InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Palm of Your Hand ❯ Close To Me ( Chapter 10 )

[ 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.

Close To Me

"What is this, Kagome? Eye of newt?" Ru asked, as he spooned the morsel in question from the bowl of soup Kagome had placed on the table before him.

"It's a pearl onion, you ass!" she shot back.

He raised his hands in mock-surrender. "Hey, I'm just trying to look out for you. Remember that time you got worms?"

"I DID NOT GET WORMS!" she ground out through clenched teeth as she punched him in the chest, her face turning five different shades of red in mortification.

Ru looked past her and nodded at InuYasha, mouthing, 'Yes she did.'

InuYasha raised an eyebrow, taking in the scene as he quietly ate his soup.

The three of them were again having dinner together, and once again, Kagome and Ru were having some sort of bizarre spat that InuYasha hoped against hope wasn't fueled by sexual tension.

Soon after entering the kitchen, he had noticed that the magnetic letters on the refrigerator now spelled out the phrase, Kagome Higurashi is a pervert. Apparently it had thus far managed to fly under her radar.

"It wasn't worms, it was just food poisoning." Kagome argued in her defense.

"To-may-to, to-mah-to." Ru retorted casually.

Kagome balled her fists and let out a loud growl of frustration. "On what planet are those the same thing?! You are so fucking irritating, Ru!" she ranted before turning to InuYasha. "I swear, he is the personification of a canker sore!" she said agitatedly.

"I wouldn't know anything about that." InuYasha replied. "Never had one."

"Well, just imagine Ru inside of your mouth!" she spouted, completely oblivious to the glaring double entendre that both men immediately caught.

InuYasha recoiled, his eyes darting from her to Ru and back. "Umm...I'll pass..." he said frowning, sounding slightly disturbed.

Ru snorted loudly while attempting to stifle a laugh that inevitably erupted into a cackle.

Finally, Kagome caught on. "Ewww! I didn't mean it like that! You guys are gross!"

"You're the one that said the gross thing." InuYasha defended.

"Yeah," Ru chimed in. "and you're the one that had worms."

"THAT'S IT!" Kagome shrieked. She grabbed both their soup bowls and dumped them in the sink. "No soup for you!" she yelled.

Ru slapped his leg before doubling over in laughter.

"WHAT?!" Kagome yelled. "What did I do this time?!"

"Are you serious?" Ru continued to wheeze. "It's what 'the soup nazi' says." he explained. "You must live under a rock!"

She looked confused. She had no idea what he was talking about, but she didn't appreciate the his insinuation. "I guess it's just 'pick on Kagome day' isn't it? Well, I hope you're both happy starving." she said as she stormed into her room in a huff, slamming the door behind her.

InuYasha sat there a moment, trying to figure out just exactly what he had done to get dragged into this. He made a move to get up, but Ru discouraged him. "Going in there now is just gonna make it worse, trust me. There's no reasoning with her when she gets like this."

"If you went in there now it would make it worse, 'cause you're the one that was being an asshole." InuYasha retorted.

"Suit yourself." Ru shrugged as InuYasha turned and made his way to her bedroom door.

He knocked lightly and got no response. After a few seconds he knocked again, a little more forcefully.

"No." he heard her call from the other side of the door.

"Can I come in?" he asked.

"No."

"Well, I'm going to." he said as he turned the knob and slowly pushed open the door.

She was sitting on her bed pouting and pretending to play a game on her phone.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Ru." she answered simply.

"And what did I do?"

"You laughed."

He was fairly certain he hadn't laughed, but he wasn't going to argue. "I'm sorry I laughed." he forced out as he sat down on the edge of bed, facing her. 'I can't believe I just apologized for something I didn't do. What is she doing to me?'

"It's okay." she said as she lowered her phone and laid it on her nightstand. "I just got embarrassed and overreacted. And now I'm embarrassed about overreacting..."

He chuckled. "Well, you don't have to be embarrassed in front of me. And you shouldn't let him get to you like that. You know he's just teasing."

"No, he's just trying to get me mad on purpose 'cause he thinks it's funny."

"Exactly, so why do you let him? You know if you didn't react he would lay off."

Kagome briefly had a childhood flashback of her mother saying almost those exact words after she and Souta would have a fight. 'Gods, I need to grow up...'

"I know. I usually don't let him get to me, it's just...you were there and...I just want you to…" she took in a deep breath before sighing loudly. "I already told you, I just got embarrassed... You're all smart and handsome and grown up and I'm just a stupid, immature, embarrassing loser." she let her head fall back against the headboard with a thump.

InuYasha crawled up to sit beside her on the bed. "Those are stupid insecurities."

"Oh? And you have no insecurities?" she asked harshly.

He contemplated in silence a few moments before speaking. "Remember last night, when I said I wasn't jealous?"

"Yeah."

"Well...I lied." he admitted.

"Why?" She had obviously known he was jealous. His emotions may not be as volatile as they once were, but deep down he was the same person, and she found that she could still read him like a book.

"'Cause I didn't want you to know I was jealous."

"No," she corrected. "I mean, why are you jealous?"

"Oh." he leaned his head back to rest against the headboard, his eyes focused on the ceiling. "I guess it's because you're just so comfortable with Ru. I guess I just... want what he has with you." he said honestly.

She grabbed his hand, lacing her fingers with his as she turned her head to look at him. "You can have a lot more than what he has…"

InuYasha was pretty sure she wasn't trying to be suggestive, but it didn't prevent his mind from instantly going there. He shot her a sideways glance and she smiled at him. He was having trouble thinking about anything other than kissing her lips, and subsequently every other inch of her body. He turned his head to the side and leaned into her, kissing her tenderly.

"I still can't believe you're really here." Kagome said when they pulled apart.

"I can't believe you're really here, either." InuYasha returned.

"I feel like I'm fifteen again when I'm with you...I mean" she shook her head. "....not literally like a fifteen-year-old but...I don't know what I'm trying to say…" she fumbled her words. "You make me feel like...me…" she pressed her free hand to her chest for emphasis. "Ya, know? Like, I haven't really been myself since then, until you showed back up." she explained. "Does that makes sense?"

"It makes sense." he said simply, not feeling it necessary to elaborate.

Kagome rested her head on his shoulder and he leaned his head on top of hers. They sat there in comfortable silence for a few minutes, each content to simply enjoy the presence of the other.

"Well," Kagome broke the silence. "would you like some more soup, since I poured yours down the sink in a fit of rage?" she asked as she unlaced their fingers and slapped her hand to his thigh.

"That sounds good." He accepted as he slid off the bed. What really sounded good to him was plowing her through the underside of that mattress, but soup sounded okay too. 'If Ru wasn't right on the other side of this door…'

"None for Ru, though. I'm gonna tell him to go pound sand." Kagome said as they walked back towards the door.

<<>>

Kagome sat down at the bar during her break. Tomorrow was saturday and it was the one day that she and InuYasha both had off work.

So why the hell hadn't he asked her out yet?

She pulled out her cell phone and contemplated just asking him out. 'Is that too forward? I mean, he is kind of a macho guy… Would it hurt his pride? I know we've only technically been on one date, but the relationship was pretty much instantly serious, right?'

She opened up the message app on her phone, thinking about what she was going to type, when the little ellipses bubble that signified typing popped up. 'He's writing a message to me right now!' her heart skipped a beat. She sat there looking at those little bouncing dots for a solid two minutes. 'Geez, is he writing a novel?'

She looked at the clock. 11:29. 'Goddammit! TYPE!'

"..."

11:30. 'Damn.' She closed the app, slid the phone back into her pocket and went back to work.

After what seemed like the longest hour that has ever passed in the history of time, Kagome ducked into the bathroom to check her phone.

One new message from InuYasha:

"Come to my place after work."

'That's what took him so long to type?' she thought.

She replied: "I don't know where you live."

Send.

Kagome was both nervous and excited. Ever since the rapid escalation of that first kiss outside her apartment, she had felt ninety-nine percent certain that she would probably end up jumping him the minute she got him alone. Her rational mind knew it probably wasn't the best idea to move things along so quickly, unfortunately InuYasha appeared to have a debilitating effect on her rational mind.

<<>>

*DING*

InuYasha was jolted from sleep by his chiming phone. He picked up the phone and squinted his eyes at the blinding blue light of the LED display. After his eyes had time to adjust he saw it was a message from Kagome.

"I don't know where you live."

'Oh shit. I forgot.'

"880 S Limestone apt 5A. I'll let you sleep. I just miss you." he typed.

Send.

'Gods, I'm turning into such a wuss.'

He decided to stay up for the rest of the night and wait for her.

<<>>

Before Kagome left the bakery she had to make a decision. Change back into her smelly bar clothes, or wear her ugly 'scarecrow' outfit. She ultimately decided that ugly was better than smelly, at least when dealing with an inu-youkai nose, so she stuck with the over-alls.

InuYasha's apartment was on an adjacent street to the one on which the bakery was located, only about nine blocks walking distance. When she arrived at his apartment she knocked on the door, and was relieved to see that he was wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt when he answered.

She didn't miss the slight smile on his face as he took in her outfit. "Go ahead, laugh."

"I wasn't gonna laugh." he defended. "I think you look cute."

"Ru says only horny old men with 'farmer's daughter' fantasies would think this outfit is cute." she smirked.

'Wow...took her a whole five seconds to start talking about Ru this time...' InuYasha thought facetiously.

"No, my fantasies involve a lot less clothing than that." he shot back. 'Oh god...did I just say that out loud?' Several uncomfortably silent seconds passed before he finally spoke back up. "That was supposed to be a joke and it didn't come out like I intended it to."

Kagome snorted a laugh at his discomfort. "I know, it's okay." she patted his arm reassuringly.

"So how was your night at work?' he asked her, changing the subject.

"It was work." she said flatly as she removed her shoes. He nodded in understanding.

He placed a hand on her back and led her into the kitchen. There she found he had breakfast already prepared. 'How very domestic.' She turned to him and wrapped her arms around his waist in a hug. "Thank you." she mumbled against his chest. "You are, like, the perfect man."

InuYasha chuckled, "No, trust me, deep down I'm still a jerk. I'm just trying to win you over." he grinned as he rubbed his hands over her back.

"Well, you won." she smiled as she pulled away from him and sat down at the table, InuYasha following suit. He had made omelets, rice, and miso soup. "Ah...real food that I didn't have to cook myself...that's a rare delicacy these days." Kagome said as she dug in. "You have no idea how sick I am of eating muffins from the bakery for breakfast."

"Do you want some coffee or tea?" he asked her.

"Water is fine. I want to be able to fall asleep. Speaking of which, do you have something I could wear? Like a t-shirt and shorts or something?"

"Sure, I don't have shorts but I have sweatpants." he said.

"That will be fine." she nodded. "Anything is better than these." she said, pulling at the front panel of her over-alls with her thumbs.

The breakfast was good. It reminded Kagome of her mother's cooking back home. She was slightly disturbed by the fact that she had just, once again, compared him to her mother. She worried momentarily that she might have some kind of ass-backwards Oedipus complex. Shaking herself of that thought, she wondered when he had even learned to cook. Then she remembered that he was over six hundred fifty years old, and it would be a real shame if he hadn't learned to fry an egg in that length of time.

After they finished breakfast, InuYasha dug around in his chest of drawers and found a white t-shirt and a pair of heather grey sweatpants for Kagome to sleep in.

She went into the bathroom to change, and after much consideration, and a close inspection of the t-shirt's thickness, decided it would be perfectly acceptable to wear it 'sans bra'. She figured she was going to have enough trouble falling asleep as it was. The clothes were huge on her, of course, not that it really mattered. She didn't have to look sexy to be sexy, and InuYasha couldn't help but think that she never looked sexier than she did in his clothes, even if she did kind of look like a bag lady. Kagome just found it slightly humorous that they were wearing virtually identical outfits.

"Do you have an extra toothbrush?" she called down the hall.

"There might be one under the sink." he called back.

The furnished apartments were specifically for business people and had toiletries like a hotel.

Kagome looked under the sink and sure enough found a rather generic looking white toothbrush wrapped in plastic. "Found it." she called back. She couldn't help but let out a giggle when she saw InuYasha's toothpaste. 'Watermelon flavor? Yuck.' she thought as she looked over the cartoon character emblazoned plastic bottle. 'I'll have to remember to tease him about this later.'

After brushing her teeth she returned to the living room, plopping down on the couch where InuYasha was sitting, and stretching her legs across his lap. "I feel like it's rude of me to just come over here, eat all your food, and go to sleep." she chuckled.

"Really? 'Cause that sort of sounds like the perfect date to me…" he joked. "Actually," he lifted her legs from his lap and crawled up the couch the lay beside her; wedging himself between her and the back cushions. "I didn't really get all that much sleep last night myself." This felt good to him. It felt natural and comfortable and right...

"Hey! You took the good spot, baka!" she said as she climbed over him, grunting as she strained to force her way into the back position with an elbow. InuYasha grinned mischievously as he pressed himself back against the cushions so tightly that she couldn't even manage to slip a finger behind him. "You won't win this." he said as he reached up and pulled her down in front of him. "but I want the back spot…" she whined, pouting her lip in a way that had his resolve crumbling instantly.

He let out a little huff before rolling them both over so that she was against the back of the sofa. "There. You happy now?" he feigned annoyance.

"'Won't win this' my ass…" he heard her mumble under her breath..

He looked down to see her smiling victoriously. "Don't press your luck, wench..." he said as he tapped her nose with his index finger.

She let out a giggle as she wrapped an arm around him and wriggled in closer to his chest, sighing contentedly. "Do you love cuddling, InuYasha?"

He rolled his eyes at her childish tone, but couldn't help but smile. "Go to sleep, Kagome."

"Answer me first, and I will."

"Sleep."

"Do you, or do you not, love cuddling?" she said sternly.

"Yes." he said reluctantly.

"Yes what?"

He sighed. "...yes I love cuddling…" he mumbled quickly. He never knew he loved cuddling, but suddenly he did love cuddling. He loved it a lot.

Kagome let out a high pitched little giggle.

"Now go to sleep." he said gruffly "You've obviously become delirious with exhaustion." He wanted to kiss her, but he knew that might start something he wouldn't be able to stop. Something he wanted her to be rested up for...

Kagome closed her eyes and snuggled into him, pressing her face into his chest and taking in a long breath. "Cedar trees." InuYasha heard her whisper sleepily. He didn't have to ask what she meant. He was very familiar with his own scent. It wasn't long after that her breathing evened out and InuYasha could tell she was already asleep. How she could go from being giddy to sleeping soundly in less than two minutes was beyond his comprehension.

He soon drifted off to join her. His final thought before losing consciousness being that she really did smell just like a jelly donut.

<<>>

'Shit, did I fall asleep on the couch again?' Kagome thought to herself as she slowly emerged from slumber, somewhat confused.

"Ru? What time is it?" she said groggily, rubbing her eyes. "Ru?" she repeated, poking InuYasha in the ribs.

InuYasha let out a quiet, unhappy sort of rumble from his throat. "I ain't Ru, wench." InuYasha said hoarsely, struggling to wake himself.

"Huh?" she looked up, slowly realizing where she was, and who she was with. "Oh. I'm sorry." 'Way to go, Kagome.' "Sorry, I'm not completely awake yet I don't think." she mumbled in excuse.

InuYasha didn't say anything, he just grabbed her by the arms, and pulled her up the couch so that they were face to face before kissing her passionately.

"What was that for?" she asked, smiling sleepily when he pulled back.

"Just makin' sure you knew exactly who I was." he smirked. He was slightly agitated, although he didn't show it. Not because she had mistaken him for Ru in her semi-unconscious stupor, that was an honest mistake. He was agitated that she would mistake him for Ru while they were in a position that he considered far too intimate for her to be sharing with any other man. Even if it was a strictly platonic relationship. It was that possessive inu-youkai jealousy rearing its ugly head again. He wasn't going to confront her about it, of course, seeing as how it was entirely his fault for letting her go in the first place. If everything worked out the way he wanted, she wouldn't be living with Ru much longer anyway.

"I know who you are." Kagome leaned in and whispered just before her lips returned to his, kissing him with fervor; her hands roaming over the hard planes of his chest before weaving into his hair. She let out a sexy little moan against his mouth that had InuYasha's head swimming instantaneously.

As she trailed kisses along his jaw and down his throat, Kagome could feel against her thigh the hard evidence of certain other parts of his body beginning to wake up.

It didn't take InuYasha very long to figure out just where this was heading.