InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Overboard! ❯ Chapter 9

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

 

Author's Note: One reader pointed out that Sesshoumaru is a bad boy going to hell. This is entirely possible. My goals for the previous chapter: (1) to follow along with the movie, Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn supposedly sleep together during the plot, (2) to depict how people can do bad things in the name of `love' and (3) to demonstrate that physical relations are almost always a mistake if you're not on the same page as your partner. Again though, I don't know much about it, being more hopeless case than hopeless romantic in real life. Take the fanfic with a grain of salt. : )

 

Overboard (Inuyasha-style)

Chapter 9:

 

“Sir, Mr. Matsumoto on line two,” buzzed his secretary from the other end of the line. Sesshoumaru ignored her and continued staring at the ceiling. It wasn't a particularly nice roof; it had fluorescent lights and tacky paneling, but he really didn't feel up to work today, and looking at the ceiling kept him awake. After failing to sleep a wink the night before (for obvious reasons), he had dragged himself to the office like he was walking to his own execution, and now he was waiting.

 

The Princeton web-dictionary had defined `waiting' as “remaining inactive in one place while expecting something.” A subsequent explanatory sentence said: “the wait was an ordeal for him.” Sesshoumaru found he agreed. He was inactive, he fully expected horrible results, and doing nothing was extremely strenuous today, a test of his fortitude.

 

At first, he had been nervous. What could he possibly say to justify his behavior? What would Inuyasha do? A few hours later, he had completely ceased thinking and the anxiety had bled away, leaving him faint and exhausted.

 

His half-brother would return sometime this afternoon, and he had no idea how to explain himself. Of course, there was always the off-chance that Inuyasha wouldn't have noticed Kikyou's disappearance. That was what this entire ordeal was about, wasn't it? The fact that the boy had failed to notice the disappearance of his precious girlfriend in the middle of Shanghai while on vacation. Still somehow, Sesshoumaru did not believe the situation was likely to resolve so easily.

 

Thinking about what his half-brother, his family, society, or Kikyou would say did not help either - it only left him spinning his wheels, vacillating back and forth on the topic of his guilt. Most of all he just wanted to get this over with, and hand his `wife' off to someone who could help her regain her memories, exactly what he should have done upon reaching Japan. Looking back, it was hard to fathom why he had tried so hard to keep her from learning the truth. The moment they returned home, he should have called his brother's cell phone and immediately returned the woman to her family. To do anything else was foolishness in the extreme!

 

Somehow though, every time he had considered this, he had put off the decision or rationalized it another way. Rather than restoring her to his half-brother, her family, or even the authorities, he had lied to himself and Father and tried to prevent her from leaving before it was absolutely necessary. In the end, Sesshoumaru was left with only one conclusion - he had wanted her to stay with him from the very first day. If he had not, then he would have felt no compulsion to keep her.

 

Could his problem run deeper than he thought? Earlier he had persuaded himself that this was an errand to annoy Inuyasha, an effort to teach his half-brother responsibility. Yet surely the best way to rub Inuyasha's nose in his shortcomings would have been to telephone the boy and taunt him about how easily he lost girlfriends, or some such thing. There were many other ways he could have handled the situation, yet he had purposefully deluded himself and taken her home.

 

In the past, the main reason Kikyou had annoyed him was because she dated Inuyasha. His half-brother had allowed her in the office, slacking off work to flirt with her. But maybe this was not the sole reason Kikyou had displeased him. After all, the other girls Inuyasha dated never troubled Sesshoumaru like this one. Perhaps there had always been a little bit of jealousy over the woman, and not just his brother's actions. He minded being alone, while watching his worthless half-brother make out with someone worthwhile. Perhaps his epiphany last night had been a long time coming, and his feelings were nothing new, merely deeply denied.

 

Maybe… maybe he never really hated Kikyou at all. Even before his trip to Shanghai, Sesshoumaru had been willing to admit the woman was beautiful. And due to her amnesia, Kikyou's cool demeanor had disappeared, removing the only personality trait that he objected to and leaving behind a vibrant, warm individual. She had grinned at him and chatted sincerely with everyone she met, including the chauffeur… She had been good with Rin…

 

With a sigh, Sesshoumaru contemplated how pitiful he sounded, even to himself. What kind of an idiot did such things? He was supposed to be the smart one in the family. Apparently, he was just as prone to reckless behavior as the next person.

 

At long last, his wait ended. Through his closed office door, he heard his secretary protesting someone's entrance, and he signaled her to let his sibling enter the room, dread prickling at his senses. But when Inuyasha pushed open the door, the boy didn't even appear to be upset.

 

One brow raised, Inuyasha smiled darkly. “How's it going, brother dear?” the youth inquired with false cheer, in a snide tone.

 

Blinking sluggishly, Sesshoumaru realized getting some sleep the night before would have been beneficial - it might have helped his powers of persuasion a bit. At the moment, he hardly felt rational or coherent. For instance, his sleep-deprived brain had just informed him that Inuyasha was not angry, and this information was surely incorrect.

 

“Enough of that!” a shrill voice answered his brother, and a woman with dark hair pushed her way past the light haired boy, glaring angrily at Sesshoumaru for all she was worth. “Where is my cousin?” Kikyou demanded furiously, “Kagome isn't at the shrine, so she must still be with you.”

 

Shrine? What shrine? his mind added unhelpfully. Then, inspecting the woman more closely, he recognized her. Brown eyes, long straight hair… It was definitely his brother's girlfriend Kikyou. But Kikyou has blue eyes, he thought desperately, holding onto a tiny piece of flotsam in a shifting sea of confusion. Not that I ever really looked at her eyes, before…

 

Heart racing, Sesshoumaru took a step backward, intimidated by the irate woman before him and severely wounded by a sudden burst of clarity. Bad enough, that he had kidnapped Kikyou from Shanghai, except now it seemed he had not done so at all. Somehow, he had grabbed the wrong woman. The wrong person! The female living in his home, playing with Rin, waiting for her friends and family to take her home, was not Kikyou by any stretch of the imagination.

 

Come to think of it, they didn't really look much alike. The woman in front of him had a caustic, cold expression, while his `wife' had always been warm and eager to smile. One had slightly curlier hair, a nicer disposition, and blue eyes that shone like a bright, clear sky. One woman belonged to his brother, and the other…

 

“C-cousin?” he stammered, feeling all the blood drain away from his face, and hearing a ringing tone begin in his ears. His head felt lighter than air, and he stopped breathing entirely.

 

At the look on his older half-brother's face, Inuyasha broke out into laughter. The man of steel with a heart of ice, finally at a loss for words. Sesshoumaru appeared totally gobsmacked, and his half-brother was enjoying every second of it. It served the bastard right!

 

Kikyou whipped around and hit her boyfriend on the arm. “It's not funny, you idiot!” she protested strongly, “You said he would drop her off at the shrine, and I believed you! But if Kagome had amnesia, then she didn't remember the shrine! You're such an idiot! I should never have listened to you!”

 

Neither of them noticed Sesshoumaru stumble, grasping the side of his desk like a lifeline in a storm.

 

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

 

Eventually the boisterous laughter and screaming drew Touga from his office and down the hall. The older man stared blankly for a while, never having seen anything quite like this. His eldest son looked ready to faint, and his youngest son was having some kind of hysterical seizure. The girl looked painfully familiar too.

 

“Hey! You look like…” Touga interjected and then stopped. Narrowing his focus on his youngest son, the old man growled, “Inuyasha, what did you do?”

 

This got the blond boy's attention fast. “Me?!” he complained, standing up straight and facing his Father, “Whaddya mean, I'm not the one screwing around with people's lives here!”

 

“You told me your brother had gotten married in Shanghai,” Touga continued, growing more exasperated by the second. “Naturally I did not believe you, as Sesshoumaru is not given to impetuous actions such as that.”

 

In the background, his eldest son remained as white as a sheet during this speech, nothing but air coming out as he tried to speak. When Touga made his last comment though, Sesshoumaru hung his head and avoided his Father's eyes. The outcome of this conversation did not bode well.

 

“Both of you, in my office now,” Touga ordered firmly, adding to Kikyou in a sugary sweet tone, “Oh, and you too, my dear. Of course you're welcome to come.”

 

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

 

Some days, it just paid not to wake up in the morning.

 

Touga closed his eyes and drew a deep breath. After listening to both sides of the story, he felt astounded by the stupidity of both his sons. Where did he go wrong?

 

Sesshoumaru had given Kikyou the keys to his house so she could retrieve her cousin. Once the incensed girl had left the office, Touga had turned on his errant boys with his mightiest glare. “Frankly, I'm appalled at both of you,” he frowned. “I knew the two of you had differences. But I never expected you would take personal rivalry this far. You care enough about humiliating each other that you would risk injuring a young girl's life and sanity in the process?”

 

Thoroughly embarrassed, Inuyasha flushed and sank down in his chair. On the other side of the table, his elder half-brother remained a blank slate. Of course, Sesshoumaru had spent all last night and this morning mentally bemoaning the exact same issue, but he made a policy of never showing his emotions in public. A policy that was being seriously tested today.

 

“All right, here is what we're going to do,” Touga announced at length, analyzing both his sons' expressions. Neither one seemed genuinely concerned for the poor girl who had been caught in their mad game of one-up-manship, although admittedly, his eldest son had always been hard to read. “First of all, you're both fired.”

 

“What?!” Inuyasha replied, outraged. Sesshoumaru closed his eyes miserably. This seemed like the worst case scenario - but then, he deserved it after what he had done.

 

“You heard me,” repeated their Father, “Fired! Your brother is right, Inuyasha - giving you this opportunity allowed you to grow lax in your studies, and you have accomplished nothing all year long. You flirt with secretaries and fritter away company money. This isn't a game - it is a chance to advance yourself and prove you are capable of responsibility, which, I might add, you have not shown. You're fired. If you want a job with this company, then you apply at the door just like everyone else, and you work your way up.”

 

Next, swirling his chair to face his eldest son, Touga continued his tirade. “And as for you,” the large man pointed and gestured angrily, “I can't even begin to say how ashamed I am of your behavior! It wasn't enough to get Kagura pregnant, become a single parent and ruin your potential, now you want to become a criminal too?”

 

Wide eyed, Sesshoumaru intended to interrupt - he hadn't done anything criminal! He hadn't been completely honest, but surely he wasn't on par with a murderer or someone like that. But his Father cut him off before he began. For the last two days Touga had been working himself into a fury over his son's dubious behavior, and this gave him a chance to reveal his true feelings at last. “Not a word!” he shouted. “I don't care if your actions blur the line between what is legal and what is not; it doesn't matter if you could plea bargain your way out of trouble - what you did was wrong! I don't hire criminals, and I don't employ them. So you're fired too. If you want a job with this company, then you start over with your brother and prove you're worth my time.”

 

At this, Sesshoumaru could feel his heart sinking in his chest, icy fingers creeping up his spine. All his work for the last four years, his perfect grades in college, all of it meant nothing. He'd thrown away his future in less than a week.

 

“If the girl presses charges, then you admit to every single one of them, and pay your dues,” Touga finished. “Afterward, regardless of what happens, you will write and hand-deliver to her a personal apology.”

 

Sesshoumaru instantly felt like he was about ten-years old, being assigned lines by the teacher in his first and only detention. Father was right of course, and he knew it. But an apology wouldn't be enough - for he had failed to tell his Father the full story. The others still did not know about last night.

 

Last night…

 

Swallowing, he felt bile rising in the back of his throat. Gods, what if she got pregnant? He paled once again and laid his head on the oval-shaped table. Yes, he had used protection but even condoms had a failure rate. And the room had been dark, maybe he hadn't put it on correctly. Finding ever more things to worry about by the second, Sesshoumaru laid his head on the table and tried not to breathe.

 

Touga misinterpreted his eldest son's gesture, and excusing Inuyasha, he turned to face his eldest son one last time. “I know you probably think I am being unfair,” he scowled unhappily, “But I can't risk having a scandal linked to this company.”

 

Sesshoumaru nodded weakly, his pale hair falling forward onto the table, covering his cheeks. Still, he refused to meet his Father's eyes or sit up in the chair. What did it matter in the end anyway? He didn't need this job; he had money. Those dreams of saving up capital to start a company someday were probably just unrealistic.

 

By now, Touga began to detect something seriously wrong with his son. The boy never laid down his head in defeat. It was out of character; Sesshoumaru never quit before speaking his mind. The silence was unnerving.

 

Trying to reassure his son yet unwilling to relent, Touga explained his position as best he could. “It's not that I don't see it when Inuyasha makes mistakes,” he said, pleading with his son. “I know he does. But when your brother makes mistakes they are tiny. When you make mistakes, they're huge. They are life-changing errors that affect everyone around you. You understand me?”

 

Finally, Sesshoumaru drew himself up and stared out the window. This would probably be the last time he'd see the view from the top floor of their office building, after all. He nodded curtly. Of course, he understood. Touga had to protect his investments. It was just business.

 

For second time in his life, he realized what his Father thought of him was not the problem. Right now, the knowledge that he had hurt an innocent girl tormented him far worse than anything the old man could say. Her name was Kagome. Ka-go-me. Not Kikyou. When she arrived at her family's shrine, she would recover her past, but all he could hope was she blissfully forgot the last few days in the process.

 

And how was he supposed to look his little girl in the eye after this, knowing what a horrible person he was? Rin was sweet and innocent. She deserved a better father.

 

“May I be excused?” he asked dryly, in a deadened tone. With his Father's permission, he pushed back his chair and bowed low before leaving the room. The motions were mechanical. Movement was only possible because he had done it so many times in the past that it had become automatic.

 

What would she say, when he spoke the truth?

 

It was difficult to imagine what she would think of him now. Planning to apologize and doing so effectively were two very different things. A case of mistaken identity like this could be explained, but not easily forgiven. The girl with vivacious blue eyes and cute dimples when she smiled, a woman with such a friendly demeanor, who had been kind to Rin and himself - she was going to hate him.

 

He should have told her the truth last night, or better yet, a few days earlier. Perhaps he could have left her in Shanghai. The officers there had been kind and understanding, and it hadn't hurt her to sit in a foreign police station, waiting for her cousin to rescue her.

 

He wished he could go back and do it all again, the right way this time.

 

But it was too late, and life had moved on without him, while he fooled himself into believing everything was all right. After a pitiful and probably futile apology, he would never see her again. Alone with Rin, his life would go on.