InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Overboard! ❯ Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Neither the characters from the storyline `Inuyasha' by Rumiko Takahashi, nor the plotline from the movie `Overboard' with Goldie Hawn, are mine.

 

Overboard (Inuyasha-style)

Chapter 2:

 

Inuyasha growled in displeasure, sending his companions skittering away - all except Kikyou, Miroku and Sango. They were used to his ways. Eyeing him suspiciously, Miroku asked gently, “Is something wrong, my friend?”

 

“Of course, there is something wrong!” Inuyasha shouted back, unhappily venting his frustrations on the two closest to him. “Every day I gotta go to this stupid office and work my ass off, and EVERY DAY that jerk makes me look like a fool for no reason! He even insulted Kikyou today! Why, I have half a mind to…”

 

Sango scooted her body closer to Miroku's side, figuring her dark haired friend was paying too much attention to Inuyasha at the moment to heed her presence. She was both right and wrong. Miroku definitely noticed her warmth nearby, and his hands itched to wrap themselves around her, but he did, in fact, restrain himself because Inuyasha would not have taken kindly to be ignored. He filed away the fact that Sango wanted to be near him, for future reference. “Perhaps you might explain to whom you are referring?” asked the violet-eyed male, patiently.

 

“Sesshoumaru, of course!” barked Inuyasha, before calming slightly. “He's always trying to make me look bad in front of Dad. It pisses me off - I don't even know why he hates me so much. First, he helps me with my very real problems at school, then he turns around an attacks my reputation at home for absolutely no reason, just to make me look like an idiot.”

 

Sango chuckled at the way her friend referred to his hijinks at a sorority house, and later with the police, as `very real problems.' He had such a gift for understatement and foolhardy bravado.

 

“Maybe,” conjectured Miroku, with monk-like composure, “He's jealous?” It was a reasonable hypothesis. After all, Sesshoumaru had been the only son in a rich family for a long time. When Inuyasha's father had finally married his mother, bringing Inuyasha fully into the family, it had doubtless been a shock to the spoiled elder son. Such conflict between Inuaysha and his brother seemed quite normal to Miroku - just typical sibling rivalry and begrudging acceptance of a new family member. Inuyasha's arrogant brother was an adult now, but he had been a teenager when their family dynamics changed; it would naturally take a few years to adjust.

 

Inuyasha obviously disagreed with his friend's ideas. Sputtering a protest, he quickly replied, “No way! The bastard has everything that anyone could ever want! He has a fancy house, he's inheriting a company… he's owns five cars for chrissakes! What is there to be jealous of?”

 

Kikyou leaned forward and sipped her drink, nodding her agreement to their friendly words. “Yes, his anger was completely unwarranted. All I did was stand there.”

 

“Well then,” Miroku winked at his light-haired friend. “Perhaps the jealous one is you, Inuyasha.”

 

“WHhaaaaaaaaaaaat?” howled the youth, sending his friends into uproarious laughter.

 

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

 

It was the howling which finally drew Kagome away from her studies. Putting her books away, she meandered toward the table full of her friends, pondering her options. She enjoyed spending time with these four, but she could not help wishing she had a boyfriend too. Why didn't Inuyasha like her again? “Hey guys,” she waved, reaching the table. “What's going on?”

 

“Inuyasha can't add and his balance sheets came out wrong, so his company performance review was dreadful,” Sango rapidly filled her in on recent events. Inuyasha merely scowled in her general direction, his brow furrowing deeply with displeasure.

 

The diner was filling up with students now, and Kagome had to huddle closely to her cousin Kikyou's side, to keep from being pushed and shoved as others walked behind her chair. Wrapping an arm around her side, her cousin dragged her toward the table and allowed her to slide into the booth beside the rest of them. Then, adding another statement before Inuyasha could explode in anger again, Kikyou mentioned her own experience with the vice-president of the company.

 

“From what I hear of his brother,” Kagome rolled her azure blue eyes in reply as her cousin finished, “that is not at all unusual.”

 

“Well, it was still rude,” commented Kikyou. Around friends, the normally reserved and taciturn woman rapidly became more friendly and outgoing. Around her cousin though, Kikyou became positively vibrant.

 

The two girls looked quite similar, and they had grown up together as well, so Kagome tended to view Kikyou like a sister, and vice versa. The only physical difference between them was in their eyes - Kikyou's eyes were a rich, chocolate brown while Kagome's were a beautiful, clear blue. Aside from that, they styled their hair differently and wore very distinct clothing, trying to emphasize their distinct personalities with bits of personal fashion, to triumph over their physical similarities. The overall effect was striking, and while the two girls were no longer mistaken for twins as when they were younger, everyone still knew the girls were related.

 

Meeting her cousin's eyes, Kagome grinned and agreed. Then, as suddenly as the conversation had begun, it was dropped in favor of more pressing matters. Sango, the tallest woman in the group, pushed a flyer over to Kagome. A huge, white ship sailed across serene blue waters on the front of the brochure.

 

“So, Kagome! Have you thought more about joining our class trip?” her friend peppered her with questions, “The school is subsidizing it, so students can get super-cheap tickets! You don't want to be alone that week do you? Finals will be over, and summer jobs won't have begun yet, so you should come!”

 

Laughing at her friend's enthusiasm, Kagome shook her head and gave her usual excuse for bowing out of the cruise. This was hardly the first time Sango had approached her on the subject. “I have to work at our family shrine this summer. It's not the sort of job you apply for whenever you are ready to begin working - it is the kind of job that begins as soon as you can get there!”

 

Dismissing her concerns, Kikyou waved one hand in the air. “Why don't you get Souta to do it?” she asked. “Your little brother never does anything but play video games all summer anyway. His brain will melt. Do him a favor and ask him to care for the shrine for one week.”

 

Kagome sighed and smiled weakly. Mother worked, and grandfather was too old to tend to the shrine, but her cousin was right; Souta would be more than capable of sweeping the shrine steps and greeting visitors for a week, while she went on a trip. Yet although working at the shrine was her most often cited excuse, it was not her real reason for wanting to avoid the cruise. In truth, Kagome feared that boat-trips were only for couples. Once again, her lack of a boyfriend had come back to bit her in the butt, hindering her in life.

 

Why couldn't Inuyasha have liked her instead of Kikyou, again? They looked quite similar, after all. He had simply met her cousin first. Often, Kagome contemplated how things would have been different, if she had been a few years older and gone to college sooner…

 

Lost in her own little world, Kagome Higurashi failed to see the gleam in her cousin's eye. Squeezing Sango's hand under the table, a pact was silently made between friends. Once and for all, Kikyou had determined that her little cousin was going to have a good time. Summer break was meant for recreation and enjoyment, not work!

 

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

 

And that was how Kagome found herself standing against the railing of a gigantic cruiseship, staring out at the blue waters of the East China Sea with her friends, as they traveled southwest for a week of rest and relaxation. Her cousin had somehow bribed, intimidated, or otherwise forced her brother Souta into indentured servitude at the Higurashi shrine for an extra week, while Kagome took a vacation after her finals ended. Although she had been dubious at first, and she had felt slightly guilty at making her brother do all the work, she was starting to enjoy her trip.

 

They were heading toward Shanghai, where the ship would port for a few days, allowing new passengers to board and the Japanese tourists could explore to their hearts content. Then the tour group would return to the boat, and the cruiseship would head toward the Pacific Ocean for a few days, finally returning to Japan after a week. Then, the process would repeat again. Apparently, it was a very lucrative business, especially in the summer months.

 

Feeling the cool breeze lift her hair, Kagome let it restore her spirits after a tough semester. She was trying to become a journalist, but some days she did not think she had the writing skills or the gumption to muscle her way into this already over-crowded field. But out here, away from the hustle and bustle of the city, she could pretend she had no worries.

 

Her earlier fears had proven only partially true. Cruises really were for couples, but her friends were kind enough to include her in their activities anyway. Not that there was much to do onboard, aside from eat, sleep, play cards, or attempt to beat little old ladies at shuffleboard. This ship was a smaller version of the company line, with less fancy bells and whistles. There was no swimming pool or ballroom. Still, the overall package had been very cheap, with an additional discount tacked on because she was a student.

 

She had bought a small digital camera for the trip, even putting it in a waterproof wrap to keep out the humidity and the rain, and Sango had taken nearly a hundred pictures of her already, laughing about the way Kagome treated her brand-new camera like a precious baby. Really though, her excitement was not unreasonable. One, she had never bought a new camera before, and two, she had never been on a trip like this! Until now, she had always traveled within Japan, if at all. Having a chance to tour Shanghai thrilled her to pieces.

 

Meanwhile, she tried to ignore the way Inuyasha and Kikyou doted on each other, focusing her attention on more important things, like … how many shrimp she could fit on one plate without dropping it. Or take now for instance - she was pretending to be an albatross in favor of watching her friends make out on a deck-chair. Arms extended perpendicularly, Kagome leaned into the breeze, allowing the railing to support her weight. Strangely enough, it did not bother her when Miroku and Sango flirted. It was amusing to watch the violet-eyed man attempt to impress his athletic sweetheart with his outrageous stories. But being near her cousin and the platinum blond hunk she had a serious crush on while they admired one another? That was just depressing.

 

Why didn't Inuyasha like her again?

 

Fingering her digital camera, she put it back in its tight, waterproof carrying case, and slowly trudged below the deck, resolutely deciding to ignore the matter for the rest of the week. She absolutely could not remain hung up on this issue! He had never even thought about dating her - he had met Kikyou first. Plus, her cousin was as dear to her as a sister; family members did not betray each other.

 

Knowing that her thoughts were both inappropriate and unwelcome, Kagome had tried her best to forget them, but spending lots of free time around her cousin (and Inuyasha by extension) had made this quite difficult. At the moment, the best she could do was put her thoughts and desires aside for short spurts and stretches, while she focused on other matters. Taking things one day at a time, she had chipped away at her degree, forcing herself to concentrate on other issues, until abruptly an entire year had passed.

 

And then, just before finals, she had had a terrible revelation. She had realized her feelings for Inuyasha were not leaving, no matter how much she willed them to disappear. Perturbed, she had tried avoiding the couple, but this tactic had failed miserably. Kagome was a `people' person and family time was precious to her. Depriving herself of joy had seemed a terrible waste of energy and time, especially since it did not solve the underlying cause of her problem.

 

All of which left her right back where she had started. A ridiculous crush was preventing her from enjoying life or finding a boyfriend of her own, and it was spoiling her family relationships. Surely, her cousin Kikyou had noticed the distance growing between them by now. Or was it only in her head? Maybe no one really noticed her absences from their table in the diner, or the way she would fall silent during conversations. In the end, perhaps the others made up for her lack.

 

With a sigh, Kagome flopped down on her bunk and fell asleep, one arm thrown over her eyes to block out the sunlight.