InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Phony Digits ❯ Breaking the Ice ( Chapter 6 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Disclaimer: InuYasha is the property of Rumiko Takahashi. I have nothing.

Chapter Six: Breaking the Ice

Once again, Kagome found herself lying awake, thinking about a man she had never met. She was trying to picture what he might look like. What his voice might sound like. She had no idea why she was so intrigued by thoughts of this stranger. Perhaps it was that she found the mystery of it all very exciting, and she had always secretly been a hopeless romantic. Several days had passed since she had last received a text from him, and she was beginning to feel disheartened.

She had intended to wait for him to make the next move, but she was sure that if he was going to, he would have done it by now. The last conversation they had seemed open ended enough... Maybe he's waiting on me. He was the last to initiate a conversation, afterall...

She grabbed her phone from her night stand, her thumb hovering circles above the message app icon while she deliberated. Is it too forward? Will it make me seem desperate?

Ultimately she pushed aside her inner turmoil, stepped out of her comfort zone, and took the initiative.

'What's your name?' she typed and sent.

InuYasha was watching television with his roommate when he heard his phone buzz against the end table. He unenthusiastically grabbed the device, figuring it was more than likely his mother, checking to make sure he was still alive after hearing about some fatal car crash or apartment fire on the news. His heart skipped a beat when he saw who the message was from. He figured that since he initiated the last conversation, he should wait for her to make the next contact. Truth be told, he had almost started to lose hope.

"I'm going to bed." he told Miroku as he rose from the couch abruptly.

"Fake number?"

"No."

Miroku snorted. "Sure. Whatever you say, man." he said without moving his eyes away from the T.V.

InuYasha ignored his friend, reading the message and typing a reply as he made his way to his bedroom.

'Wouldn't you like to know.' he responded. He entered his room, closing the door behind him and plopping onto his bed.

'Oh come on! Just tell me your first name.'

'If you knew it you'd be able to look me up.'

'Ah...so it's a weird name then? Is it Rumpelstiltskin?'

'Yep. That's it. You got me.'

'Lol. Ok. And what do you do for a living Mr. Stiltskin?'

'Civil drafting.'

After Googling 'civil drafting' to see what it actually was, Kagome responded.

'That's interesting.'

'No it's really not. It's what engineering students who slacked off in college do for a living.'

'So you don't enjoy your job?'

'Think of the most boring thing you've ever done and multiply it by 1000 and that is my job.'

'Lol.'

'So what do you do?' he asked her.

'I'm a forensic scientist.'

'No, seriously.'

'I am being serious.'

'And you had the nerve to call my job interesting? So you study DNA or what?'

'Ballistic fingerprinting and toolmark analysis. Matching weapons to crimes, to the layperson.'

'Hey you don't have to dumb it down...I've seen CSI!'

'Lol. My bad. Didn't know you were an expert.'

'So I guess that's how you know Lady Cop then.'

'Lady cop?'

'That's what me and Miroku call your friend. Actually, I think he has started calling her sexy cop now.'

'Yes we work together. So what do you and Miroku call me?'

'Miroku calls you Fake Number, but I usually add a few more adjectives.'

'Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!'

'Oh, I'm sorry, did I say adjectives? I meant expletives.' InuYasha smirked to himself as he hit send.

'Why you!!!'

He chuckled at her response. 'Cool your jets woman, I'm only joking. What do you call me?'

'Phony Digits.'

'I like that. I wish I'd come up with it first.'

'Well, we can't all be geniuses. If we were then who would do the civil drafting?' Kagome giggled to herself as she hit send.

'Cheeky wench.'

'What, are you a pirate now?'

'Maybe.'

'Are there a lot of pirates in your line of work?'

'More than you'd think, but most of them work for the transit authority.'

'Lol.' she typed as she actually did laugh out loud.

'Go to sleep.'

Kagome glanced at her clock. It was eleven-thirty. She sighed.

'Ok. Goodnight Rumpelstiltskin.'

'Goodnight Cheeky Wench.'

<<>>

"...and you'll really appreciate this, the murder weapon turned out to be a freaking sword! And not just any sword, it was a collectible 'Game of Thrones' replica!" Sango said, shaking her head. "Can you believe that? Kagome? Are you even listening to me? He-llo! Earth to Kagome!" she said, snapping her fingers about an inch from her friends nose.

Kagome jerked from her reverie. "Huh?" She lifted her gaze from her half-eaten sandwich to her friend. "Oh, yeah, I'm listening!" she said, nodding furiously, pretending to have heard the conversation.

"Is that so?" Sango asked, narrowing her eyes. "Well, what I was saying then?"

"Uhh…" Kagome struggled. "Something about...nerds and swords?"

Sango huffed. "That's what I thought. What were you thinking about? I've never seen you with your head in the clouds like this... Did you meet someone?"

"No!" Kagome said entirely too quickly and defensively.

"...you did…" Sango said slowly. "You did, and you are trying to hide it from me…"

"No, I'm not. I swear to you, Sango, I haven't met anyone! And you know I can't lie." Kagome defended.

"What were you thinking about then?"

"Nothing…"

"Was it a guy?"

"No!"

"Kagome…" Sango leaned over the table toward her friend. "we can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way…" she mock-threatened.

"Are you 'bad copping' me?!" Kagome asked incredulously.

"Just tell me dammit!" Sango cursed, pounding her fist on the table.

"Ergh! Okay fine!" Kagome conceded. "Remember...the guy you texted...the fake number guy?"

"You're asking me if I remember what happened less than a week ago? No, no I have no idea what you're talking about." Sango said facetiously.

"If you're going to be a smart aleck, I'm not going to tell you!" Kagome huffed.

"Okay, okay!" Sango placated. "I'm sorry. Keep going."

"Well...it's nothing really… we've just...texted back and forth a few times since then..." Kagome said without making eye contact with her friend across the table.

"Ooohhh… I see. Little Kaggy Drew, never can resist a mystery." Sango teased. "So what are you going to do? Are you going to meet him?" she asked.

"No." Kagome said firmly, shaking her head.

"Why not?" Sango said casually, taking a sip of her water.

"I don't know anything about him. He could be sixty years old, or a psycho rapist or something!" Kagome whispered the last part across the table.

"That guy could be a rapist," Sango said, brazenly pointing to the man sitting at the table next to them. "but here we are, sitting in this public place eating lunch right next to him."

The man turned to look at them wide-eyed, clearly having heard what Sango said about him. "Well, are you?" Sango asked the guy.

"N-NO!" the man adamantly denied, shaking his head furiously.

"See Kagome, as it turns out, most people aren't evil rapists." Sango said as the man next to them gathered his things and moved to find a new table. "I'm not telling you to meet the guy in some dark alley in the night or anything. Just meet him for lunch or coffee or something. I'll even come and sit close by if it makes you feel better."

"I appreciate what you're doing Sango, but I'm not meeting him. I mean, it's not like he's shown any interest in meeting me anyway...he won't even tell me his name." Kagome said, not doing a great job of hiding her disappointment.

Sango gave her friend a sly grin. "I'm sure he'll come around."

Kagome sighed and leaned her elbow on the table, resting her chin on her fist. "How desperate am I that I have a crush on someone I've never even seen?"

Sango chuckled.

"He said he has a roommate." Kagome said hopefully. "That's a pretty good sign he's not married or old or psychotic, right?"

Sango nodded. "It's a very good sign...of course he could still be a gross, smelly slob with yellow teeth."

Kagome cringed. "Gee, thanks." she said flatly.

"Don't mention it." Sango said. "Hey, maybe he has a girlfriend...or boyfriend."

"Is this supposed to be making me feel better?" Kagome asked.

"No, I'm just saying maybe the reason he hasn't asked to meet you or told you who he is, is that he's already with someone."

Kagome nodded. "Oh…yeah...You know, you're right. I should probably ask…but if I ask that he'll think I'm coming onto him."

"You would be coming on to him."

"Yeah, but I don't want it to be obvious."

Sango looked off in thought, tapping her finger against her chin. "How to ask so that he doesn't know you're asking…" she mumbled to herself. "I know, just ask him if he did anything fun over the weekend. It's not foolproof or anything, but at least it won't be obvious. If he's in a relationship with someone, he probably did something with them, right?"

"Yeah. Okay. That might work." Kagome nodded, without making a move to follow through.

Sango looked at her expectantly.

"Oh, you want me to do it right now?" Kagome asked.

"Yeah, no doy!" Sango snapped.

"Well, I was the last to start a conversation, so it's his turn."

"His turn?" Sango mocked her. "This isn't middle school Kagome, just send the damn message."

"Fine." Kagome conceded with a sigh. She knew that if she didn't do it, Sango would take it upon herself to do it, and she wouldn't be so subtle about it. She pulled her phone from her purse and typed, 'Do anything fun this weekend?'. She sent the message, despite the fact that she felt it sounded a little stupid and random.

'I don't have a girlfriend.' he replied.

Kagome gasped.

"What is it?" Sango asked her.

"He knew what I was doing!" Kagome said, slapping her hand over her eyes. "Oh God...how embarrassing!"

Sango threw her head back and laughed at her friend's distress.

'I wasn't hinting at that!' Kagome refuted.

'OK.'

'I wasn't!'

'OK.'

'You're the worst.'

'Did you do anything fun this weekend?'

Kagome felt a flutter of excitement in her chest. "He turned the question around on me." she said, trying to contain her smile.

"And you thought he wasn't interested…" Sango grinned.

'Just went to my son's little league game with my husband.' Kagome typed and sent.

'You're full of shit.'

'No I'm not. I'm married to a rich doctor and he is tall and has a deep voice.'

'Whatever you say cheeky wench.'

'He's making passionate love to me right now.'

'It must be really good if you're texting me through it.'

'Go away.'

'Ok. Enjoy the rest of your lunch.'

Kagome smiled and shook her head. 'Yeah. You too.'

<<>>

A/N: So, the most awesome artist Grapefruit Wannabe did the most awesome fanart of this fic.

grapefruitwannabe. tumblr. com/ image/ 140055955768

Check out her tumblr and you will find much cuteness there.

Also, if there are any drafters out there reading this, please don't be offended. I have nothing against your profession. Inuyasha is just sort of jaded and hates his job. His personal opinions do not reflect my own.

As always thanks for reading, and thank you GW, you are the bomb.

Have a glorious day,

StoatsandWeasels