.

 

“I want you to come to Tokyo to be my maid of honor in the wedding!”

 

“Kagome,” Sango began. “I can't just pack up and leave for days at a time. I have a job at the office that requires a lot of my time. I couldn't take more than three days off. And besides, I really need the money. I'm sorry, but I really can't.”

 

This, of course, was slightly a lie. Sango did have an important position as vice president at her company that demanded nearly all of her time and effort to manage. However, she was doing quite well for herself and could have afforded a week or two off from work. She realized afterwards that she probably needed it. Despite all that, Sango was willing to say anything if it meant she didn't have to return home.

 

“Don't you get two weeks vacation or something like that? Can't you use that now?” Kagome pleaded. “I get married once in my whole life… hopefully. But I want you to be there. You were there when it all started and I want you to be here now. It would mean a whole lot to me if I could have you here for this, like old times. Not to mention that I'm going insane with things to worry about and I wouldn't mind if you came here and helped me with a few last minute details.”

 

“How am I supposed to help?”

 

“You're Super Business Woman. You'll find a way for things to run smoothly,” Kagome said with the deepest feeling of assurance. “And this would be a great excuse for you to bring your boyfriend along for some relaxation time together. Maybe I'll finally get o meet this mystery man. You guys are still going out, right?”

 

Sango froze instantly at the mention of her so-called “boyfriend.” Her made-up boyfriend whom she came up with to shake off those lectures from her family about waiting too long to get married, or the questions from friends about why she didn't have a relationship yet. She kept his profile very simple: They had met at the office right before he relocated to another company building across town. They went out occasionally but Sango claimed that they weren't that serious so she wasn't going to tell more than that. His name was never mentioned and he was simply referred to as “the boyfriend.” Sango, being a private kind of person, wasn't acting at all out of character when she wouldn't tell much. Still, the thought of Sango having a man in her life was enough to silence the love advice and probing questions coming from friends and family. Sango supposed that they were just waiting for her to come around and tell them everything eventually, like she always did.

 

But now that this boyfriend subject had surfaced, it was inevitable that Kagome would invite him as well. Not to mention that Sango's loved ones were probably getting sick of knowing practically nothing about him for almost six months.

 

“My boyfriend?” Sango repeated shakily. “He might not be able to tear himself away from work. Besides, I'm not going to make him pay for a trip to Japan to go the wedding of someone he doesn't even know. Seems a bit rude, don't you think?”

 

“Not a problem. I was going to offer to pay for your trip anyway. And you could stay in your parents' house while you were visiting,” Kagome suggested. “That should work out, right?”

 

“Sure, I guess I could stomach my parents for a little while.”

 

“Great! Now, I just need to arrange the plane tickets for you two.”

 

“Who said I was bringing my boyfriend?” Sango interrupted.

 

“Well, I assumed that since money and a place to stay were covered, then he should be able to get out of work just as easily as you. So what's the problem?” said Kagome in innocent confusion.

 

“Just… just plan on one ticket for now. I'll let you know if I'll need another one,” said Sango, trying to sound like she was being polite rather than refusing.

 

“Whatever works. I sent you a formal invitation some time ago so you should be getting it soon. I added some extra information for you since it's been so long since you left for the states. Call me later if you need to. Or want to, for that matter. Sayonara.”

 

“Sayonara.”

 

Now here Sango was, just hours before her flight to Japan and was coming unglued with the nerve-racking thought that she was coming back home. She held the lacey wedding invitation and turned it over in her hand to study it.

 

To Sango Taijiya and Guest,

You are cordially invited to the wedding of Inuyashaand Kagome Higurashi

On August 27, 2006

Formal attire is required

Please RSVP by July 1, 2006

 

Sango chuckled when she read the RSVP date. The invitation must have taken longer than expected to get here so it didn't arrive until the end of July.

 

“Back to Mom and Dad, and Kohaku,” she mumbled to herself. Her little brother Kohaku she would have loved to see, if it weren't that her parents would be there too. During high school and college, there was a wide rift between Sango and her parents. They never fought or yelled, but there was the way they spoke between the lines that made even a compliment have a snide remark laced in with it. Then Sango pitifully said, “I hope I can stomach my parents for that long.”

 

Autumn, her friend and roommate, walked in just to see Sango toss down the rest of the drink in her mouth then pound the glass onto the bar-like counter with a resounding “clang.”

 

“Sango, I've never seen you drink so much before. How bad can this trip possibly be?” she asked as she leaned against the counter across from her friend.

 

“It's been six years since I've been home. I wish I could have stayed away longer,” Sango answered sluggishly.

 

“Well don't drink yourself silly,” Autumn commanded and then took the bottle of alcohol off the counter and put it away. “I thought you said you had some great memories from when you were back in Tokyo.”

 

“I did. But there were enough bad ones to make me want to leave. The moment I was offered the job here in LA, I jumped at the chance to… to escape. You don't know my family like I do, Autumn. They're fine on the outside and they're polite when you first meet them, but my mother and father weren't the kind of parents who encouraged you with what you were doing, you know?” Sango said. She was just slightly inebriated but not enough to make her drunk. Still, she rambled on about how much she hated visiting her family and didn't even seem to notice the time.

 

Fortunately, Autumn glanced over to realize that it was about that time to leave for the airport. When she looked back over to her brunette friend, she demanded that Sango go back into the bathroom and fix herself up.

 

“You look like you just rolled out of bed… in a suit,” she said laughing. “Fix your make up and your hair but splash some cold water on your face to sober you up a little first. I don't want you missing your flight because you're tipsy.”

 

“Well I wouldn't mind missing it because I was tipsy.”

 

“Just hurry up and then we'll go.” Autumn quickly grabbed her car keys

 

“Thanks for taking me to the airport,” Sango called from the bathroom.

 

“Not a problem. I just wish you were a little more willing.”

 

“I'm just anxious about what's going to happen when I get there.”

 

“What's that supposed to mean? That's not going to chop you up and eat you,” Autumn said jokingly.

 

“No, it's not that,” Sango said. She cupped her hands under the running water of the faucet, shivering for the first moment at how cold it was, and then brought it up to her face. She did this another time before answering. “Everyone there is going to want to meet `the boyfriend.'”

 

“What boyfriend?”

 

“I told them all that I'd been seeing a co-worker for a while and Kagome's asked that I bring him with me.”

 

“What are you going to tell them when you show up alone?” Autumn asked as she stepped into the open doorway to the bathroom. It was so late at night that even her blonde, curly hair was starting to frizz from her hectic day.

 

Sango looked up into the mirror and watched the water drip down her face and back into the sink then answered, “I'm not sure. I'll just have to tell them he couldn't make it.”

 

“That's so lame. Eventually they're going to figure it out that you've been spewing lies about this guy you're supposed to be dating.”

 

“What else am I supposed to do? I can't materialize a man between now and the plane trip and there's no one I can bring to pretend to be my boyfriend.”

 

There was a short silence between the two as Sango dried off her face and starting applying her make up again.

 

Autumn thought in the back of her mind about the time her sister had a male escort to her senior prom. The girl wasn't exactly very popular with guys at the time. He drove her there, danced with her, and did everything a date was supposed to do. Of course she had to pay him, but it was worth all the fun she had that night. With a sly smile, Autumn suggested it.

 

“What??” Sango exclaimed as she almost poked herself in the eye with her mascara wand. “I'm not going to hire someone to help me lie. I can do it myself for free.”

 

“Sango, if you want to make everyone believe that you're not a total phony then you'll have to work a little. I know of this agency that can lend you a guy for a while and he'll do whatever you want. My sister had one and it worked out great!”

 

“Autumn, it's like hiring a hooker. Yes, they'll do whatever you want for the right price but how demeaning that would be for me. Maybe I'll just tell everyone we broke up.”

 

“Right before you came? Doesn't that seem a little convenient?” Autumn pointed out. Sango smacked her lips together as she finished her lipstick and knew that she was right. It was just a little suspicious that right before he came to meet everyone, he disappeared from Sango's life. Someone would be smart enough to understand what as going on. And the last thing Sango wanted was to be humiliated in front of everyone by being called a liar. Not that she wasn't, though.

 

Sango sighed in frustration. “Why can't they accept that I don't need a man? I don't want a man!”

 

“The Japanese are people of tradition. You've told me this a thousand times before. They're always old-fashioned. And you being the man-hater that you are probably scares them. They probably think you're a lesbian, living in sin with your secret female lover.”

 

“What?! I'm not a lesbian!”

 

“Well then prove that to them. They mean well, I'm sure you know that.”

 

“They probably do, but the cause doesn't justify the action.”

 

“Just like you're need to please them doesn't justify you lying to them.”

 

“God, you make me sound like such a bitch,” Sango said irritably. Autumn shook her head and rolled her eyes before walking out of the bathroom.

 

“Just meet me in the car. I'll grab you're suitcase on my way out. We need to get going,” she said.

 

For a few moments after Autumn left, Sango watched herself in the mirror as she gathered her hair up to put it into a loose ponytail. Here she was, a successful, twenty-eight year-old woman with everything she'd ever wanted. Things were going perfectly, even without a relationship. Then when she looked a little closer, she saw a liar who ignores her family and turned her back on everything she'd been taught growing up. And if she turned up at the wedding without a boyfriend, that's how everyone else would see her too.

 

“I can't let them down,” she whispered. She marched out of the bathroom and carried her briefcase and laptop out the door to meet Autumn a few levels below in the parking lot.

 

The car ride there was practically silent apart from the sound of rain beating down on the windshield. Both of the women just stared straight ahead at the road and watched the flickering red lights of the cars in front of them through blurry vision. Traffic was bad and Sango was growing more and more anxious about missing her flight. Finally, she spoke.

 

“Do you think we'll get there in time?” she asked fretfully. “I know I said I don't want to go, but I'd hate missing the flight and costing Kagome all that money for nothing.”

 

“We'll make it. You might have to power walk to your gate, but you'll get there in time,” answered Autumn.

 

Another silence followed and made the air in the car almost feel thick with uneasiness.

 

Sango shifted in her seat and pulled her cell phone out of her purse. She flipped it open and checked her messages incase someone had called. Of course, she hadn't expected a call but was just trying to find something to do. She knew she had to ask Autumn for the agency number but would feel a bit foolish for asking for the number just an hour or so after she so harshly rejected it. Sango was a person who highly valued her pride. To humble herself and show that she was wrong was proving a little difficult.

 

When they arrived at the airport, Autumn pulled the car up to the unloading area and turned to Sango to hug her goodbye. Her friend gladly returned it and jumped out of the car to pull her baggage out of the trunk before one of the security guards hurried them along. Just before she started walking inside, Sango dashed to the car and threw open the door.

 

“I need the number!” she cried with her eyes squeezed shut, expecting Autumn to take this chance to tell her off. The blonde gave a smug smile and pulled out a ripped off corner of paper with a 1-800 number written on it. Apparently she was expecting this to happen.

 

“I was wondering how long it was going to take you,” she said knowingly. Sango snatched it away and stowed it in her pin-stripe suit pocket. “Have a good flight. And call me later to tell me when you're return flight is coming in.”

 

“I will,” promised Sango with a smile. “Bye.”

 

With that, Sango pushed the door shut and hurried inside with her bags. Thankfully, the eaves of the airport shielded her from the heavy rain as she entered.

 

After waiting very impatiently in line to grab her ticket and drop off her checked bags, she raced to her gate and prayed that they hadn't taken off yet. When she looked at her expensive silver watch she gasped and started running faster, not caring who was staring at her. She was already twenty minutes late.

 

At long last, she approached her gate and smiled with relief to see a group of people still waiting outside of it.

 

“They didn't leave yet,” she breathed. It wasn't until she looked out the giant glass window that she realized how hard it was storming and reasoned that the flight was probably delayed because of weather. Silently thanking the grey storm clouds, she took a seat next to a slightly older man to wait. She was panting from her sprint to the gate and the man peeked over for a second and gave Sango a good look up and down. Noticing this, she fixed her jacket gave him an icy glare until he looked away.

 

“I'm not a piece of meat,” she thought angrily. Sango knew she was attractive but still detested men who looked at her longingly.

 

Then she remembered the number stuffed in her pocket. She would need to call that soon.

 

She very politely stood up and asked the flight attendant in front of her gate how long the plane was to be delayed. The woman answered that it could be delayed up to another hour depending on how quickly the sky clears up.

 

“Now would be a good time to call this agency up,” she thought. Flashing a quick smile and thanking the lady, Sango returned to her seat to find her cell phone. “Better now than later. Let's get this over with.”

 

She strutted over to the restroom entrances where she could keep an eye on her carry-on bags and get out of earshot of most people. Even though she didn't know a single person there, she felt embarrassed about what she was going to do.

 

Carefully punching the numbers into her phone, her hands shook and her heart beat quickened with apprehensiveness. She had to take a few deep breaths to calm herself down.

 

“Welling's Escort Service. This is Cynthia, how may I help you?”

 

Sango swallowed the knot in her throat and spoke. Putting on her business voice she replied, “Hello, Cynthia. My name is Sango Taijiya. I need a male escort for a wedding.”

 

“Well, Ms. Taijiya, how long would you be needing him for?” said Cynthia in a very practiced voice. This sense of professionalism put Sango a little more at ease. She felt less like she was ordering a whore and more like she was making a business transaction.

 

“Approximately two weeks,” Sango said coolly. Maybe this wasn't going to be as hard as she thought.

 

“My, that's a long time. And when would you like him to arrive?”

 

“As soon as possible. I'm taking a trip to Tokyo and I need to him meet me there.”

 

“That can be arranged. It will cost extra, though.”

 

“I don't care about the price.”

 

“Wonderful! The only thing I'll need to you to do is visit our website and fill out the form online. Our website is www.welling-escorts.com. After that, we'll have an employee give you a call and you can have a short little phone interview with him. Sound alright?”

 

“Sounds fine. Thank you, Cynthia.”

 

“My pleasure, ma'am. Goodbye.”

 

Sango snapped her cell phone closed and smiled as she sighed with relief. Obviously this was not some shady, street-corner business. Everything was perfectly planned out and it took a huge weight off Sango's shoulders to know this agency was properly conducted.

 

When she returned to her seat, the man that was sitting next to her had moved and she was relatively alone.

 

“I need to get this done before I get to Japan,” she silently decided. With that in mind, she pulled out her laptop and powered it on.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Author's Note: How do you guys like it so far? It's been a long time since I wrote an Inuyasha fanfic so I'm a little rusty. And I know that this idea had probably been done to death, but Sango and Miroku are my favorite pairing and I jumped at the chance to write this when the idea came to mind. Review and tell me what you thought of it!! ~ Monkey Sprite