InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ On a Leash ❯ Butter Cream Frosting ( Chapter 23 )

Disclaimer: If I did, wouldn't my Japanese be excellent?

A/N: I really hate writing info chaps. But, the thing of it is, I was thinking about the other day, is the fact that I'm not a professional writer, and every time I write a chapter, I'm learning how to handle things, and do things better. I learned from writing MLV and I'm learning from OaL. Hopefully, when another year goes by, my craft will be that much better. To that thought, and to happiness, I bring you the next installment of "On a Leash".

Chapter Twenty-Three:Butter Cream Frosting

"Kagome, don't you dare leave me alone!"

"Inuyasha! I have to get to school!"

It was the first day of the new semester, and Kagome was determinedly trying to march downstairs to leave while her very stubborn fiancé clung to her ankle (he'd fallen at one point when trying to grab her and had just settled with snatching the nearest body part).

They had been having this argument all morning since he'd seen her come to breakfast with her uniform on.

It had started in the kitchen, then followed up into her room when she tried to get her things…

And so far, it was showing no signs of letting up.

"Kagome!" barked Inuyasha as he was slowly dragged over the carpeted steps. "I'm still injured! What kind of fiancée leaves her betrothed unattended to?"

The girl ground her teeth together, black school case in hand and the other gradually helping to bring her to her destination. "Look, Inuyasha, I've told you this already: it's not that I'm abandoning you-it's the fact I have to go to school! It's the law, and I like school!"

"You do?" he asked incredulously, before accidentally bumping into the bottom of the railing, which made him regain his steam. "I thought you were going to take care of me…"

"And I did!" Kagome did a hop-skip to the landing, effectively dislodging the hanyou. She sprinted over to the shoe rack and slipped on her white loafers. Whirling around, she said in absolute bother, "I figure that if you're well enough to spar with Sango like you did yesterday, you're well enough to let me go to school and handle it like a big boy. Besides," she huffed, "Mama's gonna be home, so suck it up."

"Hey, watch the bitchiness factor, would ya?" Inuyasha jeered from the stairs, still lying on his stomach where she had left him.

"Ugh!" She seized her light weight jacket and threw it on. "Just quit it, would you? I have to go now or I could be late." Kagome slung her school case over her shoulders. "You said so yourself that you're half-demon and heal very quickly." Sliding open the door, she said without facing him, "You'll be fine and I'll be home at three, ok?" With that she shut the slider after her.

Inuyasha pushed himself up and adjusted position so he was sitting on the stairs rather than sprawling across them. Smoldering, the hanyou muttered unintelligible things to himself about thoughtless bitches until Souta bounced passed him.

"Good morning, Inuyasha," he chirped, dashing by; apparently he hadn't heeded his sister when she came in to wake him up earlier, and was consequently running behind schedule.

"Morning." He looked up as Souta scrambled to put on his shoes, seeing the boy's hair sticking at odd angles about his head. He chuckled when Mama came in and straightened her youngest child's hair.

Groaning, Souta had zipped out of the house.

Mama merely shook her head. She turned to Inuyasha with a smile. "How are you feeling, dear?"

"Just sore." He was answering honestly; he really was feeling much better. It had been three days, and his wounds had all healed up just fine. The soreness would probably disappear in a few hours, but he had his reasons for not wanting Kagome to leave him.

Mainly that he didn't want to find out she'd been hit by a car walking to or from school….

Mama smiled gently. "Why don't you take it easy, sweetie? I'll make you a cup of tea and you can relax until Sango comes this evening to practice with you. I don't want you overexerting yourself."

Inuyasha nodded. "Sure," he murmured. He watched her grin widen as she bustled out of the room. Mama had taken him into the family and treated him as if he belonged there, and though Inuyasha was still getting used to it, it was nice to have someone who treated him the way his mother had.

He made his way to living room and stretched out on the couch, still in his pajamas. Buyo waddled up and leapt heavily onto the hanyou's stomach. "Maybe you should lose some more weight."

Buyo flicked his tail. "Maybe you should toughen up."

Inuyasha's hand dropped to the floor where the remote was laying, most probably left there by Gramps this morning. He turned on the TV. "Whatever, your royal fatness. Glad to have the bed back?"
"Oh, exceedingly happy," he purred.

Channel surfing with one hand, and petting Buyo with his free one, Inuyasha came across the news station.

"The campaigns are still as fervent as ever," the newscaster was saying, showing snippets of various candidates. "There's rumors going around of the candidates stopping by Tokyo sooner than expected, but, of course, that is all speculation and hearsay."

Inuyasha changed channels. If he saw Naraku on the screen, he knew he'd start growling and rather than worry Mama, he'd just watch the anime show he'd stumbled on.

A few minutes later, Mama came in with the promised cup of tea and set it on the floor where he could easily reach it. "Anything else I can get you?"

"No, thank you." He dipped a claw into the hot drink when the woman walked away and let a drop plunk into his mouth.

"Wow, you're awful polite, aren't you?" Buyo teased.

"Shut up. I just don't need anything." He watched as the swordsman on the show pulled out a 'reverse-blade' sword and mowed through a bunch of enemies without killing them. Inuyasha watched about three more episodes before it went to some really lame show and returned to his current pastime of channel surfing.

Unfortunately, he landed on another news station, and caught a glimpse of Naraku, shaking hands and looking as sweet as he could. Growling quietly, Inuyasha shut off the television and pushed a half-awake Buyo off his gut. "That's it. I'm going to practice." Rolling off the couch and landing in a crouch, Inuyasha left his teacup and tramped to Grampa's training room.

---------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------------------

At about ten minutes to three, Mama poked her head into the chamber where Inuyasha was shadow boxing. "Inuyasha, Miroku's here to see you."

The hanyou stopped his training as Mrs. Higurashi moved away and Miroku entered the room, all smiles as usual. "Greetings."

"What do you want?"

"Now, now," he waved a hand, "you make it sound like it's bad when I'm around. Your brother told me what today was." Miroku reclined against the doorjamb, grinning like the Cheshire cat.

"What's today?" Inuyasha asked, clearly puzzled.

"You don't know?" The monk's eyes danced in amusement. "Today's your birthday."

The half-demon blinked. "It is?"

"Yes. Today is January fourth, and your brother says that today would be your real eighteenth birthday." Miroku inclined his head to outside the room, while saying, "I brought you a lemon cake with butter cream frosting, courtesy of Lady Kagura."

Inuyasha stared. Sesshoumaru's wife had given him a cake? That was unexpected. "So…?"

"Yes?"

"There's a reason you're still here, isn't there?" Inuyasha walked over to the monk, peering at him untrustingly.

"Well," Miroku leaned off the jamb, "just to give you a semi party. Cake, gifts, the Higurashi family, Sango, and myself."

"Why?"

"Because it's your eighteenth birthday," sighed Miroku in exasperation. "Now, Sango and Kagome will be here soon-I am sure Sango has already explained what's going on. Go wash up and make yourself presentable. Becoming eighteen is a proud day, especially for you."

Inuyasha continued to stare at the other male. "Why especially for me?"

"You are a legal adult, and old enough to get married." Miroku grinned as the hanyou's gaze wavered a bit. "Get cleaned up and meet me in the kitchen."

Deciding to just go-with-the-flow, Inuyasha went to his room to get a change of clothes and then headed to the bathroom to take a quick shower. When he emerged, steam in his wake, he could hear and smell the girls in the kitchen. His feet lead him there automatically.

Sango and Kagome were placing the candles in, and Miroku was playing with his lighter with the kind of grin only a true pyromaniac can obtain.

Mama had set out plates, and Souta was toting out napkins. Gramps was trying to nick some of the frosting, but was thwarted by his granddaughter.

The cake was very basic with red writing on white frosting. Behind it was a cluster of presents and the aforementioned plates and plastic utensils.

"Why didn't you tell us it was your birthday?" Kagome laughed when Inuyasha entered the room. She jogged over and took him by the elbow and sat him down.

Birthday-boy mumbled, "I forgot."

"You forgot your own birthday?" Sango looked to him, disbelieving mirth sparkling in her russet eyes. "That's pretty bad."

Inuyasha crossed his arms and slumped in his chair.

Kagome patted his shoulder consoling, giggling slightly. "It's ok, Inuyasha. We're going to give you a good birthday party-maybe a little on the impromptu side, but it's still from the heart."

Sighing, and wondering why the hell he always seemed to get into these situations, he nodded.

Flicking his lighter, Miroku lit each candle wick of the eighteen candles that made a fiery hoop around the edge of the cake.

Then, everyone started to sing to him. Even though Grampa and Souta's singing techniques had yet to get any better, Miroku, Sango, and Kagome were pleasant on the dog-ears and effectively drowned out the other pair.

"Make a wish, Inuyasha," instructed Mama.

"A wish…?" Thinking, Inuyasha decided upon the only thing he really wanted right now: I wish I could go outside like a person… Puckering his lips, he blew the flickering flames out and everyone clapped, except for Miroku who only insanely smiled.

The monk had a good reason to grin, as, one by one, the candles relit themselves.

"Miroku!" Sango reached over and slapped his arm. "You bought trick candles."

He chuckled as Inuyasha gave him a death look.

Rolling her eyes, Kagome got a cup and filled it with water. "Miroku, sometimes you're so mean." She blew out the candles and quickly dropped them into the water. "Honestly…"

Mama had divided the cake, and the entire group agreed that the cake was scrumptious--just enough lemon and just enough sweetness. It had taken a bit of persuasion on Mrs. Higurashi's part to get everyone to let Inuyasha open his presents.

Sango had gotten him a hairbrush. "Your hair looks like a mess half the time," she explained as he rather glared at her until she handed him a card with some money in it, then she was back in his good graces.

Miroku gave him a stress ball. "It is in the hopes that you can control your temper a bit."

"Bite off, monk," Inuyasha snapped.

Everyone else had laughed, including Miroku. "See? And this is from your brother." He pulled out a flip phone. "It's your very own cell phone so you can keep in touch with all of us, and will hopefully keep you out of trouble."

Grumbling, but secretly admiring the technology, Inuyasha stowed it away in the pocket of his pants.

"Sango just took me shopping after school, and I didn't have a lot of money," Kagome said before handing Inuyasha a small blue bag. "I hope you like it."

Reaching into the bag, Inuyasha pulled out a long, prayer bead necklace. Every five beads there was a shark fang, and the beads themselves were made out of polished wood. "This is actually pretty cool," he assessed, slipping it over his head while his fiancée tucked it beneath his hair.

"Sango's right, you do need your hair brushed."

"Keh."

---------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------------------

"So, not too bad of a birthday, huh, Inuyasha?" Kagome said with a smile that night as she sat on his futon with him, brushing the snarls out of his long hair.

"Nope."

She worked up from the base of the hair and was making her way to the middle of his hair. "I mean, even though we're sort of on hiatus, it makes me wonder what Naraku's doing. Is he just going to go around campaigning?"

"Maybe."

The girl proceeded to his scalp, carefully drawing the brush down. "I don't think he knows you've reclaimed Tetsusaiga, but what will he do when he finds out?"

"I dunno."

Sighing, she took all of his hair in one hand and started to untangle the underside of his mane-it really was a mess, but the knots seemed to come out fairly easily. "I wonder where your mother hid that prophesy. I mean, you said that prophesy is hidden somewhere in the library. Where exactly does someone hide a prophesy?"

"I dunno."

Kagome peeked over Inuyasha's shoulder. He was sitting with his arms crossed and his eyes closed with a neutral look on his face. Maybe he's tired… Sango trained him really hard today… she thought, deciding to just let him unwind. Continuing to voice her thoughts aloud, she asked, "Don't you think that clue's pretty vague? There's gotta be some kind of twist to it or something…"

"Uh-huh."

"Inuyasha," Kagome inquired, running her fingers through his hair, having completed her task; his hair felt soft and smooth between her fingers, "are you even listening to me?"

"Uh-huh."

"You are not…" she sighed. It's like he's under a trance or something… She smiled quietly as she queried, "Do you like your hair brushed?"

"Uh-huh."

"Why?"

"Feels nice," he answered, keeping his answers as short as possible.

Just like a dog… Kagome thought, shaking her head. I guess there are just some habits he can't break. Reaching up, she rubbed his ears gently and was rewarded by a deep purr. Or maybe he thinks he's a cat, she mentally laughed. She sat there for a time, just enjoying the resonance Inuyasha was making before she yawned and realized it was pretty late.

"I'm going to turn in." She stopped massaging his furry triangles and settled into the bed. "Goodnight, Inuyasha."

Inuyasha's purring went on for a moment before he waggled his head; when Kagome had done that, it reminded him of when his mother would brush out his hair and tell him stories of wild fancy.

Lingering on the memory for a moment, he laid down beside her. "Yeah, goodnight." He waited for a moment before starting, "Hey, Kagome?"

"Huh?"

"I was listening."

---------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------------------

A/N: Filler chapters are hard to write too. See, I have to put these in so we can get to the stuff I actually wanna write and show you guys, but first we have to go bit-by-bit. I don't want to just skim off some of the funniness that happens. The next will be another filler and then the one after that….-evil laughter- will be the true stuff….

~Moonlight Shadow