InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Love's Smirking Revenge ❯ Secret's Out ( Chapter 8 )

Love's Smirking Revenge

- Chapter Eight -

Secret's Out

“Ugh! What a day!”

The punctuated slam of her front door echoed through Kagome's otherwise quiet apartment. With a defeated sigh she deposited the mail and her house keys onto her kitchen counter and set her bags down on the floor. After a quick, disinterested glance at the pile of bills in front of her, she braced her hands on either side of the sink and took a moment to just breathe.

Describing it as a day from Hell would be an understatement. One of her key sources for the senator piece had utterly screwed her over. The bastard came down with a sudden case of amnesia right before the deadline for the piece, meaning he was paid enough money to keep his mouth shut. On top of that, her Editor was on her ass about the construction workers' union strike piece that was sitting half-finished on her desk. And, as if that wasn't bad enough, her favourite pair of Manolos had snapped a heel!

Slipping the offending shoe off her foot, she narrowed her eyes at the stub where a graceful stiletto had once been. If she hadn't lost the damn thing down a sewer grate she would've kept it and had it re-attached somehow, but without the heel her favourite pair of shoes was history. With a frown she tossed the ¥60,000 red suede pump into the sink and swallowed the lump that'd formed in her throat.

It couldn't be helped. She pulled open the cutlery drawer, perused its contents for a moment and snatched up the biggest spoon she could find. When you had a day as bad as this one, there was only one thing that could make it better - Häagen-Dazs. Popping open the freezer she extracted her emergency tub of “Triple Brownie Overload”, slipped off the lid and plunged the spoon inside.

Bringing a rather large helping to her lips she actually groaned with delight as the smooth chocolate ran over her tongue and her teeth sank into a chewy brownie morsel. The near-orgasmic moment was ruined by a wayward thought of the Detective that obstinately drifted into her mind.

I thought we agreed we weren't going to think about him anymore? she chided herself.

She glanced at the calendar thoughtfully. It'd been a couple of weeks since her disastrous breakfast date with Kouga. With work so busy she'd hardly noticed how much time had gone by. It wasn't like she expected to hear from the Detective, it was just…well…she didn't know what. It felt unfinished, like everything had been left hanging.

She stared unseeingly at the floor, lost to her own thoughts with the spoon hanging out of her mouth. Letting out a sigh, she scooped out another generous helping from the tub. Just as it began to melt deliciously on her tongue, there was an untimely knock at the door. Cursing silently, she abandoned the ice cream and made her way to the door.

About two paces away she remembered why exactly it was that you weren't supposed to eat ice cream that fast. Pressing a hand to her forehead she winced as the cold sent a hard ache into her right temple. With one eye squeezed shut she opened the door to see the Detective standing with his hands in his pockets on the other side. Stunned into silence she froze with her hand against braced the doorframe and simply stared at him.

“You okay?” His brows drew up in surprise at her screwed up face.

Mortified, she waved his question off with a flip of her hand, “Nothing. I'm fine. What are you doing here?”

Now that the pain was mercifully receding, she was able to regain her composure. She narrowed her gaze at him and crossed her arms expectantly in front of her chest.

It wasn't that she was upset that he'd mysteriously shown up at her door at eleven o'clock at night, but when a man has shafted you, the first time you see him again you want to look your best. She looked, well, tired would be one way of putting it. With her hair tousled around her head from running her hands through it, one red suede heel mysteriously missing and day old make up on she wasn't exactly looking her best.

Letting out a sigh, she stepped back from the door and motioned for him to step inside; no sense making him wait out in the hall. Retreating to the kitchen, she caught the way his eyebrows raised at the tub of Triple Brownie Overload on the counter. The spoon sticking upright out of the center was a tell tale sign that she'd been gorging and she hurried to put it away.

“You didn't answer my question,” she pointed out as she closed the freezer door. Turning hesitantly towards him, she noticed how he was leaning casually against her counter yet his eyes were glued to the floor. Her lips pursed as she waited for an answer and after another moment of tense silence she let out a frustrated sigh.

“Takahashi, what are you doing here? You can't just come to my apartment in the middle of the night and-”

“Inuyasha.” He cut her words off so abruptly that her voice faltered and she was left blinking at him in confusion.

“Sorry, what?”

He shifted uncomfortably and repositioned himself against the counter. “You don't gotta call me Takahashi, Inuyasha's fine.”

“Oh,” was Kagome's startled response. She hadn't expected that. So he was willing to move to the familiars then? It was a surprise, but then he never seemed to do what she expected.

“Alright Inuyasha,” she said, testing the name on her tongue, “in that case call me Kagome.” He nodded his head subtly and lifted his gaze to meet hers.

When his rough voice emerged to say, “Alright…Kagome,” she felt her knees weaken and abruptly turned away from the pair of golden eyes that were burning into her. She busied herself wiping down her already clean counter, hoping that if she busy the sexual tension would magically dissipate.

“So, Inuyasha, what brings you to my apartment in the middle of the night?”

He gently cleared his suddenly dry throat and scrambled for an answer. He didn't even know for himself what he was doing here. He'd been out driving aimlessly, just circling around the city with no direction or destination and yet somehow he'd ended up in front of her apartment. He'd sat in the car for forty minutes trying to decide whether to go up or not.

He'd seen her come home and watched her climb the three flights of stairs to her door. Before he knew it he was standing in the hall, staring at her hunter green painted door, and asking himself what the hell he thought he was doing.

He'd been tempted to walk away and go back to his car, pretend like it'd never happened and deny that he'd ever been there at all, but his body wouldn't let him. With a will of its own, his hand had lifted and rapped against her door. His heart hammering, he'd waited nervously for her to answer while his fists clenched inside his pockets.

Now that he was here, standing in her kitchen and watching her discretely from beneath the brim of his hat, he knew that there was nowhere else to go. It was now or never. Either he gave in and trusted her or he walked away, and he needed to trust her. He hadn't trusted anyone in so long, hardly before Kikyou and certainly not since her. If he couldn't trust the woman standing in front of him, he'd never trust anyone and he wasn't sure he wanted to live in that kind of future.

“I'm not going to even bother asking how you got my address,” she added, shooting a suspicious glance in his direction.

“Tax returns,” he offered.

“You're here about tax returns?”

His face screwed up and he shook his head. “Hell no. It's how I found your address. I'm here `cause I've got a question I want answered.”

She lifted a brow expectantly and he pressed forward. “Why didn't you do it?”

“Do what?”

“You've got enough dirt on me by now to write three articles and you haven't written one. What's stopping you?”

Not sure how to respond, she rested her back against the counter and mulled it over.

“Dunno,” she confessed with a shrug. “You're a first rate asshole who exercises poor judgement, but that doesn't make you worthy of public castration. With Kikyou you were misguided by good intentions and screwed up. It happens. We're human, Inuyasha, we all make mistakes.”

He smiled at the irony of her words, but she didn't let that dissuade her. Pulling in a deep breath she added, “While most people find a way to move on, you can't seem to get past it and keep punishing yourself for something that was out of your hands. I thought, given the circumstances, I should cut you some slack.”

He crossed his arms in front of his chest and kept his eyes fixed on the floor. She wasn't sure if he heard the truth behind her words, but a part of her hoped he was absorbing some of it.

“Thanks,” he said sincerely. “I appreciate it.”

“Yeah, anytime. You know, you could always pay me back by telling me that big bad secret of yours,” she teased lightly, only half-serious.

She felt rather than heard him sigh by the way the tension in the room suddenly magnified tenfold.

“Depends,” he said softly. “Can I trust you not to freak out?”

Utterly confused, she hesitantly promised to keep her cool.

“Do you want to sit down?” she offered, seeing the way his shoulders had tensed until they were hunched nearly to his ears.

He shot her a grateful look and hastily settled in at her quaint dining table. It was just a small polished oak table, really only big enough for two, but it suited their purposes fine. His fingers thrummed anxiously atop the wood until he had the sense to bury them deep within his coat pockets.

Kagome pulled her chair closer to his and fixed him with a curious but expectant look. What exactly did he have to tell her that would have her `freaking out'? Her momentary curiosity quashed any anxiety and she eagerly waited for the truth.

“Do you want some tea? Coffee, maybe? I can make some,” she offered, hoping to make it easier for him.

Glancing up at her he quickly dropped his gaze again and shook his head “No.”

With a quiet sigh, she settled back down atop her chair and waited. Patience had never been one of her stronger virtues. She just hoped that whatever this secret of his was, it was worth the wait.

He cleared his throat and exhaled an explosive sigh, then muttered, “I'm a hanyou.”

A hanyou? She remained silent while she studied his tense posture and the way his hand clenched into a death grip atop the table. Her brows knit together as she wondered how bad this “hanyou” thing could possibly be.

“Is that some kind of fetish or something? `Cause you know I might be okay with that depending on what it is. One time I dated this guy who had a thing for feet and-…”

Seeing the stunned look that crossed his facem her voice trailed off and she suffered an embarrassed smile. “Sorry,” she confessed, “I don't know what a `hanyou' is.”

For a moment she was certain she almost saw a smile tug at one corner of his mouth but it was gone in an instant and he was stone faced once more.

“It's not a fetish,” he reassured her. “A hanyou is… Well… I'm a half demon. A half dog demon if you wanna get specific about it.” Of all the reactions he'd been expecting, the one he got wasn't one he'd been prepared for.

After a moment of silence Kagome burst into hysterical laughter. Her face turned bright red and she buried it in her arms atop the table, snorting and chuckling away until her sides ached too much to go on. When the giddy laughter began to subside she looked up at him, her chuckles dying slowly away as she wiped the tears of mirth from her eyes. The broad smile on her face faded when she saw that he hadn't even cracked a smile.

“Oh. You're serious?” she asked in disbelief, her eyes growing wide as they panned down his body. He looked normal enough, what did he mean he was a half demon? Why was it such a big secret? The way he described it she half expected him to turn into a dog that very moment, but there sat there looking just as normal as you please.

Apparently he didn't see the humour in the situation. Shooting her a heated glare he muttered, “Nevermind. Forget it.” and made a move to stand.

Her hand shot out and latched on to his arm, halting his retreat. “I'm sorry. I really am. I didn't mean to offend you.” Her eyes stared up into his apologetically and she felt him waver.

“Are hanyou common? I've never heard of them before,” she wondered, hoping to draw him back.

“No.” The ire was still in his voice, but he relented and sat back down at the table.

“You look human,” she offered, her eyes panning across his rather normal looking frame. There were no distinguishing features that she could see at least. For all she knew, he was some whack job who was totally full of shit and had convinced himself he was half demon, like those people who insisted they were real life vampires.

“I'm not,” was his curt reply. He still refused to look at her, choosing instead to fix his gaze on her array of fridge magnets. Frowning, Kagome realized that the only way they were going to make any progress was if she got her hands dirty.

She got to her feet and stepped purposefully towards him. He looked up just as she straddled his thighs and settled herself atop his lap. He couldn't ignore her like this, and he didn't. His hands grabbed hold of her hips and held her in place against him. They squeezed her gently and she liked the feel of their damp warmth through the fabric of her skirt.

“Please show me.” Her voice was barely above a whisper, but in the silence of her apartment, with no noise but for the humming of the refrigerator, he heard her just fine.

“My hat. Take it off,” he instructed, just as softly.

A smile slipped across her lips as she realized that she was finally going to see what was beneath the mysterious fedora he insisted on wearing. He kept his eyes lowered as her hands went to his hat and gingerly peeled it off his head.

She wasn't sure what she'd expected to find beneath it, but when she was greeted by two fuzzy, white triangles shaped like dog ears twitching towards her, all she could do was blink. Discarding his hat on the table, she reached out a tentative hand and grazed her fingertip along one ear's soft edge. It twitched under her touch and a wide grin spread across her face.

They were adorable! She wasn't going to say that out loud of course. He'd just shared his biggest secret with her after all, and it wouldn't be prudent to demean his masculinity with cheers of “KAWAII!” so she kept mum and satisfied herself with teasing them and watching them twitch beneath her touch.

“Are they sensitive?” she asked tentatively, not sure how comfortable he was talking about them.

“Very.” His voice was hard. He sounded annoyed, most likely from her playing with his ears, but she felt his body relax beneath her nonetheless. He may be annoyed with her curiosity but apparently her reaction, or lack thereof, had soothed his frayed nerves.

“I love them,” she reassured him, her tone sincere.

She pulled back just far enough to hold his gaze and smiled encouragingly. The breath he'd been holding escaped him in a whoosh and a hesitant smile crept across his lips.

Without a word, he snaked his fingers into her hair and gently pulled her down for a kiss. His lips lingered over hers, taking their time, devouring her slowly. She let him, enjoying the unhurried pace. The kiss they'd shared in the elevator and this one were two entirely different beasts. He wasn't fighting her this time, or holding back. She could feel the want behind his touch, his need for closeness and the desire to connect with someone she understood all too well. In the end, they weren't so different.

His lips ghosted down the column of her throat, pressing soft, haphazard kisses as they went. She closed her eyes and slid her hands over the smooth, rounded muscles of his shoulders before slipping them around his neck.

“Let's go to my room,” she whispered suggestively into his ear.

There was no need to ask twice. The words had barely left her lips and he was on his feet with her legs wrapped round his waist. He was halfway down the hall to her room before he came to an abrupt halt and pushed her back against the wall. His eyes travelled over her flushed features, looking carefully for signs of hesitation.

“You sure about this?” he asked with uncertainty. He looked as though he expected her to find the idea of sleeping with a hanyou repulsive. Instead she tightened her legs around his waist and wore a playful grin. Teasingly shaking her head side to side, she answered, “Absolutely.”

His smile was shy and fleeting, but she managed to catch a glimpse of it before his lips found hers and he pulled them away from the wall. There was no going back now, and neither of them were in any position to argue.