InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Movie House Hanyou ❯ A Hedonistic Storm is Brewing ( Chapter 8 )

The sky churned with a sickening olive-cream hue as Kagome and Kohaku left the Downtown high school and walked along Hennepin Avenue toward her workplace. They were going to see X2: X-Men United, which had come out the Friday before, the 7:15pm showtime.

They had plenty of time to get there, get tickets, and whatnot. To pass the time between being let out from last period and actually leaving for the theater, they stayed in the computer lab and wasted a bunch of time on the internet.

It was violently humid outside, and despite the lack of precipitation, there were distant rumblings of thunder.

As they passed in front of the State Theater and were about to cross the street to reach Shinder's, the winds picked up, causing Kohaku to nearly lose his Vikings cap, which was blown right off his head. He was able to catch it before the cap landed too far into the street and in the path of moving traffic. Then the air turned foggy, and the torrents of rain came down. Their hair became stringy and damp.

"In here, Kagome!" Kohaku yelled as he yanked on her arm to pull her through the outer door, under the corner-like vestibule of Shinder's and then inside the store. Other people ran across the streets and down the sidewalks seeking shelter from the storm, scattered words talking about a funnel cloud that had been forming on the north side of Downtown near the Warehouse District and uncertainty as to whether or not it would touch down. The two teenagers were only slightly soaked from the rain that now pounded into the streets and obscured pedestrians' and drivers' vision alike.

Once she had adjusted to the change in temperature and climate, Kagome looked around at her surroundings. "What kind of place is this?"

She saw lots of newspapers, magazine racks, collectors' cards, comics, candy and snacks out on display in various sections of the store. The harsh weather had caused others in addition to herself and her movie-going guest to come inside. She could tell who else was merely attempting to escape the tornado-like winds and rains just by how soaked or dry his or her clothing was.

"It sells exactly what you see here," he explained. "Sports stuff, books, gaming stuff, newspapers, magazines, comics, related collectibles, sci-fi, fantasy…" he trailed off, feeling odd and a bit out of place to be a guide of some sort.

"And there's even a porn section, which we are completely going to bypass," he added quickly and innocently with a light rush of color to his cheeks and a slight nervousness to his voice while shoving her in the opposite direction of the afore-mentioned adults-only section, ready to give her a tour of the rest of the store. She somewhat thought his reaction to the 'mature audience' area was amusing, if not cute, and silently giggled.

So, she received a mini-tour of the place. Not much of it seemed to interest her severely, but if she ever wanted to get magazines, she decided this would be as good a place as any, for being nearby, to get them. And, perhaps, some of the comics and the fantasy books might interest her. Fantasy, occult, horror, and thriller genres seemed to be the bulk of what was sold there as paperback novels.

As she looked around at some of the recent arrivals in the comics section, Kohaku desperately watched the torrents that shot to the ground outside through the window that overlooked Hennepin. Soon it wasn't just rain, but hail as well.

The air outside had been humid, overbearing, and sticky earlier, but judging by the reactions of still more people entering Shinder's to escape the rains, it must have grown chilly. He unintentionally shivered, as the room temperature was a titch cool, before looking around again to find his movie-going friend.

He didn't like being off by himself, alone, surrounded by people he didn't know, in an enclosed area. In order to stave off his slightly climbing anxiety and paranoia, he'd best stay within a few feet of her.

So, for the next 10-15 minutes, the two teenagers looked together at the selection of comics, anime-oriented magazines, and manga novels that took up the shelves of the section nearest to the beverage fridges.

"Kohaku?"

The boy in question turned his head to look at Kagome. "Huh?"

Kagome smiled. "Doesn't it look like the weather is letting up?" she rhetorically asked with a point of her hand and a bounce in her voice.

The two looked out the window near the beverage fridges and saw the streets mostly clear again, cars no longer needing high beams on blast in order to safely see through the less than pleasant driving conditions. It still drizzled very lightly, but it looked pleasant enough for pedestrians to be walking outside again.

---

Having just gotten their free passes from Dominic at the box office, Kagome and Kohaku made their way upstairs. The ticket podium was at the top of the stairs today, rather than at the entrance of the hallways leading toward the auditoria doors, so immediately Christonn greeted them with a smile and tore their tickets.

"You know where to go, Kagome, Screen 5," the tall black guy with frizzy, messily braided pigtails instructed his coworker and her guest before taking the tickets for the next group of people behind them. They walked past him quickly, slightly overhearing the couple behind them complain about having their bags inspected.

The older man gruffly refused to allow the doorman to inspect his bag for forbiddens such as outside food or beverage, but Christonn simply tried to keep a pleasant smile and not look irritated and disconcerted from the confrontation as he pointed to the sign off to his far left, which detailed the following:

"You didn't inspect those teenagers' backpacks!" he loudly complained. "This is an invasion of my rights!"

"She works here, sir," he tried to explain, but the customer was not too pleased.

"This bag inspection is illegal!" The customer's wife looked thoroughly annoyed.

Kagome and Kohaku stopped in place to listen to what was transpiring behind them, quiet aware that the complaint makers were holding up the line of customers ready to get their tickets torn.

"As long as we're not the ones physically going through your bags, it's completely legal sir," Christonn offered again, not wanting to have the line held up as it currently was being. He sighed and took a breath, feeling very apprehensive about the whole confrontation. Naraku has this place overrun with cops on the weekends. They'd stop him if we were doing something illegal, wouldn't they?

"I'm sorry, but the management has constructed a policy that says if you want to see a movie here, we must inspect your bag to make sure you're not bringing in outside food and beverages, filming equipment, alcohol, and so on. If you do not wish to have your bag inspected, you may go back to the box office for ticket refunds, but other than that, there is nothing I can do about this. Target Center doesn't even allow ticket holders to bring in bags of any sort, period. Private establishments can require such restrictions as long as customers' search and seizure rights are not violated-"

Outraged, the man turned without so much as a word to him and left with his wife back down the stairs, grumbling and muttering about stupid management policies and how they would go to the 14-screener at the Mall of America instead, even though they despised AMC.

Christonn tried to shake off the uneasy feeling he'd gotten from dealing with those customers. He disliked the policy as much as every customer did, but Naraku was intent on keeping people from sneaking in food and drinks. Plus, about three months ago they had caught someone using a camcorder to tape-record The Hours and had her arrested, and on several occasions customers had tried to sneak in vodka and beer they had purchased at Surdyk's just across the Mississippi River.

He sighed, turned his attention to the impatient customers who were now no longer blocked by the ornery older man and his wife, and began to rip their tickets, greet them, and direct them to the appropriate hallway down which they would find their auditorium.

Kagome and Kohaku had overheard much of the matter but finally looked at each other, not saying anything, before walking off toward the hallway closest to them.

Looking up at the light-up board above the hallway entrance, Kohaku noticed that it only displayed 8 through 15's movie titles and times, and he questioned her about it, seeing as how they needed to be on Screen 5, but she simply told him that down that hallway was the GMO where she would be picking up her paycheck first.

They reached the sickly yellow door quickly, and she knocked in a haphazard manner. It was after 6pm on a Thursday, so her paycheck should be ready for her to pick up, she thought happily with a smile. Ah, money equals good!

The door opened after a short moment of silence, and Allen Sashka appeared, a smirking grin on his face, much to Kagome's displeasure, which her friend could slightly sense. In that twisted, almost mutilated Russian accent of his, the immigrant manager immediately took in the sight of his second favorite tease subject and the tall young boy standing at her side and blurted out with amusement, "Oh, Kagome's got a boyfriend?" He laughed.

The two teenagers looked at each other with a shocking glance, and Kagome was thankful that the feelings were mutual. She liked him as a friend, but not as someone she would ever date!

In unison, they both exclaimed back at him, "We're not dating!" figurative smoke curling from both sets of ears. Kagome stared at him intently, her arms crossed in front of her chest and her nostrils flaring. Kohaku looked mostly just nervous, apprehensive and embarrassed.

"C'mon, you'd make a cute couple," Allen taunted them again, ignoring his employee's apparent peevedness.

At least he's not making remarks about my chest this time, but still, why won't he ever leave me the fuck alone?! Kagome fumed to herself in a moment of reflection. Closing her narrowed eyes and taking a deep breath, she tried to calm herself down before she tried to hit someone.

"Can it, Sashka," came a female voice from inside the GMO, and Allen finally took his eyes off the two teenagers to glance at the owner of the currently disembodied voice, giving them a good view of just how much of a beak his nose really was.

"Just some harmless teasing," he chuckled out, a stupid grin spreading across his face like a flesh eating virus.

"Back on the boat, Sashka, back on the goddamn boat!"

Ignoring that last comment from the still unknown female employee, he turned back to Kagome and Kohaku and waved them in, repeating the word "paycheck" over and over softly in a sing-song type of voice, his face blissful and eyes closed as he turned toward the cash room door and unlocked it and entered, shaking his head from side to side happily and doing a little dance with his arms, leaving the two teenagers to uneasily enter and see who had been defending them somewhat against Allen's seemingly relentless, childish harassment.

Zara sat at one of the managers' desks, in the far right corner of the GMO. The room had been rearranged at least once since she had been interviewed, Kagome noticed.

"Paycheck, right?" the supervisor simply stated as she disjointedly paged through the pile of randomly organized envelopes, looking for a Kagome Higurashi listed on the front of one. The employee in question and her friend sat down in two chairs that were placed conveniently in front of the desk, the former nodding in compliance.

Before she could sign for her check, she had to sign the payroll sheet, and as she did, Zara tapped her pencil on her knee and sat back in her comfy, overstuffed, full-size swivel chair and raked her right hand through her dark brownish purple hair.

"Aren't you going to thank me?"

Kagome's head zipped up as she looked and saw that Zara was a bit annoyed at not having been thanked for getting their mutual object of dislike off her back. Rather than snap at her supervisor for so bluntly asking, she opted for being the agreeable person she was known for being.

Sporting an only semi-forced smile, she allowed a soft "Thank you," to roll off her tongue. She handed back the payroll sheet, grabbed her paycheck and stuffed it in her backpack, and turned to Kohaku, who, she just noticed, had been looking quite intently at Zara for quite some time.

She poked him gently in the side to distract him. "Don't stare at people like that."

Breaking out of his trancelike state, he turned to look at her quickly before returning his gaze to Zara. "You're… friends with my sister, aren't you?"

Zara developed a look of strange, slow recognition, her eyebrows furrowing together tightly, and then she smiled and said, "Yeah, Kohaku, it's not often I see you, but I do recognize you after all. It's mostly Inuyasha and Miroku I hang out with, even though I'm closer in age to your sister. What are you doing here, of all places?"

"We're seeing X2: X-Men United," Kagome answered for him, "the 7:15 show."

"You'll want to get going if you plan on getting a good seat, then," the purple-haired supervisor said to her, ushering them out with her hand, still smiling.

Once they were in the hallway, Kohaku excused himself to use the men's room, and Kagome made her way toward the back end of the hallway. She'd told Kohaku where Screen 5 was, and he was to meet her there at the auditorium doors as soon as he had returned. They wanted to find seats together.

Walking directly toward her were three young adults, one male and two female. The women were holding hands and seemed like physical opposites of each other.

The shorter female was slender and built like herself, with long black hair up in a high ponytail, Kagome noticed, while her friend on the left, who was pretty tall for a female, was more shapely and heavy-bottomed with a shaggy, short mop of multi-browned hair, glasses, and a smile so sickeningly perky it was probably contagious, both of them in black dresses trimmed in pink and green, respectively.

The male stood about as tall as the taller female, around 5'8, Kagome guessed, and he was dressed in nice casual clothing of dark colors, his black hair tied back in a tiny, tight ponytail at his nape, some gold captive bead rings visible dangling from his earlobes.

As she tried to pass unnoticed by the group of softly chatting friends, the male turned his gaze to her and stopped to say hello with an appreciative smile, his dark eyes glimmering with mischief.

"My, what a lovely young lady you are," he said to Kagome.

Hmmm…. He's a bit of a looker, that's for sure, she thought as a grin spread across her face. Wonder if he's single. "Thank you." She extended her hand forward for the traditional, All-American greeting… the handshake. Bowing all the time was so… unreasonably formal.

The two women with him sighed and shook their heads at each other, seeing this young girl getting suckered in to their male friend's charm trap just like so many others had. Kagome pretended she didn't notice.

The young man kept his smile going and met her hand in a shake, and, while none of the four noticed a fifth, foreboding, person quickly zooming up from behind them all, he let his second favorite request roll off his tongue.

"Would you mind giving me your phone num--"

Of course, he was broken off in mid-sentence as Kagome saw, in surprise, that someone had yanked on the back of his ponytail quite hard, making the young man gasp and gag gutturally and practically choke on his own words, arching his form backwards, the whites of his eyes trembling. The reactions of the two women beside him, still silent word-wise, were that of passé-ness, 'here we go again,' and amusement, as if this was a common occurrence.

"Uh, are you okay?" she asked in concern just as she saw a familiar figure emerge from behind her would-be suitor. Inuyasha?! How'd he appear just like that?!

"Miroku, there is no fucking way you're getting her number before I do, ya dumbass!" the work uniform-clad Inuyasha grumblingly bitched at his friend from behind, his clawed fingers still clamped tightly onto the no-longer-nameless young man's bound bit of hair.

He did not look too appreciative of the situation, and much to his plainclothes-employee's wide-eyed surprise and Miroku's female friends' expectations, he forced his captive's head to the side and held him securely by the nape, tipped his head back slightly, and carefully dug two claws from his other hand upwards into Miroku's nostrils, pressing the pads of his fingers firmly upward but not enough to cause unnecessary bloodshed from the dreadfully sharp points.

He, a scowl on his face and his eyebrows set in jealousy, focused his gaze primarily on Miroku, allowing himself to acknowledge Kagome's presence somewhat.

"What are you doing to him?!" she sputtered out in half-shock at the entire display. Zara said they were friends… they certainly aren't acting like friends….

Miroku kept perfectly still, his eyes on Inuyasha, unsure of just how serious his wrath would be, his breathing even and quiet but shallow.

Inuyasha looked at her for another moment, looked at his female friends, then grinned, his abnormally long canines glistening at the pointed tips. "Letting my ex-boyfriend here know that if he so much as lays a finger on you, Kagome, that I just might hafta remind him why I file down my fingernails before having rough sex with anyone. Wanna be sneezing blood for the next two years, Miroku?" The last sentence came as almost a half-growl, very playful with just a hint of menace floundering through the layers.

And he'd said it with complete seriousness.

There was a quick but uncomfortable silence at first, but the taller female to the far left quickly looked around for spectators who might be staring at them, found none, and then readjusted her glasses before self-assuredly and concernedly glancing between Kagome and Inuyasha, stating something so very simple yet absolutely necessary.

"I think you better tone it down a little, 'Yash, before you scare her."

Her claw-fingered companion stared at her with no words to say but removed said claws from his best friend and ex-boyfriend's nose, also freeing his neck and hair from his pinching grip earlier and going so far as to slap him on the back in a friendly manner.

The poor guy was somewhat frazzled but seemed to recover well from the playful pseudo-threat through which he'd just been put for the sake of Inuyasha getting his territorial point across. It was almost like he was actually used to antics such as these!

Kagome, this entire time, had just stood there taking in everything, not sure of how to react. In fact, she still had her arm outreached from when she had shaken hands with the young man who was now known to her as more than just a friend to her… ahem… very attractive yet temperamental supervisor.

Inuyasha and his friends watched her intently, awaiting her reaction. It was obvious to them all that their hanyou companion liked the little black-haired female who stood before them, but the girl seemed a bit… in shock?… from the revelation concerning said hanyou's er… orientation.

To break the silence, the taller female once again spoke up. "Hi! My name is Chelsea, and this is my girlfriend Sango, her relentless suitor and harasser Miroku, and I guess you already know our oh so squishy friend Inuyasha!" with a wave of her hand. "Do you need a hug? It's Hug A Random Person Day today, you know!"

"Uh…." Kagome let her arm drop down to its proper place.

"Can it, Chels-- I think your perkiness might scare her," Inuyasha muttered with a smirk. "And don't go callin' me squishy, damnit!"

Sango, the other female, hadn't really said anything but kept mostly to herself, just taking slight observable amusement in the goings-on, but that last comment was enough to make her finally crack a major smile.

"Chelsea, I think you forgot a few introductions," she said quietly and shyly. The two females looked at each other and somehow mentally argued with each other through their eyes as to what the lacking introductions in question were, when her girlfriend finally snapped her fingers in a knowing manner and made a dramatic gesture of realization.

"Silly me." She clapped her hands together before starting again. "These are Alice, Gertrude, Judy, and Twinkle," she rattled off one by one, pointing to each of their four breasts from right to extreme left all in a row, having to reach over a bit to point to Sango's left one as it was the farthest away from her. Miroku had to smile and giggle heartily whenever he heard Sango and Chelsea pull that act on unsuspecting strangers, and today was no exception.

Chelsea's last antic was so deadpan and oddball that Kagome simply broke into a fit of sidesplitting laughter, finally broken from the trance of semi-shock at the revelation that not only was Inuyasha interested in men, but she had just been hit on by his ex-boyfriend.

The small group of young adults was finally on a good comfort level with everyone else in the group.

What a way to break the ice, Kagome thought amusedly to herself.

"Kagome, I guess you've now had the pleasure of meeting three of my exes," Inuyasha calmly but happily remarked as he readjusted his cap so that it would sit better on his hair. Bending his head down and to the side, he planted a quick kiss on Sango's cheek afterward.

"You mean you dated all three of them?" she questioningly asked him.

With a joking tone, he verbally threw her surmise out the proverbial window. "No, I mean Miroku, Zara, and Allen Buckman, the guy who served us at Hell's Kitchen last month," a suggestive and pleased smirk on his face. "These two lovely ladies are pure lesbo material, and yes, Chels's perkiness really can kill if she's not careful."

Kagome laughed again. "Well, I can understand your attraction to all three of those exes. And in case you're all wondering, no, it doesn't bother me that you like men, Inuyasha. Quite the contrary; I like my guys a lil femmy."

Inuyasha feigned feeling insulted. "Hey! Being bi does not make me femmy, ya bitch! I'm about as manly as they come!" He put up a fist and slapped his bicep.

"Even when you get all gothed out, wear eyeliner and borrow drippy black velvet button-up Victorian blouses from your female friends?" Miroku taunted him.

"Who said I borrow them, baka?" He snorted back at him, looking thoroughly annoyed. "Only I, the incredible Inuyasha Umezu, can pull off the femmiest goth-lolita look and still manage to keep my masculinity from becoming questionable. And I'm more man than twenty generations of the men in your family put together. Keh!" he continued snidely.

Miroku turned his head to look at Inuyasha. "Excuse me?" he retorted defensively, his hands on his hips. "Look here, Mr. Shorty McFive-Six, at least I'm at even height standing next to Zara when she wears her 6 and a half inch platform boots--"

"The fuck does height got to do with it, Fukuda-san no baka?!" his best friend questioned back snarkily, his eyebrows now in full irritation and tic twitching. "You wanna compare bodies?!" He was now visibly livid, his voice seething, yet he somehow allowed a devious smile to remain on his face. "Oh, we'll compare, all right. You may be two inches taller than me, but I've got the same advantage over you when it comes to my--"

He abruptly cut himself off from his heated up-the-ante with Miroku, glanced at Kagome, then laughed. "Hmmm, this kinda talk ain't for virgin ears," he drolled out with a grin, dearly hoping to get a reaction out of her. It'd been a while since he'd teased her, anyway.

Kagome promptly gave him a death glare, her arms crossed huffily below her boobage and the spot between his eyes firmly targeted in the crosshairs of her mental assault rifle.

"I would so hit you right now if--"

"Sorry, babe, but my crop's still in my car, and ya ain't old enough to consent to kinky stuff like that anyway…." he condescendingly trailed off, his smile now morphed into a smirk.

Sensing exactly what his friend meant, Miroku took it upon himself to take the opportunity to one-up him after that remark about his size. "Inuyasha, you starting to go for the young' uns now? C'mon, ya old fart, there's a sea of legal singles elsewhere," he challenged. "Why you going after a child--?"

"I'm not old, baka na sukebe!"

"You're a good si-"

Inuyasha suddenly clamped his hand over Miroku's mouth to muffle out what he feared would be uttered next and quickly sputtered out, "Six and a half months older than you, big fuckin' deal…." he trailed off, his nostrils flaring, annoyed at the jab at his age and the near slip his ex had just made. Kagome was certainly not ready to know things like that. Not yet, anyway, he reassured himself.

"Anyway, the hell are you doing here? You don't work today."

Kagome was about to answer him when Kohaku finally ran up after having seen the small group deep in conversation from farther down the hall.

He'd been in such relief to finally recognize someone again. Being around strangers made him apprehensive, especially in crowds and public buildings. And luckily for him, Kagome was not the only one he recognized.

"Sis!" he simply said to catch everyone's attention. Sango turned to see her little brother come to a stop and smile.

"Kohaku? You hate being out in public," her tone saturated with surprise and inquisitiveness. She was very surprised to see her brother in a movie theater with no one he knew.

"Oh, you're his sister? Kohaku and I are seeing a movie. We're classmates," Kagome explained in a nonchalant manner with a shrug of her shoulders.

After a short bout of tapering chit chat, Inuyasha pulled Miroku off to the side while the movie-goers went to Screen 5 and Sango and Chelsea continued walking toward the hidden restrooms, leaving them in the hall.

"Miroku, I'm off at 8 tonight. You, wait around till I'm off, and come over. I have some serious talking to do with you," he prattled to him, his eyes narrowing.

---

A/N: decided I'd rather get this chapter out and viewable rather than waste another day in order to fit everything else in that I'd wanted to. Oh well. Meh. Forgive me for the long wait *sheepish grin* BUT!!! I promise, an Inu/Kag lime in chapter 11 (sorry, it got pushed back a chapter)!

Japanese vocab-

Sukebe - lech