InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Phony Digits ❯ Dead Ringer ( Chapter 10 )

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

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

Chapter Ten: Dead Ringer

'OK.' Kagome's text read.

She was finally agreeing to meet with him...wasn't she? That is what she's talking about, isn't it? Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to make sure...

'Ok to what?' InuYasha responded.

'OK as in Oklahoma, just filling out my NCAA bracket. Thought you'd wanna know.'

He rolled his eyes. 'Cheeky wench' he texted back.

She responded with a winking emoji.

'Can I call you tonight?' he asked.

'Why? To talk about your final four picks?'

'Stop.'

'If you are less grumpy by then, you may call.'

'Ok.'

"Alright...I did it…" Kagome said nervously. "He said he's going to call me tonight."

"Ooooh, be sure you use a condom." Sango teased.

"Sango!" Kagome scolded, turning her head toward her office door. "We're at work! Someone could hear you!"

"What? I didn't even say anything inappropriate." Sango defended.

"Yes you did! You said the 'C' word." she whispered the last part.

Sango barked out a laugh before wrapping her arms around Kagome in a tight hug. "Oh Kagome, you are so precious." she said, placing a loud, smacking kiss on her best friend's cheek. "I just love you."

"Do you think he's going to ask me out...like on a date?" Kagome asked.

"Maybe." Sango said with a shrug. "Guess you're gonna find out tonight."

"Find out what tonight?" Came Shippo's voice from the doorway as he bounced into Kagome's office eating a banana.

"Kagome's finally going to meet her mystery guy." Sango answered, taking a seat on Kagome's desk.

"He's going to call me tonight. Like actual talking with voices." Kagome added.

Shippo raised his eyebrows. "Wow, Kagome. That's like...what? Second? Third base for you?" he said through stuffed cheeks.

Kagome narrowed her eyes at him. "Yeah, because you're just the dating expert." she said sarcastically.

"Hey! I do okay, I'll have you know!" Shippo argued. "As a matter of fact, I was just talking to the cute blonde at the front desk, and I'm pretty sure she's interested in me. I caught her looking at my name tag."

Kagome snickered as her eyes descended to his pocket. "Are you sure she was looking at your nametag, and not your little wardrobe malfunction?" she said, pointing to the large, blue ink stain on the pocket where his nametag was clipped.

Shippo grabbed his lab coat around the pocket and lifted it to see the stain. "Dammit…"

Kagome and Sango both giggled. "That's what you get for bullying me."

"I wasn't bullying, I was teasing. There is a difference....Do you think I'll be able to get this stain out?" Shippo asked as he removed the coat.

"Give it here." Kagome said, reaching out to him.

Shippo handed her the lab coat, and she dug around in her desk drawers. "Aha!" she said as she pulled out a little blue bottle of stain remover with a plastic scrubber on the cap. "I'll see what I can do with this… You know, you wouldn't have these problems if you got yourself one of these bad boys." she said, patting her plastic pocket liner.

"I'd rather have blue spots on all my clothes." Shippo said flatly. "Be sure you don't wear that on your date." he added.

"It's not a date!" Kagome said. "In fact, it's nothing. We haven't even made any plans yet."

"But you want it to be a date, right?" he asked.

"Well...I don't know...maybe…"

"Did she tell you he's half dog-youkai?" Sango chimed in.

"No kidding?" Shippo said, raising his brows. "You know what they say about dog-youkai, don't you…?"

Kagome furrowed her brow and shook her head.

"They love to lick." he finished with a smirk.

Sango burst out in laughter and Kagome let out a loud gasp.

"Shippo!" Kagome scolded. "Don't be nasty!"

"What?!" he defended through giggles. "It's the truth. Canine youkai make the best lovers...trust me, I would know." he said, waggling his eyebrows suggestively as he popped the last bite of banana into his mouth and tossed the peel into the trash. "Were the most adventurous of all the youkai." he said with his mouth full.

Kagome rolled her eyes. "You're just trying to scare me." she said as she grabbed his lab coat and headed for the door.

"What's scary about that?" Shippo asked.

Kagome rolled her eyes. "Just drop it. I gotta get this to a sink." she huffed, lifting the stained coat. "I'll talk to you deviants later."

As soon as Kagome exited the office Sango and Shippo shot each other a look.

"She needs to get laid so bad." Sango said before pushing herself off the desk and heading for the door.

"Tell me about it." Shippo said.

"...and so do you." she added before exiting and leaving a frowning fox youkai in her wake.

<<>>

InuYasha made his way up the stairwell to the roof of his building. It was cold, but he would gladly brave the freezing temperatures to ensure that Miroku couldn't eavesdrop or try to embarrass him.

He was starting to regret telling Kagome that he would call her. He hated making phone calls. It was so awkward. He never knew how to start a conversation when he couldn't see a person's face, and uncomfortable silences seemed to be magnified tenfold. At least with texting he had plenty of time to think over what he was going to say next.

It was now after nine o'clock. He had put it off for as long a he could. When he arrived at the roof access door he noticed it was already propped open using the "smoker's brick", as everyone in the building referred to it. Sure enough, when he exited the door he was met with a huddled, shivering pack of humans, getting their nightly dose of nicotine.

He walked past them to a more secluded area of the roof, removed his phone from his pocket and dialed Kagome's number.

The phone rang three times before she answered. "Hello?"

"Hi, Kagome?" he addressed.

"Hi!" she chirped.

"Hi." he said again, followed by several seconds of awkward silence.

Oh god…

"I was beginning to think maybe you fell asleep." she said, finally breaking the silence.

"Oh, sorry about that, I was just…" Putting it off because I was nervous. "Umm...at the... I had to work late." he said. It was a lie, of course, but it sounded a lot better than the truth. That he was a big wuss.

"Did you do anything interesting today?"

"It was someone's birthday. There was cake at lunch, but I didn't eat any of it. That's pretty much as excited as things get at my job." he said flatly. "What about you?"

"Well," she started. "I examined a gunshot victim...he had an exit wound the size of a baseball..."

"Wow...uh...is he gonna be alright?" InuYasha asked.

"No, he's dead." she answered matter-of-factly. "Died instantly..."

"Oh…"

There was another uncomfortable lull in the conversation.

"I'm sorry, that was totally morbid." Kagome apologized. "Most of my friends are my coworkers, so I sometimes forget what's appropriate to talk about."

"Oh, no, it didn't bother me. Sorry, I'm just not very good at phone conversations."

"How about we do like an icebreaker thing then?" she suggested.

"Icebreaker?"

"Yeah, you know, like the questions and games people do to get to know each other."

"I know what icebreakers are, Kagome." InuYasha said flatly.

"If you know, then why did you say 'icebreaker?' Like you'd never heard the word before in your life?" she said, doing an exaggerated imitation of him.

"I wasn't saying it like I didn't know what it was, I was saying it like I thought it was stupid."

"Ah!" Kagome gave an indignant squeak. "Fine! Forget it then, you jerk!"

"No, no, I'll do it." he said. "What's the game?"

"Umm…let's see…" Kagome said as she thought. "Okay, you say one thing about yourself that's true, and one thing that's a lie and I'll try to guess which is true."

"Okay, give me a second to think…" he said as he pondered for several seconds.

"Alright, I keep a bag of cat food in the trunk of my car to feed strays, or I once fought a bear with my bare hands."

Kagome snorted. "One of those is actually true?" she said giggling.

"Yes," he answered. "Now which one?"

"Umm...the bear one." she said, surprised at how quickly she answered.

"Very good!" InuYasha congratulated her. "I thought for sure you'd pick the cat thing."

"So you really fought a bear?"

"Yes, but that's a story for another day. Now it's your turn." he said.

"Wait, first tell me how you came up with the stray cat thing."

"Miroku does it."

Kagome giggled. "That's adorable."

"Trust me, he's about the least adorable person on planet Earth. When I was a little kid he used to hold me down and fart on my face."

"Eww!" Kagome said through giggles. "And I thought my brother was bad!"

"What did your brother do?"

"Oh, just the usual little brother stuff. Put bugs in my hair, hold me under the water at the pool, download porn on my computer…"

"Your brother downloaded porn when he was a kid?" InuYasha asked.

"Oh, no, that was just like two weeks ago."

InuYasha chuckled.

"Okay, let's get back to the game" Kagome said. "Umm...my first job was at a bowling alley , or I'm deathly afraid of spiders."

"Hmm...well, let's see...a lot of people are afraid of spiders...but I doubt someone who looks death in the face everyday would be, so I'm going to say you actually worked at a bowling alley."

"That's right!" Kagome affirmed.

The game went on for several more rounds, with Kagome ultimately winning five to three. Not that anyone was keeping score...

"This is by far the longest phone conversation I've ever had." InuYasha said, looking at his watch and seeing the time was nine fifty-seven.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to keep you so long." Kagome said. "You should have said something."

"No, I wasn't complaining or anything, just stating a fact. I've actually really enjoyed talking to you." he said honestly.

"I've enjoyed talking to you too."

"Listen, um...I was thinking maybe we could get coffee or something sometime." InuYasha said, finally getting around to the purpose of his call after almost an hour.

"That's sounds great! There's a really good coffee place near my work...that is, if you didn't have anywhere else in mind." Kagome said.

"No, that sounds perfect."

"Okay, great! I'll text you the address."

"Okay...well...umm...I guess I'll see you there then."

"Wait...you didn't say when."

"Oh, right...uh, how about Saturday?"

"Do you mean tomorrow or next Saturday?" Kagome asked.

"Uhh…" InuYasha stopped to think, he forgot it was already Friday.

"Did you forget what day it is?" she asked.

"Yeah, kind of…" InuYasha said sheepishly.

Kagome couldn't help but giggle.

"So, yeah, I guess I meant tomorrow...if that works for you."

"Sure!" Kagome chirped, before quickly clearing her throat. "I mean, yeah, sure, I think I'm free tomorrow." she said in a more casual tone, trying to seem too enthusiastic.

"Okay, how about I meet you there at three-thirty then?"

"Three-thirty sounds good...umm...how will you recognize me?" she asked.

"I'll text you when I get there."

"Okay. Sounds great. Guess I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Okay. Have a good night." InuYasha said.

"You too. Bye."

"Bye." he said before ending the call.

<<>>

"Stand clear of the closing doors, please."

InuYasha looked up and down the train car. There were several seats open, but he didn't really want to sit. Sitting when he was nervous just made him feel even more nervous.

The train slowly began moving forward as the next stop was announced over the loudspeaker. InuYasha tried to focus most of his energy on not sweating through his shirt. Thus far, he had been somewhat unsuccessful in that endeavor. He considered just removing the shirt for the remainder of the trip to keep it dry. It wouldn't be the strangest thing most of these people have seen on the subway.

When the announcement finally called his destination as the next stop, he began giving himself silent pep talks to try and psyche himself up. Why the hell am I so nervous? There's no reason to be nervous. This is stupid… She either likes me, or she doesn't. What does it matter? If she doesn't, then that's her problem! Who needs her anyway?! What the hell makes her think she's so much better?!

Okay. So maybe it was less like a pep talk, and more like a pseudo-psychotic tirade. At any rate, preparing himself for the worst did seem to make him feel a little calmer, that is, until the train lurched to a stop in the middle of the dark tunnel.

Shit… InuYasha looked at his watch. 3:22. There is no way he was going to make in on time.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we apologize for the unavoidable delay."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure you're just heartbroken." InuYasha grumbled back to the recording. He pulled his phone to text Kagome that he would be a little late, then remembered that his phone couldn't send a text from underground. He just hoped that she wasn't the type of person that would storm out if he was even a minute late; but now that he thought about it, if she were that type of person he wouldn't really be interested in her anyway.

To his relief, the train began moving again after only about five minutes. When they reached his stop, he made a quick exit and raced up the stairs, pulling out his phone to text Kagome.

'Be there in 2 min. What are you wearing?' He sent, then realized it sounded sort of creepy. 'So I can find you.' he added.

'Grey sweater and black jeans.'

He read the text and slipped his phone back into his jacket pocket.

As soon as he entered the cafe his eyes began scanning the room, and his heart sank when they caught sight of a familiar face. Oh, just fucking great... What the hell is she doing here of all places? He thought as his eyes caught a glimpse of who he believed to be his ex-girlfriend. Maybe she won't see me...

He tried his best to sneak his way past her, towards the back of the room, keeping watch on her from the corner of his eye. Just as he was almost around the corner and in the clear her face lifted, and her eyes caught his...

and she wasn't Kikyo…

<<>>

A/N:

Use your aggressive feelings. Let the hate flow through you…

Okay, more seriously though, I apologize in advance if the updates slow down for a while. I just haven't had as much free time lately and, well, sort of suffering from writer's block to be honest. Also, I wrote like 90% of this chapter late last night, and I was kind of drunk and it shows.

I have a bunch of later stuff written, it's just the middle parts I'm struggling with. (Next chapter is mostly done though, it was one of the first I wrote.)

-SW

P.S. Did anyone notice in the last chapter that Sango's water turned into coffee somehow? That was a mistake, Sango is not Jesus. It's fixed now, but I just wanted to clear that up. (Although, now that I think about it, I turn water into coffee every morning...so…)