InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Phony Digits ❯ Pull a Rabbit Out of a Hat ( Chapter 25 )

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

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

Chapter Twenty-five: Pull a Rabbit Out of a Hat

After almost two hours on the road for a trip that should have lasted no more than one, InuYasha finally arrived at his parents estate, pulling his car up to the wrought iron gate.

He rolled down his window and pressed the button on the call box, and immediately a deep, male voice answered over the intercom. "Please state your name and business."

"It's me. Open the gate." InuYasha huffed, deliberately turning his face toward the security camera and giving a stagy eye roll.

"I'm sorry sir, but there doesn't appear to be anyone by the name of 'me' on the guest list."

"Open the gate, or I swear I'm gonna drive right through it."

"Be ye friend or foe?" the man replied in a theatrical english accent.

"Dad." InuYasha said in a low, threatening tone. "If this gate doesn't open in ten seconds I'm going home."

"Dad? Who is this Dad you speak of? There is no one by that name here!"

"Alright, see you at Thanksgiving." InuYasha said, waving into the camera and making a show of putting his car in reverse and pretending to back out of the driveway.

A moment later the gate began slide open. "Come into the garage. I want to show you something." he heard his father say over the intercom as he shifted into drive and eased his car through the gate and up the driveway toward the house. His car was quickly flanked on either side by his father's pack of large and seemingly deranged dogs.

When InuYasha parked and exited his vehicle, he was immediately swarmed by the nine jumping, slobbering, licking, stink-machines that were his dad's 'other half-breeds' as InuYasha so lovingly referred to them, much to the disapproval of his father.

"In here!"

He looked up from the barbarian horde to see his dad peeking out of the side door of the extravagant six-car garage which only housed one actual car.

"Can you call the dogs off?" InuYasha snapped back.

"Sorry son, I'm afraid they don't listen to me." his dad responded before disappearing back into the garage and leaving his son to fend for himself.

InuYasha rolled his eyes and trudged onward, through the sea of dogs toward the door.

When he entered the garage he found his dad—mid-swing—in front of a state of the art golf simulator. He watched as the ball bounced off the projector screen to be seamlessly replaced by a virtual ball that soared down the simulated fairway. Once the ball had rolled to a complete stop, a series of numbers appeared on a large television that was mounted to the wall just outside the side screen that was part of the 180Â° projection.

"Do you think you can beat that?" his father asked, extending the handle of the golf club in his son's direction.

"Not interested."

"Oh, come now, son. Be a sport."

"That's just the thing, you are a very bad sport, and I don't feel like dealing with your pouting today." InuYasha retorted, as he squatted down to acknowledge dog number ten, the professionally trained, champion-bloodline Samoyed who spawned the nine hellhounds who were currently outside, probably chewing the tires off of his car. "Hi, Jody." he greeted the dog, scratching behind her ears. The fluffy white dog stretched out her neck and closed her eyes in bliss at the attention.

"How was traffic?" Mr. Taisho asked.

"Keh. Bad. It's always bad. Especially on holidays."

InuYasha's dad gathered his ball and placed it back on the rubber tee before taking another swing. The two men watched the display, as the virtual ball soared through the virtual sky, over virtual sea cliffs and far out into a virtual ocean. The statistics popped up on the screen.

"Seventeen hundred!" Taisho cheered as he read the yardage of his shot. "A new personal best!" then he turned to InuYasha, extended the club yet again, and said, "Now I ask you again son, do you think you can beat that?"

Oddly enough, having inhuman super-strength actually added a whole new level of difficulty to the game of golf. Instead of trying to hit the ball far enough to get it onto the green, the main objective was hitting it gently enough to get it onto the green, and not into the next zip code. InuYasha supposed that was the very reason his dad had purchased the simulator, so he would have no such limitations. Against his better judgement, he accepted the challenge. "Fifty bucks says I can hit over a mile on my first swing." he said as he took the driver from his father's hand.

"You think you can beat my best distance on your first shot?"

"I think Sesshomaru's prissy ass could beat your best distance. I'm about to set the bar." InuYasha taunted as he stepped onto the astroturf. He placed the ball on the tee and stepped back and took a few practice swings before lining up with the ball and putting all his strength into the swing. The two of them watched, as again the little virtual ball soared through hill and vale, and far out into the sea.

Then, the moment of truth arrived, and as the numbers generated on the screen InuYasha fought to contain a cheer when he saw '1712' appear. He turned slowly to his father with a smug grin on his face. "Pay up, old man."

"I'm afraid the only one who'll be 'paying up' is you."

InuYasha furrowed his brow in confusion and argued, "But I beat you!"

"Yes, but that wasn't the bet. The bet was that you'd hit the ball over a mile on your first try. I'm sorry son, but you lost fair and square, now it's time to pay the piper." the older man said, extending his hand.

InuYasha sighed, grumbling curses under his breath as he removed his wallet from his back pocket. He thumbed through his cash, finding that he was about thirty-two dollars shy of having enough money to settle his debt. "Double or nothing." he challenged in a last ditch effort to salvage his dignity.

His father chuckled and shook his head. "I told your mother we'd come inside as soon as you arrived. I'm sure she's wondering what's keeping us. We'll save the betting for another day, when you have the money."

"Oi! I have the money, okay? I just don't have it on me."

"Why don't we wager something other than money. I mean, it isn't exactly fair, seeing as I have more money than I could ever spend."

"So what are you thinking?" InuYasha asked, eager to settle the score. He hated feeling indebted to anyone, especially his father.

"We each take one swing," Taisho suggested, holding up a finger. "if I win, you come work for me."

"And what if I win?"

"You name your stakes."

It was an intriguing offer. InuYasha contemplated all the things he could ask for. He could ask for money or real estate, but where's the fun in that? No doubt his father would give him those things at any given time, bet or no bet, if he just asked for them. Besides, he wasn't interested in them anyway. If he was he'd be working for his dad already. The only thing InuYasha really wanted was to get his parents off his back about work and his personal life. He could ask that if he wins his father never ask him to come work at the company ever again, and that his mother never ask him about his love life ever again, but…

He shook his head. The stakes were too high. Maybe if he hadn't just expended most of his energy in the previous swing he'd take the bet, but twelve yards didn't give him nearly enough leeway to feel confident that he would win a second time. At least not today.

"Let's save it for another day." InuYasha reluctantly agreed.

"Very well." His dad nodded, just as his mom's voices came over the intercom speaker beside the door leading into the main house.

"Taisho, where are you?"

His father walked over to the speaker and responded, "The sanctum sanctorum, dear."

InuYasha rolled his eyes.

"You're keeping us waiting."

"We'll be right in."

<<>>

"The lamb is absolutely impeccable, Izayoi." InuYasha's father complimented the meal from his seat at the head of the table, his eldest son and granddaughter seated on his right and his wife and youngest to his left.

"Isn't Annette fabulous!" Izayoi concurred. "She deserves a nice bonus this week."

"Yes. Add twenty percent." he said with a nod of his head as he took another bite, then added, "No, make that thirty."

"Why don't you just give her a raise?" InuYasha suggested.

"Because there's no incentive. Raises are for time served, bonuses are for exemplary performance."

"That is why he has no understanding of them." Sesshomaru quipped.

"They don't give bonuses where I work." InuYasha defended.

"Shocking." his brother said facetiously, with his typical air of superiority.

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?"

"Boys," Izayoi interjected. "please stop arguing. It's Easter! Jesus died for your sins, the least you can do it show some manners at the table."

Everyone at the table quieted down, and for several minutes the only sounds were that of chewing and silverware clinking against the fine china. InuYasha found it quite unsettling, but once the silence was finally broken he somewhat wished it hadn't been.

"InuYasha, do you remember my friend Robin?" His mother asked, seemingly out of the blue.

He furrowed his brow, shaking his head and answering "No." around a mouthful of food.

"Oh, sure you do. She used to bring us a pumpkin roll every year at Christmas, remember?"

He shook his head yet again. "I remember the cake, but I don't remember the lady."

"Well, anyway," Izayoi said with a wave of her hand. "her oldest daughter is about your age and she is going to be in the city all next week on business-"

InuYasha sighed and rolled his eyes at what he knew was coming next.

"And I was thinking you might be willing to take her out and show her around."

"No." InuYasha said firmly.

"Why not?"

"I already have plans." he lied.

"For the whole week?" his mother asked, disbelieving.

"Yes."

"What could you possibly be doing that would take up every minute of your time for the entire week?"

He stifled the urge to growl, and deciding that he couldn't possibly come up with a believable excuse on the fly, he changed his argument. "She's from here, Mom. Why does she need someone to show her around her own hometown?"

"It's just a figure of speech, InuYasha."

"No it's not a figure of speech, it's an evasive maneuver and I'm not falling for it."

"Okay, then I'll be more direct: Will you take my friend's daughter out on a date."

"No."

"Why?"

"Because I'm already seeing someone!" he snapped. Well, at least it wasn't a complete lie...it wasn't the truth, per se, but it wasn't a flat out lie...

His mother didn't question his honesty for a second as her face lit up like a Christmas tree. "You are?!" she exclaimed.

InuYasha winced. "Uh...yeah...sure..."

"I didn't know you had a new girlfriend, son." His father chimed in, also apparently accepting his son's subterfuge.

InuYasha nodded and said, "Yep." Okay, so that was a complete lie, but when faced with the decision between lying and going on a blind date, lying seemed like the lesser of two evils by a wide margin.

"You should have brought her with you today." Izayoi said, her voice taking on that familiar pouting tone that InuYasha had come to associate with his love life.

"Well, we haven't really been dating that long."

"What's her name?"

InuYasha's reaction was to quickly shove a heaping bite of food into his mouth to buy time. If he were smart, he would have prepared himself for this almost laughably predictable line of questioning. Unfortunately, he was not smart, he was dumb, and instead of crafting a clever ruse, he blanked. Then he panicked. Then he swallowed his food with a loud gulp and said the first, and only name that came to his mind.

"Kagome."

"Kagome Higurashi?" his brother, of all people, spoke up and joined the conversation, sounding as surprised as he was physically capable of sounding, which wasn't really all that surprised.

His mother gave an excited gasp and he turned to find her smiling ear-to-ear, hands clasped in front of her. Shit. Suddenly InuYasha was reminded of the fact that everyone in the room knew who Kagome was, and at least one of them knew that he was lying...

Speaking of which..."No, you're not!" Rin contended.

InuYasha wondered why he couldn't have just said Ashley, or Anna, or Heather? Some other, more common name that could easily belong to anyone? Why did he always have to complicate things by being a stupid, impetuous fuck?

"Yes, I am." he responded to Rin through gritted teeth, giving her an intense, wide-eyed glare across the table that he hoped she would interpret to mean 'just play along'.

"Yeah, sure. You're dating her…" Rin said, and for a moment InuYasha actually thought she was going to play along, until she added, "in your dreams." under her breath.

Well, if she wanted to play dirty, two could play at that game. "Hey, speaking of who's dating who, why didn't you invite your boyfriend?" InuYasha asked her.

The attention of the room was refocused at lightning speed, and InuYasha had the gaul to shoot a satisfied smirk in Rin's direction while she just sat there gaping like a fish under the scrutiny.

"Your boyfriend?" Izayoi asked, while the other two men in the room stayed eerily silent.

"He's lying!" Rin defended.

Actually, it was the first statement in quite some time that was one hundred percent true. "Oh, I'm lying, am I?" InuYasha asked. "Well, what about Sango Miyahara's little brother, then?"

"He's not my boyfriend!" Rin protested, her voice suddenly climbing several octaves above her regular tone.

"Well that's very interesting, seeing as how you sure didn't deny it when Kagome called him that."

"Kids!" Taisho's thundering voice boomed through the dining room and caused everyone to fall silent and turn toward him with a jolt. "Now, which one of you is lying?"

"They're obviously both lying." Sesshomaru interjected, sounding bored, although the fact that he was even participating in the conversation at all proved that he was highly interested.

Seeing that there was no backing down, but still wanting to come out on top, Rin spouted the truth, "Okay, fine! I have a boyfriend and InuYasha has a big fat crush on my roommate!"

About that time, as if she understood just what the larger animals in the room were talking about, InuYasha's mother's little black cat came trotting into the room, the bell on her collar jingling merrily as she hopped up into InuYasha's lap and perched her paws up against his chest, kneading and purring as she lovingly head-butted him under his chin.

"Hey look, InuYasha's girlfriend showed up after all!" Rin teased.

"Keh!" InuYasha scoffed as he grabbed the cat and gently tossed her to the floor. "Shut up!"

"Don't take your anger out on the cat! She loves you and she didn't do anything wrong!" Izayoi defended her pet, patting her lap to call the cat to her.

"This is why I hate coming here. You all always gang up on my like this!" InuYasha said.

"Oh, don't be so sensitive, InuYasha, no one's ganging up on anyone. Now, this Kagome, you like her?" his mother asked as her beloved pet jumped into her arms and she hand fed her a bit of lamb.

"Like her?" InuYasha repeated. "I'm not in high school, Mom."

"You could have fooled me." Rin chimed in.

"Oh, and you're just so much more mature than I am?"

"I'm twelve years younger than you, InuYasha. At least I have an excuse!"

"You just always have to get the last word in, don't you?"

"You just can't stand to lose at your own game!"

"Rin. Stop." Sesshomaru interjected. "Trying to win an argument with an idiot is futile."

"Yes, sir." she replied sheepishly.

"This boy you're seeing, does he go to your school?" Sesshomaru asked Rin.

She nodded.

"Why didn't you invite him to join us?" he added.

"I uhh…" she looked back and forth between the other occupants of the table. "I'm not sure he's quite ready for...this."

"Were you afraid they would embarrass you?" Sesshomaru asked, conveniently leaving himself out of the equation, as if the very thought of him being an embarrassment was inconceivable.

"No, no! It's not that." she assured. "It's just that...you-I mean, we, can be a little intimidating...that's all." she said, chuckling nervously.

Sesshomaru simply nodded his acceptance. He'd always taken the hands-off approach to parenting, or whatever it was one might call his role in Rin's life. If not for his household staff she would have more than likely had no nurturing or positive influences in her life at all. She'd probably be running around barefoot in the forest foraging for wild berries.

"So Rin, do you think Kagome likes InuYasha back?" Izayoi asked innocently, as if she were talking about two grade school children.

Rin shrugged. "I don't know, grandma. She seems smart though, so probably not."

InuYasha continued eating, pretending not to hear the insult.

"Now that's not a very nice thing to say." his mother said.

"Please, Mom, for the love of God and all that is holy, please don't try to get involved in this." InuYasha pleaded. "Promise me that you won't."

"I won't."

"Swear to God?"

"I swear on my mother's grave." Izayoi held up her hand and vowed.

"No, no, no." InuYasha wagged a disapproving finger at her. "We all know you hated your mother. You ain't trickin' me with that bullshit. Is there a bible around here for you to swear on?" he asked. "And don't try to trick me with Don Quixote like you did last time. I ain't falling for that again."

"InuYasha." Izayoi said in a calming tone. "I swear to you I won't get involved."

"Hand to God?" InuYasha asked.

"Hand to God." she repeated, raising her right hand. "Now, who's ready for dessert?"

<<>>

A/N: Hey guys, long time no see.

I just wanted to respond to a couple reviews really quick because they posed questions that I thought more than just the one reviewer might have.

Question 1: Is there anything more than a father/daughter relationship between Sesshomaru and Rin in this story? No. I mean, he isn't much of a 'father figure' really, but yeah, no funny business going on there. In fact, there won't be any romance of any kind for him in this fic and his role will be minimal.

Question 2: Will Kagome's job play a significant role in the story? Yes. It's not going to turn into an episode of CSI or anything, but yes, the influence her career has on her life is significant to the overall plot (what little bit of plot there is).

As always, thanks for reading and for all the nice reviews! You all are too kind. Have a great day!

-SW