InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Palm of Your Hand ❯ In the Long Run ( Chapter 7 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Disclaimer: InuYasha is the property of Rumiko Takahashi, not me. I'm just having fun and making no money doing it.

In the Long Run

InuYasha's flight arrived at the airport right on schedule, and Ru was there waiting for him at five o'clock sharp. Their initial greeting was awkward; with InuYasha immediately insulting Ru's hair, before they hesitantly attempted a simultaneous hug/handshake that resulted in the two of them bumping shoulders while waving their arms.

After clearing their throats in an uncomfortable sort of way, they headed to baggage claim, gathered InuYasha's luggage, and made their way to Ru's car. When InuYasha climbed into the car he had the strangest feeling. 'Whoa. Deja-vu.' he thought to himself. 'No, it's not deja-vu...it's something else.' He couldn't put his finger on it. It was so slight and vague, but it was familiar. 'Something is...off? No, not off. Out of place? Is it a scent?' He tried to focus on the source, but the overpowering mixture of scents clinging to him from the airport were making it nearly impossible to hone in on just one.

Ru noticed InuYasha sniffing the air with a look of concentration. "What is it?" he asked.

"I don't know..." InuYasha shook his head.

Ru just shrugged it off and launched into a round of small talk. InuYasha engaged Ru's idle chatter, the phantom feeling continuing to gnaw at the back of his mind all the while. By the time they made it to Ru's building they'd had ample time to catch up and were able to once again make semi-comfortable conversation. As they entered the apartment InuYasha was almost knocked back by the acrid chemical stench of Ru's art supplies. Ru didn't react, nor did he notice his uncle's reaction to the unpleasant odors.

"Feeling any better?" Ru asked, having discussed in length on the car ride over InuYasha's inclination toward altitude sickness.

"Not really," InuYasha answered as he dropped his luggage by the door. "And the smell of this place sure ain't helpin'... gods, how do you stand it?!"

Ru shrugged. "You can get used to anything given enough exposure to it." he said. "I don't even notice it anymore."

"Well that's fucking good for you, but I don't think I can deal with it right now. Can't you open a window or something?"

"Geez, do you ever stop whining? It's like a thousand degrees outside. If I open the windows my roommate will kill me." Ru said.

InuYasha continued toward the windows despite Ru's objections. "Well, he's just gonna have to suck it up." he said as he started pulling back the latches.

"She," Ru corrected. "And trust me Yash, you don't want to mess with her air conditioning."

InuYasha furrowed his brow as he turned back to look at Ru. "Your roommate's a girl?" he asked.

"Of course she's a girl. I can't believe you didn't know that. She's been my roommate for years." Ru was actually somewhat surprised by how little his uncle actually knew about his life. "I wouldn't want a guy roommate anyway. I've been down that road. Girls are the way to go."

"Keh!" InuYasha scoffed as he pushed open the window despite Ru's warning. He knew that Ru's little comment was a jab at the time when the two of them had been roommates. He stuck his head out the window and sucked in a breath of air. As he looked down the six stories to the ground he saw people milling about on the sidewalk. He sighed inwardly. 'I wonder what they'd do if I threw up on their heads…'

Ru made his way into the kitchen and began rummaging through the cabinets, retrieving a bag of coffee. "So anyways, make yourself at home. I'm gonna make some coffee...if I can figure out how. Feel free to lie down on the couch or you can use my room if you want." Ru said as he scanned the back of the bag for instructions.

InuYasha pulled back from the window. "Couch is fine." he declared, as he walked over to said couch. Flopping down and burying his face in the back cushions, hoping to filter out some of the smells in this god-awful apartment.

As he drew in a deep breath he paused. 'That scent…that was the fucking scent in the car...' he thought to himself. 'Ru's roommate...is a human girl? Damn...she smells so much like Kagome...'

The idea that she might actually be Kagome never even entered his mind.

"Are you going to sleep right now?" Ru asked before sticking out his tongue in concentration as he fumbled with peeling apart the coffee filters.

"If you ever shut up I am." InuYasha mumbled.

"Alright, you cranky old asshole..."

As a hand with middle finger extended rose over the back of the couch, Ru thought to himself, 'This is going to be interesting'. He had no idea just how interesting things were about to get.

<<>>

Kagome awoke to sunlight streaming in through her window. It was early. 'Maybe seven?' She picked up her phone and saw exactly 7:00 AM on the display. 'Damn, I'm good.' she thought to herself.

She was shocked to already smell coffee brewing. Ru was not exactly an early riser...well actually, now that she thought about it, she had never really seen him sleeping. Who knows? Maybe he didn't sleep at all. Either way, he typically emerged from his room about the time she got home from work around nine, and he never ever made the coffee. Never.

When she rolled over, she found her face about an inch away from the back of a disheveled blond head of hair. 'Oh, god.' she mentally groaned. She had momentarily forgotten about last night's little misadventure. 'I so don't want to deal with this right now.' She just knew this one was going to be a clinger. As quietly as possible, so as not to disturb her slumbering bedfellow, she slid into her robe and stealthily out her bedroom door.

Standing in the kitchen, Ru peered at her over his mug as he sipped his coffee.

Momentarily distracted from her self-loathing, Kagome skipped to the coffee maker. "It's a Christmas miracle!" she bellowed, making a show of exaggerated enthusiasm over Ru's previously unseen coffee brewing competence.

"SHHHH!!!" Ru shushed her, waving his free hand. "Shut your loud mouth!"

"Geez, what's your problem?" Kagome whispered. Unsure as to exactly why she was whispering.

"My uncle is here and he is sleeping right there on the fucking couch, and he is a pain in the ass when he's awake, so shut the hell up!" Ru whispered back forcefully.

"Okay. I'm sorry, I'm shutting up." She held her hands up in a sign of surrender.

He could tell she wasn't actually going to shut up.

"I wish you would have told me he was coming today. Did you know there's a guy in my room right now?"

"Yeah. So what?" Ru said shrugging his shoulders.

"So, I don't want your family thinking I'm some floozie who goes around banging random guys!"

"Why? Are you afraid my father might deny you when you ask for my hand?" Ru said sarcastically.

"Everything's a damn joke to you, isn't it."

"Ideally." He grinned. "Besides, isn't 'banging a random guy' exactly what you did?"

She sighed audibly. "Well, I've just never met anyone from your family and I wanted to make a good first impression." Kagome said dejectedly as she retrieved a mug from the cupboard and filled it with the questionably strong smelling brew. "So much for that happening...is he staying here with us?"

"Just tonight. He's checking into his apartment tomorrow."

Kagome dramatically opened her eyes wide as she took a sip of the coffee. "I'm proud of you for trying, but you got the coffee a little strong..." she said, patting his back with her free hand.

"That's the way cowboys drink it. It'll put hair on your chest." he joked.

"Well if that's the case, you should drink the whole pot." she teased him.

They both chuckled quietly before turning their heads abruptly to the sound of the door to Kagome's bedroom clicking open, and her very youthful looking date from the previous night stumbling out. She shushed him before he had a chance to speak. "Hey, listen, Sam, I had a great time last night and everything, but my roommate has family in town so you're gonna have to go ahead and go." she whispered to him. "Sorry." Even she cringed at her patronizing tone.

"No problem," he said quietly. "Umm...is it okay if I give you a call sometime? I'd love to see you again."

'Yeah, I bet you would.' "Tell you what, how about I give you a call sometime?" Kagome suggested.

"Okay then," he agreed, blissfully ignorant of her obvious rejection. "I look forward to it."

"Me too." she lied, as she grabbed his arm and ushered him toward the door. Before he exited he leaned in for a kiss to which she abruptly turned her head, diverting the kiss to her cheek. His disappointment was obvious. They both said their goodbyes as she quietly shut the door behind him. 'I'm going to hell for sure.' she berated herself mentally as she rested her forehead against the door and let out a long sigh. She never thought she would become the type of person what could treat someone like an object. 'Ugh...I'm such a shit bag.'

She could see the smug look on Ru's face as soon as she turned around. She had done something embarrassing and horrible and now she had to face the music. She tiptoed back into the kitchen.

"So, I know I've accused you of being an old hag, but I didn't know you were a cougar." he said with an air of satisfaction.

"You are an asshole." she annunciated slowly.

"Does the term 'jailbait' mean anything to you?" Ru said, barely containing a giggle.

"You're really proud of yourself there aren't you?" Kagome snapped. "And for your information, he's twenty-one. I asked."

"Oh, well so long as you asked…" he said, sarcastically. "There is no fucking way that guy was twenty-one."

"Yes he is! I carded him at the bar." she argued.

"Right," he drawled. "and there's no way someone could get a fake I.D." His tone still dripping with sarcasm.

"Stop. Okay? Just stop. You can see that I feel bad about this, so please just back off." her whispers getting progressively louder and more forceful.

Ru was silent for all of ten seconds.

"I apologize in advance for this," he interjected, "but you know I just have to ask…was he..."

"Mint condition?" Kagome finished for him, anticipating his question before he could ask it.

He nodded.

"If he wasn't, he couldn't have been far from it..." she said dryly before covering her face with her hands.

Ru hissed through his teeth. "Ooh, that bad, huh?" he replied.

Kagome cringed as she separated her fingers over her eyes to peek through. "I'm not even sure how to describe it...is elbowy a word?" she mumbled.

Attempting to stifle his laugh, Ru snorted loudly before bursting into a fit of giggles. "There's my girl!" he said as he reached out and wrapped his arms around her waist, lifting her high off the ground in a hug. "What am I going to do with you, Kagome?" he said, shaking his head as he placed her back on her feet.

<<>>

"What am I going to do with you, Kagome?"

The name echoed in InuYasha's mind. Kagome.

'No...It can't be her. It's not possible. It's not fucking possible that she could have been right here under my goddamn nose this whole time. No, it isn't her. It couldn't be. It's some other girl named Kagome….some other girl who smells like Kagome…'

He had been awake for the entire exchange, barely dozing off before the girl had come barrelling into the room shouting something about Christmas. The voice didn't really sound like Kagome, but then again, she was ten years older now. And he also hadn't heard her voice in five hundred and ten years, so it's likely he wouldn't recognize it even if she sounded the same. He was having a hard time picturing his Kagome being the same woman he had just overheard deftly shutting down an apparent one night stand.

God, how he wanted it to be her though...

He felt like he was going to explode. Part of him wanted to jump up off that couch and see if it was really her, and the other part of him wanted to lie there feining sleep for the rest of all time. What was wrong with him? When was he ever one to avoid a confrontation? 'What am I afraid of?' he thought to himself. 'That it won't really be her after I got my damn hopes all up, that's what.' he answered his own question. 'Geez, am I having a conversation with myself now? I'm losing it.' He rubbed his hands over his face and rolled onto his back, preparing to face the music.

<<>>

"How is he sleeping through this? Isn't he an inu-youkai too?" Kagome whispered, nodding towards the back of the sofa.

"Yeah, there is no way he's still asleep." Ru said, his voice growing steadily louder. "I think he's just faking," he half shouted the last word. "although I don't know why." Ru and Kagome sipped their coffee quietly and continued to stare tentatively at the back of the couch.

'Shit' InuYasha thought. 'I wonder if this couch has a door to the outside?' he mused. 'Well it's now or never.'

"I'm fuckin' awake." InuYasha snapped.

Ru shot a sideways smirk at Kagome. "Then why, pray tell, are you just laying there eavesdropping on us like a weirdo?" Ru asked.

InuYasha didn't answer. Instead he just peeped over the back of the couch silently. He felt like a little kid.

He was acting like a little kid.

As soon as his eyes crested the back of the sofa, he saw her. It was her. She looked kind of different, and she sounded kind of different, but it was definitely her. She looked like she had slept in her makeup. Her hair was a mess and her clothes were rumpled from sleep.

And she was so beautiful he thought his heart was going to burst.

He needed to get his emotions under control before he approached her. 'Damn. How can this be? All this time...the guy she lived with, the fucking guy that she fucking loved so much…was Ru?'.

InuYasha turned and sat on the sofa with his back to them for a moment. Was he nervous or excited? He didn't know. He hadn't felt either of those emotions in such a long time. He stood and shoved his fidgeting hands into his pockets before making his way into the kitchen, still having no clue what he was going to do or say. She was eyeing him up and down as he entered the kitchen, but he couldn't sense any reaction from her at all. 'Why isn't she more surprised to see me?'

<<>>

Ru's uncle was nothing like Kagome had pictured him in her mind. He didn't look that much older than her and Ru. From the way Ru talked about him she had halfway expected him to be some old codger, despite Ru's comments about him being 'her type'. Although now that she thought about it, he could be a thousand and still look young since he's a youkai.

Ru was right, though. He was her type. And he was cute. No, not just cute, perfect. He was every bit as handsome as Ru, just slightly shorter, and much crankier. His facial features were more masculine than Ru's, but he had long hair. Even longer than her own, and...actually... now that she thought about it, the guy looked strikingly similar to InuYasha... Like a grown up, human looking version of InuYasha. Even his voice sort of sounded like him…

Yes, she definitely understood Ru's comment now. Her heart was suddenly beating very fast. She was really starting to regret this morning's little mishap even more than she already did. She felt like a schoolgirl with a crush on the new transfer student. 'Get ahold of yourself, Higurashi. You don't even know this guy.' she mentally soothed. She was drawn from her musings by the sound of Ru's voice.

"Kagome, this is my uncle, Yash." Ru said.

"Kagome Higurashi." she introduced herself, smiling as she broke herself from her reverie. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Takahashi-san." she said as she bowed slightly at the waist, as if being formal was going to erase the events of the morning.

Ru rolled his eyes at her formality, wondering why the hell she was acting so weird.

'She doesn't fucking recognize me.' InuYasha thought to himself, as the explanation for her absence of shock finally sank in. He hadn't even considered that possibility.

He momentarily considered carrying on this ruse, but ultimately decided against it. It wasn't going to take her long to figure it out anyway, and he wouldn't get off on the wrong foot with her this time.

"Kagome..." Looking into her eyes, he hesitated. What should he say? He didn't want to overwhelm her, but how could he avoid it? His heart was beating so fast he was sure he would go into cardiac arrest at any moment. "You don't remember me." he said softly. It wasn't a question.

Kagome's smile faded and she furrowed her brow. Her breathing became quick and shallow as her eyes frantically searching his face.

Ru was just standing there confused and somewhat excited by the confusion. He didn't know what was going on, but he sensed the drama building and he liked it.

"Have you two met?" Ru asked.

Kagome's was having trouble getting a full breath. She lowered her head, averting her gaze to the floor, trying desperately to think of what she should say. She knew this guy looked a hell of a lot like InuYasha, but she didn't think for a second it could actually be him. 'Could it be him?' She didn't want to get her hopes up. She had guarded her heart far too long to risk it getting shattered again now.

After several seconds of silence Ru spoke up again. "Kagome?" He leaned down and cocked his head to the side to look into her downcast face. He could sense her panic.

"lnuYasha?" she choked out as she lifted her head to meet his eyes. Her voice was barely a whisper. "I…uh…" she tried, and failed to piece together a coherent thought as she stood there, clutching her mug so tight she was sure it would shatter at any moment.

Ru just looked back and forth between the two of them, looking at each other. Not only did Kagome obviously already know his uncle, but she called him by a name he hadn't heard in at least two centuries. Something wasn't adding up.

Tears were starting to form in Kagome's eyes, and the scene was getting less enjoyable for Ru. He had never seen Kagome cry before and he didn't like it one bit.

"Kagome are you crying?" Ru asked with genuine concern in his voice as the first tear blazed a trail down her cheek. Obviously, he knew she was crying, he was just having a hard time believing it. In the time he had known her he had never once seen her get emotional about anything. "How do you two know each other?" he asked.

She turned to face Ru. "Remember the guy that I told you about? The hanyou?" she said, as her shaky hands furiously wiped away the tears she had let slip.

InuYasha stood silent, observing the conversation. Trying to read Kagome's emotions, which seemed to be all over the place at the moment.

Ru only nodded. Knowing what she was insinuating, but not quite believing it.

"Well... it's him." she confirmed. "It's InuYasha."