InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Love's Smirking Revenge ❯ Getting Down to Business (Part 2) ( Chapter 6 )

Love's Smirking Revenge

- Chapter Six -

Getting Down to Business II

Kagome watched the Detective's jaw work overtime as he made quick work of the apple she'd retrieved from her purse. He finished it in exactly six bites and then tossed the core into the far corner of the elevator. Settling back against the wall, he let out a sizeable belch and pulled his hat down to cover his eyes.

“So…,” she prodded, making little attempt to veil her disgust at his lack of propriety, “tell me about her.”

For a long while he said nothing, long enough that she began to doubt if he was going to say anything. Then he drew a long breath and slowly let it out.

“Six years ago I got a case thrown at me. I was fresh up from the streets and really wanted to prove myself, ya know? So I dove right in. Thought I could save the goddamn world back then…”

His tone was broken and for the first time she felt a twinge of pity for the dishevelled man sitting across from her. He'd been good once and then reality had happened, life had happened, and this was what he'd become - jaded, useless and not much good to anyone.

“The vic's name was Hachiro Inokuma,” he continued matter-of-factly. “He owed money to some loan sharks…had a bit of a gambling problem…so they came after him. Only they didn't kill him. They got him to kill some other guy to settle his debt. Problem was the guy he killed was the son of some big yakuza boss.”

Realizing that a digression was probably in order, Inuyasha pushed up the brim of his hat and leaned forward. Using his hands for emphasis, he attempted to explain the intricacies of the yakuza's code of conduct.

“When you go after the Boss's family everything gets personal. That's just the way it works in their world. But the poor bastard didn't know he was taking out a Boss's kid. So he did what he was told and found himself with a gold plated .38 in his skull a few weeks later.”

He paused again, just to be sure she was following along (he didn't want to answer any of her annoying questions about it later) and when she nodded her head understandingly he settled back against the wall and returned to his story.

“To me this was just another case. As far as I knew he didn't have any family or nothin' so it was a case closed sort of deal. Generally when we know it's yaks we sort of leave it alone. They take care of each other and keep the streets clear of rowdy thugs. It's like an unwritten understanding between us and them. It sounds shady but that's just the way it works around here. It's the way things have always been.”

“So here I'm thinking the Inokuma case is a done deal. I'm all set to move on to my next order of business when this broad walks into my office.”

“Kikyou?” Kagome interjected and he nodded his head.

“Yeah. Said her name was Kikyou and she'd heard I was working her father's case. So I start asking where she's been since Inokuma's records don't say anything about him having a daughter. That's when she tells me that she's his illegitimate daughter. Turns out she lived with her mother up in Hokkaido her whole life.”

“Now you gotta understand yak mentality,” he said pointedly, digressing from his original train of thought once more. “It's an eye for an eye sort of world. If they found out Inokuma had a daughter they'd kill her too, just on principle. So I had to protect her.”

Kagome raised an eyebrow at that. “Did you…?”

The Detective averted her gaze. “It wasn't like that,” he muttered with little conviction. “She needed someone to protect her so I did. I promised her I wouldn't let anything happen to her.”

“But there was something more between you two, wasn't there? Doesn't that kind of go against the rules?” Her instincts as a reporter were finally beginning to kick in. She felt a twinge of guilt at consciously digging for more dirt, but she couldn't help it. She had to know.

The Detective sighed in frustration and gave her a scathing look. “Of course it's against the rules. We're never supposed to get involved with vics or their immediate family members. `Company policy'.”

He emphasized what he thought of that particular policy with a flippant wave of his hand. “But I'm not a damn robot. I know a beautiful girl when I see one. What man wouldn't be tempted by her? Especially when she was practically begging me to come over to her place and keep her company, if you know what I mean.”

Sure, whatever you say, Stud, Kagome remarked dryly to herself. Sometimes his arrogance was just a bit much. “So you fucked her. What happened next?”

The Detective blinked in surprise at her choice of words. She raised her eyebrows at him expectantly and he quickly looked away. He went quiet again before answering, “They got to her. I swore I'd protect her and those bastards got her anyway.”

He clenched his hand into an angry fist and rammed it hard against the carpeted floor. The shockwaves reverberating through the floor and she gave him a sympathetic look. It was obvious that he blamed himself for her death. No wonder he didn't want to talk about it.

“So you've spent the last five years trying to figure out which one of them did it?”

He nodded, mute. He didn't want to talk anymore. He just wanted to sit and do his damndest not to remember. It was near impossible on a good day when he had distractions and the drink to keep his thoughts busy. Bringing it all up like this…

“I'm sorry...”

He looked up at that. The girl was staring at the floor, nervously biting at her lip. She glanced up at him hesitantly from beneath her lashes then quickly dropped her gaze away.

“Nevermind… Just… I'm sorry.”

He grunted a response, not too sure what to make of her. Where had the firecracker journalist gone? The one who liked to bust his balls for anything and everything? He'd expected her to come out swinging for not doing his job, or for getting involved with Kikyou in the first place. Hell, if he'd done his job she'd still be alive.

A sudden tremor unexpectedly shook the elevator, rattling them in their metal prison. It died off quickly, with a few lingering rumbles, but that minor shake had been enough of a shock to increase the tension in the air tenfold. Inuyasha took in the reporter's tense body and the way her hand was wrapped so tightly around the brass bar above her head that her knuckles showed white beneath her skin. The smell of her fear spiked with each subsequent aftershock and though its bitter tang clung heavily to the back of his throat, he found it strangely exciting.

Fear was similar to arousal in so many ways he was certain his brain sometimes got the two confused. Realizing that his eyes had lingered for far too long on the way the damp silk of this reporter's shirt clung shamelessly to her pronounced curves, the Detective shook his head and reluctantly averted his gaze.

Resting his head back against the wall, he debated whether to sleep. It could be hours before they were rescued, or only a matter of minutes. He briefly considered the idea of staying awake and talking to the girl, but quickly decided against it. He'd gone far enough down memory lane as it was and he wasn't eager for another trip.

As his eyes slowly drifted closed he thought to himself that he didn't need anyone else complicating his life. Much less a nosy, irritating, whiney, no good…

“Takahashi?”

Her voice was barely a whisper and the sound forced his eyes open. The amber orbs shifted in her direction and he noticed that she was nervously glancing at the sealed doors.

“Do you think we're going to get out of here? I mean it's been a while now and no one's found us yet-” Cutting herself off, she swallowed hard and looked at him imploringly for some kind of reassurance.

Inuyasha's face fell as he studied the troubled expression on hers. She was genuinely scared. The scent of fear was all over her and it irritated him. He liked her better when she was being annoying. It was a whole lot easier to ignore her when she didn't have tears hovering in the corners of her eyes.

Uttering an irritated sound he shrugged and looked away. “Of course we're gonna get out of here. Don't you women have any patience?”

The words had barely left his lips when a sudden storm of anxious fear tore through him. In the space of a heartbeat the elevator was plunged into darkness. A bone jarring quake, stronger than the first, rocked the Asahi Shimbun building. His overly sensitive ears, hidden beneath the confines of his hat, caught the disturbing groan and creak of the wires and joints holding them precariously in place between the eleventh and twelfth floors.

If those wires go…

The loud twang of snapping metal shattered the dead air of the elevator. He barely had time to breathe a curse before his stomach dropped and they were hurtling eleven stories downwards. The emergency breaks screeched hard and long overhead as they rubbed against the slippery cable in a vain attempt to halt the elevator's nasty decent. Inuyasha's ears flattened against his head and he rammed his hands overtop of them in an effort to block out the high pitched squeals and whines from above.

Above the horrific sound of the metal cables grinding against the failing brakes he could hear another that stressed him even more - the reporter's screams. He'd never heard anything more disturbing in his life. She screamed like she knew she was going to die. He realized that he should probably be screaming too, but by the time that thought crossed his mind the elevator had come to a sudden, jerking halt. Their bodies made a sharp impact with the floor, which offered very little in the way of padding beneath the oriental style carpet.

When the breath finally returned to his lungs he groaned and pushed his body upright. The elevator had gone deathly quiet. Thankfully the girl had stopped screaming, but now she wasn't making any sound at all. No whimpers, no annoying questions, no tears…nothing.

“Hey, you okay?” His voice sounded rough to his own ears. They were still ringing from the earlier onslaught and he strained them now to hear through the sudden, impenetrable silence.

As he listened his golden eyes panned the never ending black expanse before him in search of her body. He was certain it was darker now than it'd been when the power first went out. He glared upwards with annoyance at the ceiling lights and cursed them for not turning back on. Like hell he was going to grope his way around in the dark!

“Hey! Higurashi! I asked if you're alright.”

No response. The air around him felt thick and heavy, weighed down by tense anticipation. Anxiety crawled slowly up his spine, the sensation increasing with every passing moment of silence that followed. She was okay wasn't she? It's not like that kind of fall could've killed her or anything…could it?

“Higurashi?”

By now his palms were pressed flat against the carpet, his body ready to crawl through the dark towards her just to be sure. When she still didn't respond he muttered a few choice curses beneath his breath and slowly moved in her general direction.

“You better be dead or dying for making me grope my way through the dark on all fours like some dog,” he muttered bitterly as he placed one palm and then one knee in front of the other.

As he drew closer to where he thought she'd be, the scent of her perfume grew strong in his nose. He pulled it in cautiously, searching for the tell-tale scent of death, but it was nowhere to be found. He sighed with relief. Wait…relief? The broad had certainly thrown him for one hell of a mind fuck. One minute he was thinking of ways to get her to shut up, and the next he was fighting off the fear tickling at the base of his skull at the thought she might be dead.

The heat suddenly became suffocating and he pulled his heavy sweater up over his head and slapped it down against the floor. A breath of cool air washed across his skin and he pulled his damp t-shirt away from his body. How the hell had it gotten so damn hot anyway? Frowning, he crawled two more paces and tentatively dragged his hand across the carpet in front of him until something silky and solid brushed against his fingertips.

Moving carefully, he slid his fingers over what he soon realized was her waist. Following the curve of her body, his hand found its way to her face where his fingers followed the line of her jaw until they found her lips in the dark. Her warm breaths cascaded across his skin in short, rhythmic bursts and he nodded to himself satisfied.

So she was breathing, that was something at least. Had the fall knocked her unconscious then? Or maybe she'd just passed out from the fear. He'd seen it happen before with victims' family members. They'd often get so overwhelmed by everything that they just blacked out. His mouth twisted into a frown at the realization that she could also be seriously hurt.

Resting his weight on his knees he leaned forward and snaked his fingers into her hair. He didn't smell blood, but it was better to be safe than sorry in these types of situations. Pulling loose the knot of hair at the nape of her neck, he ran his fingers over her scalp in search of any hidden lumps or cuts. He tried to block out how nice her silken tresses felt as they ran between and his fingers and focused intently on exploring the contours of her head.

On his second pass he found a rather large bump, right along her hairline near her temple. So she'd hit her head after all. The lump was about the size of a small egg - nothing too serious, though she'd probably have one hell of a headache when she woke up. Realizing that he wouldn't feel right abandoning her again in favour of his spot on the other side of the elevator, he gathered her up and shifted positions until his back was against the wall.

The girl's head felt heavy on his shoulder where it was tucked neatly against the side of his neck. Resting his own head against the wall, he let his muscles melt into the wood. This was turning out to be one hell of a day.

Frowning, he contemplated their dwindling list of options. He could pry the door open and with any luck they'd be in front of one of the other floors, but he doubted it would be that easy. He wasn't even sure he had the strength to move two solid steel doors anyway. All he knew was that they couldn't stay in the suffocating heat of the elevator for much longer. They were slowly running out of fresh oxygen - the air around them already felt stale. In addition to all of that, they hadn't eaten or gone to the bathroom in hours. At least he'd had an apple but the girl hadn't had anything.

“Takahashi?”

Kagome dizzily pushed past the blinding pain in her head. His name felt like it was forced out of her throat and sounded more like a raspy croak than anything intelligible. Cracking her eyes open she was startled to see that everything was dark. As sensation slowly crept back into her limbs, her fingers clawed reflexively into the damp material beneath her hand. She clenched it tight into a fist and clung to it blindly as a terrifying thought raced through her mind.

What if I've gone blind?

She could hear her breaths echoing overloud in her ears as they came hard and fast into her lungs. Panic was slowly taking over, abolishing any normal, logical thoughts from her mind.

“I-I can't see… I can't see!” She burst out suddenly as heavy tears slipped from her eyes and ran down her cheeks. Another minute and she'd be a sobbing, hysterical mess.

“Good God, woman, calm yourself. The lights went out.”

Kagome's mouth dropped open in surprise and with a quiet `huh' she rested her head against its comfortable perch. It was only then that she realized her perch was in fact the Detective's shoulder. She froze and blinked her eyes wide, suddenly vividly aware of how intimately close their bodies were. Her throat swallowed convulsively and the skin of her thigh burned where his hand was wrapped around it.

Her first reaction was to get out of his reach as quickly as possible, but she couldn't bring herself to move. It'd been a long time since anyone had held her this close and if she were perfectly honest it felt rather…nice.

“I was so scared,” she confessed as the throbbing in her head brought her to rest it once more against his shoulder. “I thought we were going to die.”

“Keh. I wouldn't let you die.”

Her brows knit together in confusion at his resolve. This was a new development. Had the Detective's iron exterior finally cracked?

“How's your head?” he asked suddenly, changing the subject.

She prodded the egg sized lump on the side of her head and winced, “Sore.”

“Do you feel dizzy? Nauseous? Anything like that?”

She thought it over and wearily shook her head. “No, but I've got one hell of a headache.”

He seemed satisfied with this and she felt him relax beneath her. “Good. Just don't fall asleep.”

“Why not?”

He sighed impatiently and she felt his gaze on her again. “Because if you've got a concussion you won't wake up again.”

“Oh.”

Her voice fell away and she swallowed down the sudden wave of fear that crashed through her.

“Say, got any more stories you wanna share?” she pleaded, hopeful for a distraction.

“Not particularly.”

She exhaled her disappointment and laid her head back down. The silence that descended on the elevator took on a life of its own, ebbing and flowing like the tide. Beneath her ear she could make out the faint rhythm of the Detective's heartbeat and focused on it a while, counting the beats to keep her mind active. It wasn't until she felt the sharp jolt of his hand shaking her that she realized she'd drifted off.

“Wake up, dammit.”

“I'm awake,” she mumbled, completely disoriented by the pitch black surrounding them.

“I told you not to fall asleep.”

“You won't talk. What else is there for me to do?”

He sighed impatiently. “That ain't my problem. If you don't wanna die, keep your damn eyes open.”

“You said you wouldn't let me die,” she teased, feeling drunk.

“I'm already regretting it.”

“Liar.”

A rueful smile turned up the corners of her mouth as she brought a hand to his face and ran her fingers across the rough stubble along his jaw. She eventually found his lips and heard him swallow as her fingertips brushed overtop of them. Her tongue darted out to wet her lips and she leaned into him ever so slightly.

“Face it, Detective. You want me.”

Without giving him the chance to pull away, she closed the distance between them and found his lips in the dark. They were soft and pliant against hers and she easily teased them into a languid kiss. It was brief, only lasting a moment before he tensed beneath her and pushed her away.

“What the hell!”

He was breathing heavy and his voice sounded rough to his ears. With a hard swallow, he pushed the demanding, insistent animalistic side of his nature into the background and tried to clear his head.

“It was only a kiss,” she shot back, sounding miffed.

It was only a kiss, but it'd left his body hungering for more. It'd been a long time since he'd been this close to a woman and even longer since one had made a move on him. It would figure that the first woman to touch him in years was concussed.

She began to pull away and manoeuvre her legs out of his hold but he held fast, pulling her closer.

“Don't pretend like you didn't like it,” she challenged. He could feel the warmth of her breath against his cheek and closed his eyes to pray for the integrity and self control he knew he lacked.

Her second kiss was entirely different from the first. The first one he hadn't been prepared for, hadn't expected at all, but this one he wanted as badly as he wanted the rest of her. As soon as their lips touched, her fingers clawed into the material of his shirt to pull him closer. He suppressed a moan while her tongue teased his and greedily explored his mouth.

Gods it was like a drug - the more he had the more he wanted. Fully aware that he was going to hell, he let his hands wander over the body he'd been fantasizing about since the day they'd met. His calloused touch drifted up the smooth expanse of her thigh and he gave the lean muscle a gentle squeeze.

She trailed her tongue over the salty film of sweat that coated the skin of his neck and smiled appreciatively at his sudden, quick intake of breath. As soon as her lips drew close, he snaked his fingers through her hair and pulled her mouth to his. With her head swimming she tangled her fingers in his silver tresses, determined to remove that damned hat.

Before she could reach it he brought a hand up out of no where and stole her fingers away from their goal. Bringing them to his mouth, he gently suckled on each one before releasing them and doing the same to her other hand. Not easily dissuaded, she waited only a moment before sending her fingers towards his silver tresses once more. This time he wasn't as gentle. Snatching her hand out of the air, he held her wrist tight.

“Stop,” he demanded, lust making his voice thick.

“What's the big deal? I thought we were having fun…”

When his grip on her wrist didn't loosen her mood quickly died. She tried to wrench her hand from his, but he refused to release it.

“Enough. Fun time's over.”

His voice held a dangerous tone and she could feel his eyes searching hers in the dark. She tried to hold back the cold fear that was spreading through her limbs and tried unsuccessfully to jerk her hand out of his grasp once more.

“Let go. You're hurting me.” Her voice was like ice and quickly cut through whatever passion might've been left hanging in the air from their heated encounter. With an undignified snort he complied and tossed her hand away before unceremoniously dumping her on the floor.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Kagome ranted at the dark figure in front of her. After hearing no response she pushed herself to her feet and stalked to the other side of the elevator.

“Bastard…” she muttered under her breath.

Inuyasha, for his part, was working hard to quell the fire still racing through is veins. He possessed piss poor judgement at the best of times, but this was a new low for him. She was a journalist and journalists couldn't be trusted - he'd learned that lesson enough times to make it stick. Glancing towards the other side of the elevator he listened to her angered huffs and his mouth twisted into a frown. Maybe he'd been a little harsh but if it kept her from trying anything again then it was for the best.

He reconsidered this thought when after three additional hours of sitting in the suffocating heat she still hadn't uttered a word. The anger radiating off her in waves was strong enough for him to sense it, even from where he sat. When at last the massive steel elevator doors were pried open and blinding search lights were flashed into their eyes, the pair let out a unanimous sigh of relief.

Inuyasha's eyes went immediately to Kagome who completely ignored him as she righted herself and stalked out of the elevator with the help of several firefighters on the other side.

“Hey Higurashi!” he called out to her, not sure what else to do. He had a nagging feeling that he should try to fix it. Whatever it was.

Without stopping she yelled a forceful “GO TO HELL!” over her shoulder and stormed out of view.

Inuyasha's dark brows drew low over his eyes and he punched the wall in frustration. Shaking off the helping hands of the rescue crew, he leapt out of the elevator and onto what he later discovered was the sixth floor. One of the firefighters gave him a sympathetic smile as a paramedic checked him over for injuries.

“Hey, don't worry about the girl. We see this kinda thing all the time,” one of the firefighters offered reassuringly. “No one can spend six hours trapped in an elevator without getting a bit cranky. Just give her time and she'll be back to normal.”

Inuyasha nodded absently at the man's well intentioned words of comfort. He knew better. Their surroundings had nothing to do with the reporter's foul mood. Nabbing his sweater and jacket from one of the firefighters, he pulled them over his head and made his way down the stairs to the street.

Relieved to finally be back out in the open, he relished in the chill of the cool air against his skin. He couldn't wait to take a shower, just to get the sweat off of him. He needed to get the scent of her off of him as well. It was starting to get under his skin.

He scanned the street as he put a much needed cigarette to his lips, only realizing after a belated moment that he'd been searching for her ebony hair and lean body. Annoyed at himself, he shook his head to clear it and hailed a cab. Thinking of how close he'd come to giving in and how close she'd come to discovering his secret sent a chill down his spine. It wouldn't happen again, it couldn't.

Resigning himself to forgetting her completely as soon as he got home, he settled himself against the comfortable leather of the cab's back seat and closed his eyes. He was quickly swayed to sleep by the rhythmic rocking of the car as it made its way down the deserted street.