InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Present Perfect ❯ Chapter 22 ( Chapter 22 )

Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi

 

 

Chapter 22

 

 

He didn't want to meet the girls, he really didn't. The worst part was, neither did Kagome. Oh, she was looking forward to telling them all about her college experience in America, but along with that would come questions about Inuyasha which neither of them really wanted to answer. But Kagome felt obligated to go, and she dragged Inuyasha along with her.

 

“You said you wanted me to introduce you to my friends,” she reminded him.

 

“That was over there,” said Inuyasha. “Besides, I already met these three.” Actually, they weren't that bad. It was just that he didn't want to share Kagome right now. There wasn't much time left.

 

The girls were waiting for them at the burger restaurant. Inuyasha brightened immediately. This might not be a waste after all. They had ordered a platter of burgers which was already on the table.

 

“It's so nice to see you, Inuyasha,” said the curly-haired one. “Did you go to school in America too?”

 

“Er, yeah,” he replied. He unwrapped a burger and popped it whole into his mouth.

 

“Are you two serious?” she wanted to know, leaning her chin on her hands.

 

Inuyasha's eyebrows were question marks. Serious? What the hell was she talking about? He quickly chewed and swallowed, about to voice his confusion out loud, when Kagome interrupted. “Inuyasha, I need something to drink. Will you please go get me a milkshake?”

 

Inuyasha was more than happy to leave the table. On reflection, the hamburgers weren't really worth it. He glanced back to see all three girls leaning forward with their elbows on the table, food forgotten. Poor Kagome. She was looking definitely uncomfortable. Oh well, they were her friends.

 

When he got back to the table, they all accosted him at once. He ducked his head and concentrated on eating as many hamburgers as he could so he wouldn't have to talk.

 

“Ooh, Inuyasha, Kagome told us the good news!” said the short-haired one. “Congratulations on your engagement!”

 

Engagement? They meant getting married. Kagome had told them that? He stole a glance at Kagome, who was concentrating intently on eating her burger. So she did want to get married. He couldn't help grinning. She told her friends she was getting married to him!

 

“When?” asked the third girl, the sharp one.

 

Kagome raised her head. “Well, uh, we really haven't set a date yet. Probably after we graduate,” she said, risking a small peek at Inuyasha. She hadn't even discussed marriage with him since his disastrous proposal at the department store last Christmas. She wondered if he even remembered asking her.

 

“Keh!” Inuyasha put his burger down and folded his arms, facing Kagome. “I'm not waiting that long!”

 

“Really?” Kagome's face lit up.

 

“When I get back, we'll get married, Ok?”

 

Kagome's face fell. When he got back. She took a small sip of her milkshake. Suddenly she wasn't hungry.

 

“Oh?” asked the sharp one. “Where are you going?”

 

“He has to go—home,” explained Kagome.

 

“Oh,” said the girls, as though that explained everything.

 

“Then where is he staying now? At your house?” asked the curly-haired girl.

 

“I'm staying with Kagome,” affirmed Inuyasha. “In her room.” He didn't want these girls to get the wrong impression like Susan had. Especially now, he didn't want Kagome to get mad at him.

 

Kagome's face bloomed a bright red as all three girls stared at her with open mouths. “Oh!” they all said again.

 

“Why did you say that?” Kagome asked, after they left the restaurant. “I was so embarrassed! Now they all know we are sleeping together!”

 

“So? What's wrong with that?” Sometimes Inuyasha didn't understand Kagome. “We are sleeping together. If they were youkai, they would have known.”

 

 

Since they were on their own for a few days, Kagome brought Inuyasha around to her favorite places in Tokyo. They rode the giant ferris wheel, but Kagome had to get off after one round. It must have been the hamburgers, she thought.

 

They took the subway to the Meiji shrine and walked through peaceful gardens until it got dark. Kagome had always wanted to do this with Inuyasha, but he hadn't known how to blend into her world then. Now, he was a perfect young man, dressed in modern clothes, escorting his date through the park. Even his distinctive hair only added to his appeal. People stared, but it was because he was so beautiful.

 

Try as he might, Inuyasha couldn't sense a single youkai in downtown Tokyo. He guessed they really had learned to keep a low profile. No wonder he had never known they existed in this time. If he wanted to find Shippo or Kouga he was going to have to call them. It was still too early for that, though. He and Kagome still had some time to themselves.

 

That night he swept her up and into the branches of Goshinboku, and they watched the moon rise and set. This tree was a piece of their forever, as out of time and place as they were. Here they belonged. Kagome fell asleep long before Inuyasha did. He watched the dawn break over the valley below the shrine. One more day.

 

 

“It's time.” With those words, Inuyasha set his plan in motion. He snapped his phone shut and sighed. Sesshomaru would be over shortly to pick him up. They were going out on the town, ostensibly to meet some business connections of Sesshomaru's. Kagome was going shopping with her mother instead.

 

Sesshomaru's driver dropped them off in Shinjuku. It was late afternoon, and already the streets were crowded and noisy with boisterous youths and businessmen stopping off on their way home from the office. Sesshomaru led him down a side street, then up the stairs to a secluded restaurant. They would meet his business associates there.

 

“Be careful,” he warned Inuyasha. “They're not youkai.”

 

Interesting, thought Inuyasha, that Sesshomaru would entrust his finances to mere humans. In this he would have to defer to Sesshomaru, however. They really did plan on talking some business tonight. He wanted to make sure that Kagome was well taken care of, as well as start Fenn and the others on the road to acquiring land and wealth in the human way. Hopefully, he would be around to finalize the deals.

 

Sesshomaru ordered sake for the table, and poured each man a glass to start. They quickly switched over to beer, and the bottles flowed, appearing and disappearing as if by magic, as each man in turn insisted on refilling the others' glasses. Sesshomaru, Inuyasha noted, drank sparingly if at all. He couldn't blame him. Sake was at least tolerable to his sensitive nose; beer wasn't.

 

Inuyasha poured the table a round of beer, pretending to be drunk in order to slop some of the foul-smelling stuff all over himself. It was a shame he couldn't wear his fire-rat clothes to this meeting so that they would soak up some of the smell, too. He hoped what he spilled on himself, in combination with what he drank, would do the trick. He had to hold his nose, not literally, but in order to swallow the beer, he drank without breathing. Sesshomaru looked at him oddly.

 

By the end of the evening, Inuyasha and the three humans at the table had become good friends. They shook hands, and set a time to meet again next month at Sesshomaru's offices. Inuyasha wasn't quite drunk, but he had enough beer in him as well as on him that Sesshomaru kept his distance. Good, it worked. With any luck, it would keep working for the time he was in the Sengoku Jidai.

 

He wasn't going to go back in the house. As far as Kagome knew, he was out for the night with Sesshomaru and wouldn't be back until late. He had planned to sneak directly to the well house just as full dark fell, hoping that Kagome wouldn't notice his absence until the next morning when Shippo should be there to prevent her from following him.

 

But he saw her mother through the open window, and he realized they must be back from their shopping already. There was no light on in Kagome's bedroom, so he hopped up onto the roof and cautiously peered inside. She was there, sleeping already. She'd been doing that a lot lately. Inuyasha was no expert, but he figured it was her body's way of telling her to slow down. He eased the window open and stepped inside, careful not to wake her. He squatted down by her bed, listening to her easy breathing. He wished he could hold her one more time, see her bright eyes once more. He settled for inhaling deeply, slightly nauseated by the beer smell which came in along with Kagome's scent. It wasn't enough. He wanted to capture her in his memory. He buried his nose in her belly, letting the sheet act as a filter, and drew in the heady scent of her changing body. He could sense the budding aura inside her, his child, her child.

 

“I'll see you soon,” he whispered, sure of it. As she stirred, responding to his own aura, he hopped back up to the windowsill, where he crouched for a moment, framed in darkness, still as only a youkai could be. When Kagome opened her eyes, he was gone.

 

She shook her head sleepily, glancing at the clock by her bedside. Nine o'clock. “What's that smell?” she wondered, hoping it wasn't her. She hadn't been feeling too well lately. She rolled over and closed her eyes. Sleep was the best medicine. Maybe tomorrow she'd see a doctor, just in case she was coming down with something. She didn't want to get sick right before their big trip.

 

 

Inuyasha entered the well house and retrieved his fire-rat clothes. He pulled out a bottle of beer he had managed to sneak out of the restaurant and sprinkled the clothes liberally with beer. It would dry almost immediately, but the smell would remain. This was it. Tetsusaiga again visible at his hip, he perched on the edge of the well. Before he jumped, he switched off his cell phone to preserve the battery. Then he went to face his future in the past.

 

Shippo sat on the well's wooden lip, as he had every night for the past two weeks, waiting for Kagome and Inuyasha to return. He knew they might not be able to return, they had said their good-byes just in case last winter, but he wanted to be here to greet them if they did come. They said they would try. The others had all gone on with their lives, Sango had the baby, and there was really nothing left for him in Kaede's village. He had to be strong. All the same, he was starting to lose hope that they ever would come back.

 

A flash of blue lit the sky. Inuyasha shot out of the well, knocking the little kitsune off the edge and into the grass. He stared up at the youkai in red, blinking rapidly. “Inuyasha?” he asked tentatively. It looked like Inuyasha but. . . .

 

“Yeah, who'd you think it would be?” asked Inuyasha. Good, the beer was working.

 

“Where's Kagome?” Shippo looked behind Inuyasha at the well.

 

“She's not coming. I need to go to Sango's village for the baby's naming ceremony. Are you coming?” Inuyasha strode off, leaving Shippo to gape after him. The kitsune ran to catch up.

 

“What do you mean she's not coming? Why not?”

 

Inuyasha didn't answer. He wondered if this was how Jen and Noriko felt when they acted in one of their plays. He had a script to follow, and it wasn't easy. He wanted nothing better than to scoop Shippo up and reassure him that Kagome was all right, thanks to him. But it hadn't happened that way. Shippo himself had told him that. Inuyasha sighed. It would have been easier if he could ditch the kitsune and assume spirit form, bypass the naming ceremony altogether, take out the youkai, and go home to Kagome.