InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ One Last Chance ❯ Chapter 5 ( Chapter 5 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Disclaimer: Don’t own ‘em. Rumiko Takahashi=rich, Kawa-Misuterii=working as a busgirl in a dingy, dirty, downtown restaurant to pay for guitar lessons

Songs: Serve the Servant and Heart-Shaped Box by Nirvana
Sally’s Song by Danny Elfman






One Last Chance: Chapter 5


“You mean like in a concert?” InuYasha asked, lifting his eyebrow. He had seen Hiro watching a concert on TV before. It looked like it was just a bunch of teenagers beating the crap out of each other near a stage full of ridiculously dressed hooligans, thrashing and crashing about to the beat of foreign noise, which hurt his ears.

“I don’t do well in crowds.” he said quickly, waving his hands in front of him, wondering how he got himself into this one.

“HAH! Yeah right, like I’d be able to get myself into a concert, let alone play in one. No, there’s this band that pays me to play with them every other Saturday at this minuscule club downtown. Tonight’s Nirvana night. You like them right?” she asked walking out of her room.

‘Nirvana? Like when a person reaches nirvana? Does that mean it’ll just be a bunch of people sitting around meditating while she plays music? I guess I could handle that. But if someone tries to get me to pray, I’m outta there, simple as that. I need to call Hiro anyway, he’ll want to know where the hell I’ve been. Dammit, I should have called him while I was sitting in that tree-’

“I’ll take that as a yes. Common, I should have left five minutes ago.” she said as she walked away from him, going to the corner of the living room. She grabbed an electric guitar from it’s stand and preceded to put it in a case, her dog already sitting ready to leave at the door.

“Nani?” InuYasha said, raising his eyebrow in confusion. Didn’t they just get here?

His question was forgotten as another wave of recognition crossed her face, her eyes getting unusually wide.

“I knew it.” she said in Japanese. “Your from the home land!”

“Hai.”

“Where?” she asked.

“Tokyo.” he said simply, not wanting to tell her he was from a forest named after himself. Just yet, anyway.

“Me too.” she said, and a blue sadness leaked into her aura, although the pain, InuYasha thought, seemed to be numb, if not forgotten.

“Kyoko, do you want to stay here for tonight?” she asked her dog, as if she’d respond. InuYasha could just about read the dog’s reply. The dog replied, using a twitch of her ear and a quiver of her lip, something along the lines of ‘Kyoko does, but Kyoko must protect Mistress.’

InuYasha twitched his ears under his bandana, feeling the need to tell the dog that she would be safe with him, but that was impossible since she couldn’t see his movements. Damn it.

They left the tiny apartment, Betty Lou stopping to give the land lord a fistful of money, and they were back on the street, now going in the opposite direction from which they came.

She hummed as she walked, something that normally would have annoyed InuYasha to no end. But he was strangely relaxed, if a little cold in the March night. He unconsciously crossed his arms over his chest as he walked, wishing he had his fire-rat with him. He was getting more and more uneasy walking in this dangerous part of town, feeling his senses awaken at the threat of attack from the shady looking characters standing on the street corners.

She had an easy gait, even though her shoulders seemed to be weighed down. The guitar on her back just seemed to belong, as if she were meant to carry it with her. InuYasha found himself wondering if Kagome should have had one of those instruments.

‘Nah, it would have slowed her down even more. But I bet she would have been able to play it, like this one.’ InuYasha frowned at that thought, for some reason.

Betty’s hair was longer than his, hanging passed her backside and gently brushing the backs of her thighs. He wondered how she managed to keep it from getting tangled, but noticed that she was doing something.....rather peculiar.

He had felt a twinge of nervousness in her aura earlier, and he assumed that it was just because she was going to go perform in this club-thing while a bunch of people were going to sit around her and reach nirvana. InuYasha twitched his leg whenever he was nervous or impatient. Apparently, Betty Lou enjoyed pulling the skin off of her lips.

Her eyes were dancing in excitement, and she had put her hands to her lips compulsively, beginning to pull on the little bits of dead skin and scab on her lips. She had done this to herself as long as she could remember, never mind that it made her lips disgusting and mangled. It was a bad habit that she had no intention of getting rid of, along with a whole list of others.

“What the fuck are you doing?” InuYasha asked, immediately repulsed by the smell of her blood when she yanked off a scab with her fingernails.

“What?” she said.

“Th-THAT! Your ripping off your own lips! What the hell is wrong with you?” he shouted, pointing to her mouth, where her fingers still resting on her flesh, having stopped their picking.

“First of all, get your finger out of my face. Second of all, lay off, dude. Everybody’s got a hobby.” she said simply, not the least bit embarrassed. To his relief, however, she did stop doing it. He wondered what sort of Kami would posses her to hurt herself.

After a half hour of walking, InuYasha was considering hailing a cab for the girl. But she disappeared from his sight for a moment, turning sharply into an alley, and descending into a hidden staircase leading to a basement, something InuYasha would not have even noticed had she not lead him into it.

The smells coming out of the place were pungent, to say the least. It looked like someone’s oversized downstairs activity room or something, turned into a bar/stage. InuYasha wrinkled his nose as the familiar smell of unwashed bodies crept into his nose, something he hadn’t had to deal with since he left the feudal era..

It was crowded, to say the least, and the thick aroma of cigarette smoke made him choke on his own breath. He was startled to smell that most of the people in the club were either youkai, hanyou, or the mate of a youkai or hanyou. InuYasha, instead of being put on edge like he normally would have, felt an air of acceptance among the odors.

He saw that, although they still bothered to wear whatever concealment charms they had, they all seemed to stand out just as much as he did. Many of the people had his silvery-white hair color, but most of them had cut it and shaved it into unusual figures and styles. But what surprised him the most was that Betty Lou seemed to be perfectly at home amongst demons.

‘Just how weird can one miko be?’ he asked himself. ‘She should sense them, can’t she? Why isn’t she on high alert?’ InuYasha watched her as she found him a stool to sit on at the bar, and disappeared behind a curtain at the front of the room.

‘Wait a second...why would demons be trying to reach nirvana?’ he asked, immediately looking around suspiciously.

A few minutes later, the lights in the room dimmed, and the curtain opened.

She stepped onto the stage, her lips pursed and grinning slightly. InuYasha could feel a confidence radiate off of her, her nervousness having melted away. She stepped up to the microphone. The dingy little club immediately became quite, and the hanyou could sense the anticipation in the crowd.

“How you all doin’ tnight?” she yelled into the mike, snapping InuYasha’s focus from the strange feeling of belonging that surrounded him.

“Okay, we’re gonna do a couple of Nirvana covers for you Cobain fans out there, in honor of Kurt’s birthday. Sung by Mr. Scab here, I’m sure you’ll all enjoy.” she smiled as she stepped back, out of the way. InuYasha crinkled his nose at the stench as a very scuzzy hanyou teenager walked out from backstage, his tangled hair so unclean it was impossible to tell what color it was.

“Common, Betty, don’t be modest. Everyone, it’s Betty Lou’s birthday tonight, as well! Give a cheer!” growled the boy at the audience, turning back and give Betty Lou a hopeful smile, which she did not return, instead scowling at the praise she got from the crowd.

Without any introduction of himself, he stepped up to the mike, nodding to Betty Lou and the other band member’s appreciatively. Betty Lou put on an angry face and looked out into the crowd as her fingers started a interestingly pleasing song. InuYasha’s ears perked up at the sound, despite the incessant, unnecessary feedback of the amplifier. The boy opened him mouth and began singing, much as if he was tripping on some kind of drug. The hanyou thought he was ruining the pleasing song with his gruff voice, but Betty Lou, in contrast, began smiling and nodding her head with the beat.

“Teenage angst has paid off well, now I’m bored and old. Self-appointed judges judge, More than they have sold.

“If she floats than she is not, a witch like we had thought. A down payment on another
One at salems lot.

“Serve the servants - oh no. That legendary divorce is such a bore

“As my bones grew they did hurt, They hurt really bad. I tried hard to have a father, but instead I had a dad.

“I just want you to know that I don’t hate you anymore. There is nothing I could say that I haven’t thought before...

“Serve the servants - oh no, that legendary divorce is such a bore.”

The depressing lyrics mixed with Betty Lou’s guitar playing caused a feeling to rise inside InuYasha. He remembered the angst and anger he felt towards his father, for leaving him and his mother to fend for themselves. Yes, that was the word, angst. He liked it, a little. Not as destructive as his anger, but still exactly what he was feeling. InuYasha decided that he liked this music. He turned to look at Betty Lou as she began another song, this one starting out with a rather slow and simple riff.

“She eyes me like a Pisces when I am weak. I’ve been locked inside your heart-shaped box for four whole weeks. I’ve been drawn into your magnet tar pit trap. I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black.

“Hey! wait! I’ve got a new complaint! Forever in debt to your priceless advice.

“Hey! wait! I’ve got a new complaint! Forever in debt to your priceless advice.

“Hey! wait! I’ve got a new complaint! Forever in debt to your priceless advice. Your
adviiiiiiiiiice.....

“Meat-eating orchids forgive no one just yet. Cut myself on angels hair and babies breath. Broken hymen of your highness I’m left black. Throw down your umbilical noose so I can climb right back.

“Hey! wait! I’ve got a new complaint! Forever in debt to your priceless advice.

“Hey! wait! I’ve got a new complaint! Forever in debt to your priceless advice.

“Hey! wait! I’ve got a new complaint! Forever in debt to your priceless advice. Your
adviiiiiiiiiice.....

“She eyes me like a Pisces when I am weak. I’ve been locked inside your heart-shaped box for weeks. I’ve been drawn into your magnet tar pit trap. I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black.

“Hey! wait! I’ve got a new complaint! Forever in debt to your priceless advice.

“Hey! wait! I’ve got a new complaint! Forever in debt to your priceless advice.

“Hey! wait! I’ve got a new complaint! Forever in debt to your priceless advice.

“Your adviiiiiice....Your adviiiiiiiiiiice....Your adviiiiiiiiice.”

‘Yeah, I like this a lot.’ said InuYasha to himself, starting to nod his head to the rhythm. They continued playing songs like that for over an hour, the hanyou picking up lyrics as obscene as ‘Rape Me’ to as depressing as ‘I’m worst at what I do best.’ He thought with a smirk at what Kaede would think of the unbelievably rude and questionable songs.

‘I could definitely get used to this.’ InuYasha thought leaning his head back while the band started shifting around, preparing to leave.

Betty Lou stepped back up to the microphone, looking a little tired.

“Okay, we’re almost done here. But, per request of someone who saw our Halloween gig at Sammy’s, I’m going to sing a song for a Ms. Lucretia Simon, seeing as she shares the same birthday as our beloved Kurt and myself!” The entire crowd turned to cheer congratulations to a large female bird youkai in the back with many piercing’s and a multi-colored Mohawk. The woman smiled in glee and turned her attention back to Betty Lou, as did everyone else. She looked slightly annoyed, for whatever reason, but still she smiled, and turned to the keyboard guy to give him the cue.

The next moment, it wasn’t Betty Lou standing there, but a skinnier, sicklier Kagome. InuYasha almost fell out of his chair when he looked into her eyes, which were staring straight back at him, instead of the deadened, hollow stare of Betty Lou. They had a spark in them that he hadn’t seen in years.

“Kagome...” he whispered, not loud enough for anyone to hear, but Betty Lou/Kagome nodded at the trace of her name on his lips. And then she opened hers.

“I sense there's something in the wind....that feels like tragedies at hand. And though I'd like to stand by him...can't shake this feeling that I have. The worst is just around the bend...And does he notice my feelings for him?....And will he see, how much he means to me? I think it's not to be...

“What will become of my dear friend? Where will his actions lead us then? Although I'd like to join the crowd....in their enthusiastic cloud. Try as I may, it doesn't last...and will we ever....end up together? No, I think not, it's never to become...For I am not the one”


It was a hauntingly chilling song, slow and meaningful. She was singing with Kagome’s high pitched, quavering voice, instead of her own low, gentle tone. The words were speaking right to him, about his struggle with Naraku, about his own inability to tell her that he didn’t see Kikyou every time he looked at her.

“Oh, Kagome.” he said, looking right into her eyes as she finished her song. They closed, longer than a blink but shorter than a downward glance, and then she was Betty Lou again, smirking at the applauding crowd.


_____________________________


“So, what didja think?” she asked after the show, the two of them walking side by side, going nowhere in particular.

“I like them all.” he said, trying to keep his composure.

“A man of few words, eh? So.....you’re a grunge fan? I’ll have to introduce you to some punk, if you liked that. I’ll start you out on the originals, The Ramones, Black Flag, we’ll see what happens.” she said before falling silent, not really seeing the need to keep speaking. They fell into a comfortable silence.

“So what was the deal with that last song?” he asked, a moment later.

“Oh, Sally’s Song? It’s from one of my favorite movies as a kid. We covered a whole bunch of creepy songs like that for our Halloween special last year. Honestly, I wasn’t too pleased about being landed with that one, it’s not really my style, you know? But you want to hear something weird? Both times I sang it on stage, like just now, I kind of glazed over and just let it flow, and I had sung it before I even realized. And it’s not just that song, either. There are a bunch that I know I sing, but I don’t really feel like myself while I do it. But it’s only with those whiney, don’t forget my crappy love songs. Stupid, huh? Oh well, don’t fix it if it ain’t broken, I always say. People like them, so I guess I just...give them what they want.” she turned to look at InuYasha to find him staring at her intensely. Her eyebrows furrowed in slight irritation. “Hey!” she snapped his fingers in his face, getting no reply. “You got something to say or are you just gonna stand there lookin’ pretty?”

‘This isn’t the right time.’ his inner voice told him. ‘Not just yet.’

“You hungry again?” he said finally, trying to shake away the thoughts that were going a million miles a minute. Betty Lou looked thoughtful for a moment, then said:

“Look, I don’t think it’s a good idea if we keep hanging out like this.” she said, and more pain leaked into her aura.

‘Kami, how much pain can one miko deal with?’ InuYasha thought before the implications of what she had just said sank in.

“And why the hell not?” he asked incredulously.

“Because I said so, that’s why.” she said, walking closer to Kyoko than him.

“That’s not an answer.” he said, lowering his voice dangerously.

“Don’t you dare try and intimidate me. You don’t know me, and I don’t know you. Look, trust me, it’s better if you just go home, now.” she replied, her voice dropping to a low whisper. To his disgust, InuYasha was afraid of her, just as he had been afraid of Kagome whenever she got truly angry with him.

“Hey, bitch, what’s your problem? It’s not like I’ve done anything untrustworthy. Name one thing I’ve done that gives you a good reason to talk to me like that!” he said, pointing his finger in her face.

“Get your damn finger out of my face.” she growled, glaring daggers at him.

“Gyeah...” InuYasha whimpered, sensing her miko powers flare up. Then, to his surprise, she gave a small, sad sigh.

“You haven’t done anything wrong. Look, trust me, it’s just better if you stay away from me.” she said, that hardened, deadened, icy cold look flooding her eyes.

“Give me one good reason.” he said, stubbornly crossing his arms in front of him, his face set with one look. Inside, however, his thoughts were turning wildly again.

‘I thought she remembered me!’

‘She doesn’t, that’s impossible. It’s her soul that remembers me!’ replied his inner voice.

‘Well then, what the hell is wrong?’

‘I don’t know! Her aura is interacting with me like she never died! I don’t know what’s wrong! Stop her! She has to stay with us, now that we found her! She just has to!’

‘Yeah, no shit. But how am I supposed to do that if she won’t let me?’

‘Think of something! Find out what’s wrong!’

‘Okay, okay!’

“I don’t have one, alright, just call it intuition.” Betty Lou said, looking down and scuffing her feet. InuYasha twinged as his youki tried to reach out and comfort her, her aura flickering and shying away from him now.

‘Have to stop my damn youki, it’s getting way too familiar.’ he thought and gritted his teeth, yet unable to control his demon aura.

“Just...let me buy you a coffee or something.” he said, getting desperate. He allowed his youki to reach out this time, trying a new tactic. It swelled and warmed, almost surrounding the girl. An undeniable look of comfort crossed her face. Although reluctantly, she nodded her head.


“Only if I get to pick where.” she said, looking as if she would rather start running.

“Fine.”



________________________________


InuYasha was in heaven.

Well, as close to heaven as he was ever going to get, anyway. They had taken the subway to Chinatown, and to InuYasha’s joy, Betty Lou led him into a café that served his favorite ramen, hot and fresh! The warm aroma wafted into his nostrils and he had to stop himself from leaning back in the booth with a stupid smile on his face while he waited for his food.

That is, until a scent drifted by that was not particularly welcome.

“Dude, check out that guy over there! He looks just like you, Lee!” said a boy whose scent reminded him of the wimpy wolf.

InuYasha looked up to see where the unwelcome scent was coming from, and to his displeasure, saw that the boys were pointing at him.

Then, to add to his list of surprises for that day (or the past two days, really, seeing as it was now after midnight) InuYasha found himself looking into a face remarkably like his own.

The boy he had been referring to gave him the once over, and then a satisfied smirk, a picture of himself sizing up an opponent for battle. He had even let his hair grow long, and bleached it white-blonde. InuYasha smirked. It was no where near as long as his. And no way would he cut it that choppy and fussy.

InuYasha turned away, intending to ignore them, but all of his thoughts stopped when he sensed a stab of panic coming from the girl sitting across from him. He widened his senses to look for any danger, but found nothing even resembling it. She was sliding down in her seat, trying to hide herself.

“I knew I shouldn’t have come here again.” she whispered, unaware that InuYasha could hear her with his superior hanyou senses. He could smell unshed tears in her eyes. What the hell?

“Well, well, well. I should have known this guy had something to do with you, Lump. Common, get up, I see you.” said InuYasha’s look-alike, the sneer sickeningly getting wider.

“Lump?” InuYasha asked, but was ignored by the people surrounding him now.

Betty Lou slid up back into her seat, not meeting the eyes of anyone. InuYasha was overwhelmed by the pain and panic in her eyes, let alone her aura. They were full of unshed tears now, but she was amazingly holding them back.

“Wow, Lump. This is really pathetic. Do you miss me that much? As far as I know this is the only guy I’ve seen you hanging around with, so are you telling me that your just gonna hang around guys who look exactly like me from now on?” he said, leaning down and sneering in her face. Betty Lou shut her eyes and looked away, obviously wishing the earth would just swallow her right then and there.

InuYasha, on the other hand, felt a rage rushing through him that he hadn’t felt in fifteen years. Who did this baka think he was, walking in here and talking to her like that? He was about to stand up and challenge the cocky bastard before he leaned in and whispered, not meaning for anyone else to hear. Unfortunately, InuYasha heard every word.

“Or are you still looking for the hero in your pictures? Is that it, Lump? Are you looking for that dog boy in your dreams, the one you told me about? Guess what, Lump. It’s not going to happen.” the boy snickered. “Your going to be alone for the rest of your life if you keep this up. Your not going to find him, no matter what. And I’m going to be there to laugh when you fall. When your on your knees, just begging for it to be all over, for all of it to stop. I’ll be there, standing over you, pointing and laughing, along with the rest of the world.” he said, more venom in his voice than Naraku could ever manage.

Betty Lou got up and ran from the store, forgetting her guitar completely and holding her hands to her face as she tried to hide her tears.

InuYasha cracked his knuckles.

“Hey, can I talk to you?” InuYasha asked his double, holding back his glare in order to catch the boy off guard.

“Yeah man, sure.” Lee said, unaware that the hanyou had heard this last exchange. They began walking together outside. “Look, don’t bothering getting your hopes up with Betty. She’s the world’s most emotionally crippled, tragically broken artist. I dated her for a year and she never put out for me! Then I find out that the only reason she’s going out with me is cause I look like-AGG!!!” the boy stopped in the middle of his sentence because InuYasha had pinned him to an alley wall by his neck, ripping off his bandana to show his ears.

“If you EVER speak to her again, I’ll kill you.” he said, fighting down the raw rage in his demon blood, screaming at him to kill the boy. Lee, on the other hand, was more interested by the ears on InuYasha’s head, and the fangs in his mouth, which were bared for the world to see.

“You-you’re a...a...a yao mo!” Lee sputtered, shutting up when he felt InuYasha’s claws grazing his neck. InuYasha ignored the foreign word, and landed a punch in the punks jaw. Leaving him in the alley, he went back in to get her guitar, then began sniffing around for Betty Lou.

He could smell her unshed tears even now, but he could also tell that she had somehow managed to get rather far away, for a human. After a while, he ended up following Kyoko’s more musty scent, and found the pair sitting in a playground, Betty resting on a swing while petting Kyoko’s head, the dog standing loyal and still by her mistress, resting her head in her lap.

“Go away.” Betty Lou said miserably, lowering her head as if were heavy with her own sadness.

“Are you going to bother giving me a reason why?” InuYasha asked, feeling his heart beat speed up at the sight of her. She looked even more forlorn than when he had first met her.

“No.” she said simply, refusing to look at him. Kyoko began growling at him, warning him to stay away from Mistress while she was distressed. InuYasha ignored her and sat down on the swing next to her, and began pumping back and forth, thinking hard in the silence.

“Who was that guy?” InuYasha asked, but he was beginning to lose hope for any type of answer. The anguish in her aura made it a little hard for him to breathe.

“Koishii.....” she whispered to herself, and the breath in InuYasha’s throat caught, choking him.

“Be-beloved?” he asked, the shock rattling his body as his hands gripped the chains of the swing, threatening to break them. Beloved? That asshole?

He was considering yelling at her, but then he heard her sniffling. She was valiantly holding back her tears, but she couldn’t deny her misery. Kyoko whined.

InuYasha realized that he hadn’t put his bandana back on, and his ears were exposed for the world to see. Fortunately, there weren’t many people walking around at two in the morning, and it was dark. He made a decision.

“Betty, look at me.” he said, kneeling down in front of her. Her head was bowed, stubbornly refusing. He could sense her need to run itching in her legs.

“Look at me.” he repeated, taking her chin in his hand. His instincts were screaming at him for being so familiar with a girl he just met, but he quelled them, trying to focus on the moment. Perhaps revealing that he was the boy from her past lives, from her dreams, would be the best thing to tell her first. She needed a friend now more than anything, and damn it, he would give one to her, fuck his own weaknesses.

She had closed her eyes when he lifted her head, but she slowly opened them, accidentally letting one tear slip from her eye. They widened in disbelief when she saw his ears, and she began shaking, tears forgotten. She tentatively reached up and took one ear in her hand. InuYasha stared back into her disbelieving face as she felt his ear, rubbing it between her fingers. He blinked slowly, wondering what was going through her head.

Suddenly she tensed, holding his ear a little too hard. He tried to flick it out of her rough grasp, but instead he succeeded in making her leap out of his range. She was now standing on the other side of the swing, her legs threatening to give way. InuYasha wondered how she managed to get away from him so quickly, but was struck dumb by the look on her face. She was...horrified?

“Keera.” he said, not sure what else to say. The look on her face was more than he could bear.

“DON’T CALL ME THAT!” she screamed, now more terrified than she had been in a long time. Her hands clenched into fists, and then she was gone. She was running away, in who knows what direction, Kyoko running as fast a wolf beside her. Betty Lou turned a corner and disappeared, but Kyoko stopped and looked at InuYasha, standing by the swing by himself like a baka. For one meaningful moment, they held each other’s gaze, having a years worth of conversation in one look. Then, she too was gone.

Sighing, InuYasha sat back down on the swing, retying the bandana over his ears. He sighed again and scuffled his feet, rocking back and forth on the chains. He pulled out the cell phone Hiro had given him after programming his number into it. InuYasha never felt the need to call anyone else.

“Unhngg...InuYasha?” Hiro said sleepily. InuYasha remembered that it was still early before he yelled at the guy for sleeping on the job.

“Hiro? I found her.” InuYasha said quickly.

“What? Really?” Hiro asked, all sleep devoid of his voice now.

“Yeah. She’s using a fake name, just like we thought.” InuYasha told him everything he learned that day, minus the differences he noticed between Betty Lou and Kagome. And the incident with Lee.

“A musician? Very interesting. I’m sure we could help her out a little with her situation. Sesshomaru-sama has plenty of funds, I bet he’ll gladly give up a little to feed a poor miko.” he said, the wheels already turning in his head.

“Yeah, well, I didn’t exactly make the greatest first impression. Don’t wait up for me, I’m going to watch over her. I’ll be in one of the trees across from her apartment, alright?” he said, itching to run, fight, kill, something, anything!

“Hai, InuYasha-sama. I’ll come and find you around seven, okay?” Hiro said, planning to investigate the girl himself. After a few more hours of sleep, that is.

“Hai. Arigatou, Hiro-san. I’ll see you then.” InuYasha snapped the phone shut. He disappeared into the night, his mission heavy on his mind.


___________________________


“So that’s her, right there, right? Coming out of the apartment building?” Hiro asked as he watched Betty Lou walk out of the building, guitar strapped to her back. She didn’t notice InuYasha sitting in one of the lower branches in a tree across the street, nor the sophisticated looking man he was whispering to. She looked even worse than when InuYasha had first saw her.

“Yeah, that’s her alright. I guess she goes to school during the week and goes out to beg on the streets on the weekend. Then she hands over all her cash to her tyrant land lord.” InuYasha grumbled, ignoring the stares he got from people looking up at him from the sidewalk. “Hey! You said Sesshomaru has money stashed away, right? Let’s get her some food. I have to give her back her guitar anyway.” he said, indicating the case he held on to.

“Well, I suppose that would be alright. You say that she doesn’t want to talk to you?” Hiro asked, but to his chagrin, the hanyou wasn’t paying attention anymore.

“She didn’t sleep at all last night...” he mumbled to himself.

“Well, that’s to be expected. What happened, when you first approached her? I’m assuming you did something wrong, seeing as your reluctant to approach her now. You never were the tactful type, InuYasha-sama.” Hiro said wisely.

“Keh. Shut up, bouzo, I have it under control.” he said.

They went to a small market and bought some generic food products to bring back to Betty’s house, not getting much because there wasn’t enough room in her tiny refrigerator to hold more food than would last a few days. When they went back to the building, the landlord at the front desk didn’t even acknowledge their existence, let alone ask them what they were doing there.

“You know where she keeps her key?” Hiro asked, waggling his eyebrows suggestively. InuYasha fought the urge to punch him in his gut, seeing as Hiro was holding most of the food in his arms. The door was blocked however, with a large German Shepard, which was growling angrily.

“Common, Kyoko, you know me!” InuYasha said, shoving the animal out of his way in order to bring the food. The dog continued to growl at him, although it was obvious she was fearful of him. To Hiros’ surprise, InuYasha was also making a growling, yipping noise in the back of his throat, almost as if he was......reassuring the dog!

“Whoa.” Hiro said quietly when the dog lowered her head and backed into a corner. “Did you just say something to it?” he asked.

“Yeah, she’ll leave us alone.” InuYasha said, arranging the bags of food and putting some milk and soda in the little fridge.

“Fascinating...” Hiro said.

“What’s so fascinating about it? I am half inuyoukai, in case you haven’t noticed.” InuYasha said reproachfully, setting her guitar case in the corner.

“Well, yes, I suppose so...but I never knew you had the ability to converse with dogs!”

“That’s because you never asked.” InuYasha said simply, not really paying attention to the conversation anymore. He felt the need to go look at the pictures in her room again...

“Remarkable!” Hiro said, having already gone to investigate the place InuYasha kept glancing at.

“Hey!” InuYasha said, angry that Hiro had started his own investigating before he could wake himself from his musings. ‘That’s what I get for day dreaming...’ he thought.

“She’s quite talented.” he said, peering closer at the drawings. InuYasha took the chance to investigate the ones he hadn’t really looked at before. To his joy, he saw a picture of Kagome pinned to the wall, close to the bare mattress lying on the floor, Betty Lou’s bed.

In the picture, Kagome was standing innocently, her hands folded behind her back. She had that familiar smile on her face, and Betty Lou had even managed to capture to sparkle in her eyes when ever InuYasha looked at her. She was wearing the same school uniform she always did, although he noticed that her skirt was even shorter than he remembered. He looked to the picture above that, and saw a fantastic rendition of Kagome riding on his back, himself in mid leap over a forest of trees. Kirara was carrying Sango, Miroku, and Shippou on her back, although Betty seemed to forget the flames that burned on the neko’s tail and feet when she flew. He also saw that she seemed to have forgotten Hiraikotsu, as well as the covering over Miroku’s right hand to protect the kazanaa.

He looked up and another picture of himself, and had to hold back a snort of disgust. She was completely off with his outfit! First of all, he certainly didn’t wear black boots like Sesshomaru! He sure as hell didn’t have a red jacket instead of a hakama, and neither did he wear pants like that! His scowl was set, when he noticed that the only people who she managed to get their outfits right were Kikyou, Kagome, and Sango’s demon slaying uniform.

He looked at a few more of them, and although the mistakes she made frustrated him, he also had to admire how well she captured everyone’s emotions in their faces. To his displeasure, he found one that was a close up of Kagome looking out of the corner of her eye as she hid fearfully behind a tree, while he and Kikyou were embracing in the background. He frowned, his generous mood having evaporated.

InuYasha tore down that picture with a swipe of his claws, and turned to leave. Of corse, he was stopped by another picture he had failed to notice. This one was hanging over her door, fluttering from the breeze let in by the open window. It was a simple enough sketch, drawn with colored pencils like all of the others. But instead of a figure standing alone, or some sort of scene, it was a pair of hands. One was male, large, calloused, and clawed. The other was small, pale, and distinctly female, looking as if it was being overwhelmed by the other monster of a hand gripping it. And yet, they seemed to fit together perfectly, the clawed thumb gently grazing the skin on the back of the females hand.

InuYasha reached up and took it off of the door, and held it, smiling slightly. He didn’t know whose hand he was holding, but he knew whoever it was, he loved them.


________________________


“Disgusting.” InuYasha said as he wrinkled his nose, smelling the foul odor drifting from across the street.

He was once again in the tree, observing Betty Lou from afar. Her reaction to finding the food had not been as jubilant as he expected. Instead of squealing and jumping around like he’d wanted her to, she instead shrugged half-heartedly, as if she didn’t really want the food, but there was no point in letting it go to waste.

“Ungrateful wench...” he mumbled angrily. She knew who gave her the food. Didn’t mean that she had to go find him and thank him or anything.

He had been watching her for about four days now, and to his annoyance, she hadn’t slept more than an hour at a time. He was beginning to wonder if this was a normal occurrence when she also began smoking. He supposed that she didn’t do it often, or he would have picked up the scent on her clothes. But she must have had more experience with doing it than he thought, because she inhaled the smoke as if it were the air of longevity.

She also had another habit that disturbed him even more than picking off her lips. She would sit on her window sill after a long session of playing her guitar, letting her leg hang out in the open air. She stared off into the sky, smoking a cigarette, reminding InuYasha of Kagome’s fascination with the stars from his time. Then with a determined look on her face, she snuffed out her cigarette into the sensitive skin on her thigh, without even flinching at the obvious pain she was causing herself.

When she first did this, InuYasha had cried out, almost startling her enough to fall out of the window. He was about to leap forward to catch her from falling three stories, but she caught herself by grabbing the window. She had looked around the empty street, looking for the source of the yell. Eventually, she shrugged and went back inside, back to playing around with her guitar, as she didn’t have a TV.

She preceded to do that to herself every night so far, and InuYasha was praying to whatever Kami listened to hanyou that she’d run out of cigarettes.

‘She swears, she smokes, she eats like a pig, she hurts herself on purpose, and she’s in love with some other guy.’ he thought angrily. His fists tightened on the branches he was gripping. ‘Whatever. Doesn’t matter. It’s not like I care, anyway. Once she purifies the jewel, I’ll never see her again. And that’s just the way I want it.’ he said to himself, before adding a final thought. ‘She’s nothing like Kagome.’

And for once, his inner voice did not add to his musings.


_________________________


“Day number six.” InuYasha said out loud to no one in particular. He’d now been following her and sitting in the tree for almost a full week. He knew for sure she had seen him following her to school once, because he had to avoid being harassed by a cop she had stopped and pointed him out to.

He felt slimy and weird having to keep tabs on her all the time without her permission, making sure she didn’t try to leave the city or something stupid like that. Then again, where would she go? She barely had anything there, but she definitely had nothing anywhere else. Still, he also felt nostalgia at watching over her, protecting her like he did Kagome.

On the fifth day of his vigilance, he saw her being chased down the street by a bunch of boys yelling ‘Chink! Chink! Get the chink! Get her!’. As soon as Betty Lou had gotten out of sight from the boys, he had leaped down and showed them what a chink could do (whatever the hell that was) by delivering a few punches and death threats if they ever went near her again.

He was a little surprised to find out that she had been chased by these guys since she started living by herself, simply because she was Japanese. This angered him more than her smoking habit, and yet, couldn’t help but sympathize with her. He too had been chased because of what he was.

InuYasha was currently in a very bad mood, having not slept enough even for his hanyou body. Hiro had insisted on bringing him his ramen and a soda every once and a while, but other than that, InuYasha felt as if he was hunting in a dead forest, not eating until he caught something, which could be never if he didn’t find something soon.

Betty Lou was now pacing around her apartment, seeing as she had given up entertaining herself with her guitar. If he strained his ears, and there were no cars nearby, he could hear her frantic whispers

“I’m losing it, I need sleep, god I need some sleep. I’m going crazy, it’s happening again, oh dear god, Luna, I wish you were here.’ she murmured to herself, twisting her hands now as she walked around in circles.

‘Keh, no wonder you think your losing it, you took about four of those big ass sleeping pills.’ InuYasha thought with a snort of laughter. He was actually quite impressed with her ability to stay awake like she did. That is, until Hiro explained that she probably had some kind of disease that prevented her from sleeping. ‘Great!’ he had said. ‘On top of everything else, it’s impossible for her to sleep. Just fucking perfect!’ he spat.

InuYasha had to strain is eyes to see what she was doing now. He could see her through her window, and it looked like she was looking intently at her own reflection in her bathroom mirror.


InuYasha was beginning to worry what was wrong when she did nothing for almost ten minutes except stare at herself. Then, her aura seemed to implode on itself, sending out a wave of miko energy that made their hairs on the back of InuYasha’s neck stand up.

He watched in horror as Betty Lou slammed her own head down on the bathroom sink, effectively knocking herself unconscious, not hearing InuYasha’s scream.

“KEERA!”





(Author's Note)



Well, I felt so bad about taking so long with my last chapter, that I put myself into overdrive today and spat out this bad boy!

Okay, a few answers to questions I'm sure you have that I just can't work into the story.

1. No, Lee is not InuYasha's reincarnation. He's just some asshole whole stole Betty Lou's heart, who also happens to look like InuYasha and gets off bleaching his hair.

2. Lee and his dirtball friends are Chinese, not Japanese. The term yao mo is supposed to be the Chinese equvilant to youkai, which is the Japanese equivilant to demon, but then again, I'm no expert.

3. Sorry again for the song-fic-ishness, I truly don't want it to be anything tacky.

So there you have it. Since I managed to get this thing out in only two days, I think I deserve reviews, don't you? I love you all even if you don't review, ja ne for now!