InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Palm of Your Hand ❯ Like Real People Do ( Chapter 9 )

[ 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.

Like Real People Do

"I work all night, so you're more than welcome to sleep in my room." Kagome offered to InuYasha. "I don't get off until nine A.M. so you'll probably already be gone before I get home."

Kagome, InuYasha and Ru conversed as they sat at the table eating dinner. InuYasha and Ru sitting next to each other, across from Kagome.

"You work fourteen hour shifts?" InuYasha asked her, disbelieving.

"Well, yes and no. It's two separate jobs." she corrected.

"That adds up to...seventy hours a week?" he asked incredulously.

"No, I just work four nights a week. And I get a couple half hour breaks so it really adds up to like, fiftyish." she said before taking a bite of her pizza.

He nodded. "Do you walk from one job to the other in the middle of the night by yourself?"

She shook her head in the negative as she swallowed her food. "The bakery is across the street from the bar and my manager always watches to make sure I get in and locked up safe."

He nodded approvingly.

"Are you satisfied Mom?" Ru teased. InuYasha punched him in the shoulder. Ru punched back. The next moment the two men hit the floor with a loud thump, rolling around like two schoolboys on the playground. Kagome just continued to eat her pizza, watching the show, knowing they wouldn't actually hurt each other. Not really, anyway. After about a minute the scuffle came to an end; InuYasha pinned to the floor on his stomach with Ru's knee in the center of his back. Kagome was actually surprised to see InuYasha bested by Ru. Of course, she had never seen Ru fight and she had seen InuYasha fight many times. She had no doubt that if it were a fight to the death, and InuYasha had his sword, he would have had the upper hand.

Ru slowly rose up and released him, smiling smugly.

"You're getting rusty." InuYasha said to Ru as he rolled over and sat up. Kagome noticed the ceramic tile that had previously been under InuYasha's face now sported a long, diagonal crack down the center.

"Well, who am I supposed to spar with? Kagome?" Ru retorted. "Besides, I don't know anyone around here who's strong enough to give me a decent match."

"Is Ru stronger than you?" Kagome questioned InuYasha innocently.

"He's twice as strong as me." he answered her without hesitation. "He used to be able to pin me in less than ten seconds."

"I'm five times stronger than you." Ru quipped.

"Oi, I'm trying to give you a compliment here. Don't ruin it." InuYasha snapped as he sat back down at the table.

Just then, there was a knock at the door.

"Not it!" Kagome yelled, smiling victoriously.

Ru sighed as he made his way to answer the door. It was the the downstairs neighbor, come to make sure everything was okay after hearing the scuffle.

"Oh, everything's fine," Ru told him. "I just...umm...knocked over the..." he turned and quickly scanned the room "umm...the fridge." he finished, mentally kicking himself.

"Oh...okay then." the neighbor said skeptically, craning his neck to try and peek in. "So long as everything's okay…"

"Yep. Everything's fine. Thanks." Ru said to the man and he waved him off and closed the door. He came back into the kitchen with a sheepish grin. "Whoops..."

"I knocked over the fridge?" Kagome repeated wryly. "What happened to 'Ru Takahashi: Master Liar Extraordinaire'?"

They all three chuckled.

"So, Kagome, when's your next night off?" InuYasha changed the subject abruptly.

"Wednesday." she answered. "Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Friday are the nights that I usually work."

"We should go out. I mean, would you like to, that is...go to dinner with me or something. Wednesday night. Like a date." he cleared his throat uncomfortably.

She smiled and suppressed a giggle. She couldn't help but wonder if he'd ever asked anyone out on a date before in his life. "I'd love to."

"Okay. How 'bout I meet you here at six-thirty then." he offered.

"That sounds great!" she chirped. Failing at her attempt be cool, and not sound too enthusiastic. She looked over her shoulder at the digital clock on the oven. 6:47. 'Damn.' "Well," she said disappointedly, "I gotta head out." She grabbed a notepad and jotted something down before ripping the sheet from the pad and handing it to InuYasha. "My phone number." she said as she recapped the pen. "In case you need to contact me for anything..."

"Thanks," he said, tucking the slip of paper in his breast pocket. "I'll text you so you'll have mine."

She smiled and looked at him a moment. A large bruise was forming over most of his forehead. "You're forehead is turning purple." she said, reaching out and brushing back his bangs, gently running her fingertips across it.

He relished the contact. "It'll be healed in less than an hour." he shrugged.

She dropped her hand from his face and nodded. "Well, I really have to go. I'll be late as it is. Hopefully I'll see you tomorrow evening, but if not I'll see you Wednesday for sure." she smiled.

He nodded. "I'll see you tomorrow…" he assured her, their eye contact lingering for several seconds.

"Get a room!" Ru called out teasingly, effectively ruining the moment.

Kagome rolled her eyes as she stepped over to Ru, who had been watching their exchange while happily scarfing down his pizza. "Be good." she sternly whispered to Ru as she leaned down to kiss him goodbye on the cheek. In defiant response he grabbed her head with both hands and pointedly kissed her on the lips with a comically loud smack.

"Stop it!" Kagome hissed quietly as she pushed away from him, obviously catching onto his game.

"Love you." he said sweetly to her back as she made her way to the door; shooting a sideways glance at his uncle, whose cheeks were beginning to match his forehead.

"Love you, too." she replied in a huff as she exited the apartment.

It was taking every ounce of InuYasha's self control to suppress his growl. His logical mind knew that Ru wasn't a threat, but his instinct was telling him to rip his throat out.

Ru looked at him and couldn't help but chuckle.

"What?!" InuYasha snapped.

"Nothing," Ru shook his head, smiling. "I've just never seen you like this. It's funny."

InuYasha scowled. "Seen me like what?" His eyes narrowed.

"I don't know...like all googly-eyed and jealous..." Ru chortled as InuYasha crossed his arms with a snort. Ru leaned back in his chair and laced his hands behind his head. "If you're so infatuated with her now, you just wait until she gets home from the bakery…mmm…" he groaned, closing his eyes. "She smells like a jelly donut..." he said dreamily.

InuYasha shook his head. "I swear, you are the weirdest motherfucker I've ever met in my life."

"Oh!" Ru exclaimed as he sat upright. "Speaking of that, that reminds me, Kagome thinks I'm gay and I'd really appreciate it if you didn't reverse out me."

InuYasha furrowed his brow. "And why does she think that?" he asked slowly.

"Because I told her I was." Ru stated casually, as if it were the most normal thing in the world for a person to do.

InuYasha just shook his head, giving him an incredulous stare. "Well...are you gay?" he asked.

Ru shrugged his shoulders. "Not that I know of." he said candidly. "I just got tired of shooting girls down all the time. Literally everywhere I go at least one woman, usually more, comes onto me. I started telling them that I was gay because telling them that I just wasn't interested in dating didn't work half the time. They all thought they could be the exception. If I'd have known I was going to end up friends with her I wouldn't have lied, but I've let it go on for too long to tell her now." he elaborated.

"You have a problem, Ru. You're a fucking pathological liar." InuYasha scolded him. "I won't say anything voluntarily, but if it comes up I ain't gonna lie to her. It'd be in your best interest to just tell her yourself...and the sooner the better 'cause she's gonna find out." he said, poking his nephew in the chest for emphasis.

"You know, the funny thing is, I actually kinda love living a lie." Ru said sincerely. "It's exciting... It inspires me."

InuYasha rolled his eyes. "You need to get a fucking hobby or somethin'."

<<>>

The next couple of days went by painfully slow for Kagome. InuYasha had eaten dinner with them every night since his arrival, but Ru, as usual, had dominated the dinner conversation. It was a non-stop barrage of questions about how they met and their quest to restore the sacred jewel and defeat Naraku. She had never seen Ru more captivated. He told them he was going to write a book about it, and she was sure he was actually being serious. Although knowing Ru he would never actually find the motivation to follow through with it.

Wednesday finally rolled around and Kagome was so excited when she got home from work that she couldn't sleep. After an hour of tossing and turning, she decided to get up and take a long soak in the tub to try and relax. It didn't help, but it did pass some time. After her bath, she decided she might as well go ahead and start getting ready for her date. She picked out a knee length, grey, a-line skirt and a mint green, bow-neck, sleeveless blouse. She wanted to be dressed up, but not too dressed up since she didn't know where they were going. She did her hair and makeup, and got dressed. Now all that was left was the waiting.

This brought her to her current situation: Sitting on the couch at three o'clock in the afternoon, fully dressed for her date that wasn't until six-thirty. She sighed. 'Maybe watching some TV will help me relax.' she thought. She flipped through the channels and settled on some boring cooking show. She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. 'I'll just rest my eyes a minute.'

She awoke to the sound of keys in the doorknob, and shot up off the couch as Ru entered the apartment.

When he saw her, he furrowed his brow in confusion. "Weren't you supposed to have a date tonight?" he asked.

"I wasn't asleep!" she mumbled. Still struggling to wake up. Ru just raised an eyebrow at her.

"What time is it?" she asked, her voice raspy.

"Quarter after seven." he answered.

"Shit!"

She snatched her phone up off the coffee table. She had a missed call and a text from InuYasha saying he was running late and would be there around seven. Just as she started to type a reply there was a knock at the door.

"Dammit!" She quickly stood and turned to face Ru as she combed her fingers through her hair. "How do I look?"

"You look like you need a mirror." he said flatly.

"FUCK!" she yelled as she dashed to the bathroom.

Ru opened the front door and InuYasha stepped in and scanned the room. "What was all that about?" he asked, having clearly overheard the loud burst of profanity through the door.

"Kagome accidentally fell asleep on the couch and woke up as Medusa." Ru said. Both men chuckled.

Just then, the bathroom door cracked open and Kagome called out, "Five more minutes!"

Ru snorted. "That's going to be the title of her biography. Lifetime presents: 'Five More Minutes: The Kagome Higurashi Story'." he said in his best dramatic narrator voice.

"I heard that!" Kagome called out.

Fourteen minutes later she emerged from the bathroom. "Okay," she smiled. "Just let me iron my shirt real quick and I'll be ready to go." she said as she skipped into her bedroom.

<<>>

By the time InuYasha and Kagome made it to the restaurant it was after eight o'clock. Kagome was relieved that the restaurant wasn't super fancy. She hated places like that and she was confident that InuYasha did too.

The type of food the restaurant served was something called fusion cuisine. She had no idea what that meant, but several of the employees at Cellsync had recommended it, saying that the chef was some kind of culinary goddess. Without knowing what anything on the menu actually was, Kagome asked their waiter what the most popular item was, and ordered that. InuYasha did the same, only specifying that it not be spicy.

"So, you're still a huge wimp after all these years." she teased after the waiter left the table.

"Hey, I'm not a wimp, I just have a sensitive palate."

"So does Ru, but he eats spicy food all the time."

"Ru's a masochist."

Kagome opened her mouth to retort, but snapped it shut when none was forthcoming. "I...I actually can't think of an argument for that." they both chuckled.

"So, I take it you've been busy at work." she said, referring to his tardiness.

"Not particularly. Everything just takes twice as long 'cause I'm constantly having to repeat every damn thing I say." he said bitterly. "I'm seriously tempted to just hire a translator."

"You should make Ru do it. His English is perfect, he can even speak with an American accent. And he's got nothing but time..."

"Have you ever tried to make him do anything?" InuYasha said, raising an eyebrow.

"Point taken." she conceded. "So, what is it that you do exactly?"

"Well, I'm usually a software developer, but my project right now is a campuswide hardware upgrade. All we are doing is replacing all the old computers, servers and cables with new ones."

"And what does a software developer do?" she asked.

"Develop software." he smirked.

"You know what I mean." she said flatly.

"Well, the details are incredibly boring. It's mostly just script writing. Which is like long lists of codes written in programming languages that prompt the device to take certain actions. I do mostly security software; anti-virus, spam filtering, vulnerability scans, encrypting personal information...that sort of thing."

Kagome looked at him a moment and blinked slowly. "Yeah...I don't know what any of that is." she chuckled.

"It's boring, but most of my work is project based and I love that. I can work my ass off for like six months, make a ton of money, and then just take off and do whatever I want until the next project. It's totally worth it."

"So what does 'doing whatever you want' entail?" she asked.

"Well, I haven't really had much time off for a while to tell you the truth, but when I do I like to do outdoorsy stuff I guess. Climbing mountains and shit like that. Although, I don't do much of that anymore either."

"Why?"

"Because it isn't very fun by myself..." he said honestly.

"Oh… did you and Ru do stuff together before he moved here?" she asked.

"Oh yeah, we were together all the time. After he moved out of his parents house he lived with me and Shippo for...jeez...probably close to two hundred years. Shippo eventually mated and moved out. Ru got his own place eventually too, but we still hung out all the time."

"Wow. So Shippo is still around then, too?"

"Yes, and man is he going to flip when I tell him I found you. I never told him anything about the time you were from. I didn't want him bugging the hell out of me about it." InuYasha said.

"Do you think he'll want to see me?" she asked timidly.

"If I called him right now and told him you were here, he'd be on the next flight out." he smiled. "Anyway, enough about me and the brats. What do you like to do?"

"I'll let you know when I figure it out." she said wryly. "All I do is work and nurture an unhealthy codependent relationship with my roommate."

"Yeah, I've noticed that." he mumbled.

She narrowed her eyes at him across the table. "You wouldn't happen to be feeling a little jealous now, would you?" she was trying hard to suppress a grin.

"What do I got to be jealous of?" he shrugged, trying to act casual. He was jealous. And being half inu-youkai made his jealousy even worse; he would go as far as to call it an affliction. As much as he tried not to let his emotions get the best of him, he was unsettled by Kagome and Ru's familiar repartee. It made him feel insecure. It made him doubt whether or not he had ever, or would ever have such a close bond with her himself. It made him just. plain. jealous.

"Nothing." Kagome agreed. "You have nothing to be jealous of."

"So, why do you work two jobs anyway?" InuYasha asked, getting back to the original subject. He was quite over talking about his nephew. The fact that Kagome seemed to be skilled in the art of diverting the direction of every conversation towards Ru was getting under his skin.

"I don't even know, really. Originally I took the second job at the bakery with the intention of going full time there and quitting my job at the bar. Then I realized I would make like half as much money at the bakery, so I changed my mind. I hate the bar and love the bakery, but I make way more money at the bar. I couldn't decide which to quit so I just kept them both."

"Sound logic..." InuYasha said facetiously. "You know what I think you should do?"

"What?"

"I think you should quit both jobs and come back home."

Her smile quickly faded. The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife and InuYasha immediately regretted bringing it up so soon. It had just been eating away at him. He didn't want to move here, but he knew that the chances of Kagome agreeing to leave Ru were slim to none. It was going to be a problem, he just knew.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that." he apologized.

"It's okay." she sighed. "I know we have to talk about...serious stuff...I just don't want to talk about it tonight."

He nodded in agreement.

Their food was delivered and they enjoyed their meal. They kept their dinner conversation light, focusing more on the present and markedly shying away from talk of the past or future.

<<>>

InuYasha and Kagome walked back to her apartment, hand-in-hand.

"Do you wanna come in and hang out with us for a while?" she asked him when they arrived at the door.

"Actually, I should probably go. I have some stuff I gotta work on for tomorrow." It was already past ten o'clock. "You're off again tomorrow night though, right?" he asked.

"Yes, and I'll be cooking dinner." she said smiling.

"Good." he smiled back. "I'll look forward to it then."

His smile faded to a more serious expression as he reached out and cupped her cheek in his palm, gently running his thumb across her lips. Quickly he swooped in, closing the distance between them and softly pressing a kiss upon those perfect pink lips that he couldn't stop thinking about kissing on the walk home; the hand that was on her cheek sliding back into her hair. She inadvertently drew some of the air from his lungs as she let out a little gasp against his mouth. He didn't even need to gauge her reaction, as once she realized what was happening, she opened up to him almost immediately. InuYasha barely suppressed the urge to smile as he deepened the kiss. He heard her let out a little moan, and felt her hands slide over his chest and behind his neck as she tentatively slipped her tongue into his mouth. His own tongue eagerly reciprocated as his free hand reached around her waist to the small of her back, pulling her against him; the brazen hand continuing its journey south, inch by inch.

Kagome's heart skipped a beat when InuYasha suddenly darted in to kiss her. For a split second she was fifteen again, young and naive and innocent; but before she knew it her thoughts and actions had taken a turn for the decidedly less innocent. She found that her tongue seemed to be sneaking into his mouth of it's own accord. She knew she was being forward, but as she felt his hand gliding down over the nebulous territory where back meets ass, she couldn't bring herself to care. Besides, her actions were actually surprisingly tame compared to her thoughts. Her thoughts of what his bare skin would feel like pressed against hers, what his tongue would feel like against other parts of her body, what the rest of him might taste like… 'Oh...my...control yourself, Higurashi!' she mentally scolded.

Both of them were so caught up in the kiss that neither heard anyone approaching until the apartment door was swiftly and dramatically flung open. They nearly jumped out of their skin as they jerked apart abruptly.

Ru looked Kagome up and down appraisingly, then turned to InuYasha. "I'll take two!" he bellowed obnoxiously. Milliseconds later, InuYasha tackled him to the ground.

<<>><<>><<>><<> >

A/N:

Hi guys!

I just wanted to say, first of all, thank you again for all your comments and encouragement. I smile when I read them, and then I imagine what you must look like. Hunched over your laptops guzzling coffee, pallid flesh illuminated by the light of your monitor, dark circles under bloodshot eyes…

or maybe that's just me… *shrugs*

Secondly, do not fear that I won't finish this story, because I have finished this story. Well, all the chapters are written anyway. They are just sort of thin and disjointed and I'm doing a lot of editing, and adding, and subtracting, etc. There are 22 chapters in all, including the prologue and epilogue. Know that if I suddenly stop updating one day before this story is finished, it will be because I am dead.

And lastly, since my husband often tells me that no one gets my jokes (and I have been known to inadvertently offend), I will add that I was trying to be funny there. It made me laugh, but then again, I laugh at all of my own jokes…

Ahem… aaaaaaaaaaaanywho...

Have a glorious day,

StoatsandWeasels