InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Purity 10: Anomaly ❯ Houseguest ( Chapter 11 )

Adjusting the garment bag over her arm and the shopping bags in her free hand, Madison raised her elbow to thump against the closed door.  A minute later, it opened, and Mikio stepped forward, clumsily taking the garment bag, before retreating to allow her to enter the penthouse.

"Thank God for dry cleaners," she quipped as she brushed past him.  "And thank God for forgetting to pick up my stuff for a couple weeks, too . . . You're sure you don't mind having me underfoot till Bas gets here?"

He chuckled and closed the door.  "I don't mind at all," he assured her.  "He said he could, uh, come sooner, but they had some kind of appointment with a preschool or something?"

"Oh, I think I remember Sydnie mentioning that.  It's that snooty one that has the ridiculously long waiting list?"

"And uniforms," Mikio supplied.

Madison laughed, setting the bags on the coffee table and reaching into the nearest one.  True enough, she'd had a few outfits ready at the dry cleaner, but she'd stopped at Nightingale, a new and ultra-high-end lingerie store, as well since she didn't have any extra undergarments.  "You know, the sad thing is," she began as she pulled a pair of very tiny black silk g-string panties out of the bag, "I'll bet that Evan and V start looking into preschools, just as soon as they're back from their honeymoon.  I mean, Evan would be just as happy to send his pups to any one of them as long as it had good reviews, but V?  Somehow, I think she just might be the same as Sydnie on that subject . . ." Trailing off as a decidedly thoughtful frown surfaced on her face and dangling said-panties from her index finger like an afterthought, Madison pursed her lips then sighed.  "Come to think about it, it kind of disturbs me, how similar V and Sydnie can be sometimes."

"A-Are they . . .?" he replied, his voice a little distracted.

Madison missed it since she was still considering the idea that Valerie and Sydnie were entirely too similar.  "V and Sydnie?  They are.  Frighteningly so, to be honest . . . Of course, I don't think V would use someone as a scratching post just for looking at Evan the way Sydnie would if she caught someone eyeing her man, but still . . ." Waving her hand as she shook her head, as though the action could dismiss her thoughts, Madison shrugged.  "Anyway, I know I've asked you about a thousand times, but you're sure that I'm not inconveniencing you by staying here?"

Glancing at Mikio, only to frown at the flush on his face and the strange, almost choked expression that stated quite plainly that he hadn't actually heard a word of what she'd been saying, Madison cautiously stepped toward him.  "Mikio?  Are you all right?"

It took him a few seconds to register her question, and the rather vivid flush that rushed to the fore was somehow endearing, just the same.  "P-P-Panties," he choked out, waving a hand in the direction of the undergarment that still dangled from her fingertips as the livid blush brightened to almost painful proportions.

Madison blinked and looked down, only to utter a soft little giggle as she realized what had caused the hanyou's very obvious discomfort.  "Sorry," she said despite the smile that still graced her features.  Dropping the panties back into the bag once more, she schooled her features so that she didn't prolong Mikio's discomfort.

He waved a hand, as though to dismiss her apology, even though the heightened color in his cheeks had yet to diminish.  "Do you want me to help you put that stuff away?"

Another giggle escaped her as the fleeting image of Mikio, holding her panties before slipping them into a drawer, flickered to life in her mind.  "I can get it," she assured him as she grabbed the bags and held out her hand for the garment bag.  Mikio ignored the gesture and headed toward the stairs.

Smiling as she followed after him, she carefully stepped over a small bit of trim board that the workmen had left off to the side in the hall.

He didn't say anything as he dropped the garment bag on the bed and carefully unzipped it, but Madison didn't miss the thoughtful scowl on his face, either.   He looked like he was lost in contemplation.

"Mikio . . ." she said, her voice low.  Biting her lip, she hesitated before emptying the contents of the bags into the empty drawer.

"Hmm?"

Sparing a glance over her shoulder, she shook her head as she stifled a sigh.  "I'm imposing, aren't I?" she concluded.  The last thing—the very last thing—she had wanted to do was to impose upon him, and she was, wasn't she?

Mikio blinked and shot her a quick look.  "What?  Oh, no!  Not at all!" he hurried to assure her.

She wasn't entirely sure she was buying it, though.  "No, seriously, Mikio.  You don't have to worry about hurting my feelings, you know," she told him with a wan little shrug.

"Uh, no.  No, that's not it," he insisted when she stepped forward and reached down to zip the garment bag closed.

Mikio grimaced and gently put his hand over hers to stop her.  "I mean it, Madison," he insisted gently.  "Really, you're not imposing at all."

Setting the bags aside, Madison straightened up and crossed her arms over her chest as she carefully, slowly regarded the hanyou.  He was still scowling, fiddling with his left ear as it twitched.  "I like you, Mikio," she said in the slightly stale silence that had fallen.  "I like you a lot . . ." uttering a soft giggle as she sank down on the side of the bed, she shrugged almost listlessly, as though it was the only thing she could do.  "The last thing I want to do is to make you uncomfortable in your own space."

Mikio blinked, stared at her for a long moment, before he shook his head and reached for the garment bag again.  "I, uh . . . I like you, too, Madison," he replied as he pulled a few items out of the bag.  "You're not making me uncomfortable at all."

She regarded him as he carefully stepped into the huge walk-in closet to hang them up, watched him as he returned to the bed and pulled the rest of them out, too.  Taking a moment to carefully shake each one before hanging striding into the closet once more, he didn't speak again until he'd finished his task, leaning against the doorway, crossing his arms over his chest.

"So . . . are you hungry?"

His abrupt change of topics, coupled by the almost belligerent air of his stance, brought a wan smile to her lips, and she nodded.  "Okay," she relented as she stood up, as she brushed off her skirt to smooth it down.  "Why don't you let me pay for dinner then?  Call it rent if you want."

Eyes widening as he stared down at the huge steak sizzling on the oblong cast iron pan, Mikio opened his mouth, then snapped it closed once more, shaking his head in disbelief as the waitress slipped a huge platter of roasted vegetables onto the middle of the huge butcher-block table beside a generous twig basket piled with fluffy, crusty rolls surrounding a small crock of whipped butter that was melting from the warmth of the bread.  A second waitress slipped a frothy pitcher of beer onto the table and winked at them while the first waitress hurried away without a word.

"Can I bring you anything else?" she asked.

"We're good, thanks," Madison said with a bright smile.

"This is enough to feed my entire family," Mikio remarked as the waitress moved away.

Madison laughed.  "I can't usually finish it, either."

Shaking his head, Mikio reached for one of the giant spoons on the roasted vegetable platters.  He managed to scoop some onto Madison's pan without incident before adding some to his own.  It didn't actually look like any had been taken, though . . .

"Thanks," she said, sparing a moment to smile at him before she reached for her knife and fork.

"Mikio.  Madison."

Mikio blinked and sat back as Gunnar stopped beside the table.

"Gunnar . . . out slumming, are you?" Madison teased.

Gunnar chuckled.  "Something like that," he allowed with a quick wink at the female youkai.  "Mind if I join you?"

Mikio shook his head and gestured at the empty chair before him before glancing around to catch the waitress' eye to wave her over.  "You want half of this?" he asked, pointing at his food and only partially kidding.

Gunnar laughed and wasted no time in ordering his food before asking for a list of their imported beers before turning his attention back to Madison and Mikio once more.  "You're as gorgeous as ever, Madison," he remarked with a wink at the woman in question.

Mikio frowned as Madison uttered a low giggle.  "And you're the absolute epitome of perfection, of course," she replied.

He rolled his eyes at her blatant teasing.  "I doubt that.  I just got back in town an hour or so ago," he said.  "To be honest, I haven't even made it back to my apartment yet, but airplane food?"  Affecting a full-body shudder, Gunnar looked duly put-upon, not that Mikio blamed him.  It'd been his experience, too, that airline food was not really food, after all . . . "For the record, if you're ever planning a vacation?  Don't go to Hackinack, Virginia, no matter how 'scenic' they say it is.  No decent hotels, no decent places to eat, no . . . No anything, come to think of it . . ."

"Was that where you were?" Madison asked as she cut into her huge steak.  "Business, I'm sure."

Gunnar grunted his agreement.  Taking the beer list from the waitress who had quietly returned, he ordered a drink and handed it back before dismissing the woman entirely.  "Had to interview this old mountain man about a fifty year old case.  Turns out, he didn't remember a damn thing—at least, nothing that mattered—so . . ."

"I thought Bas was the one who normally went to do that sort of thing," Madison mused, tucking an errant lock of warm blonde hair behind her ear.

"He would have," Gunnar allowed, "but Cain wanted him to stay closer to home since he had to fly out to Chicago."

"Why would he do that?  He didn't mention anything like that, and he hates to leave nee-chan's side when she's pregnant, doesn't he?" Mikio asked.

Gunnar made a face as the waitress set his beer down without interrupting them and quietly slipped away again.  "It was kind of sudden.  He was challenged."

"Wh—What?" Mikio demanded as Madison gasped softly.

This time, Gunnar shrugged, a strange sense of foreboding crossing his features as he leaned slightly to one side to allow the waitress to set down his food.  Again, he waited until the woman was gone before he spoke again.  "Hiram Unker—father of a woman that Cain had to order a hunt for last year . . . He couldn't understand why his darling daughter was 'targeted', never mind that she was directly responsible for the killing of four people a few years ago while Sami was missing.  Anyway, the baka issued formal challenge, Cain couldn’t possibly ignore it."

Letting out a deep breath, Mikio slowly shook his head.  "That's unfortunate," he murmured, scowling at his food as he tried to make sense of it.

"Dad's the one who hunted her . . . I remember hearing him, talking on the phone with Cain about it," Madison mused.  "He hates having to hunt women, but . . ."

Gunnar chewed a bite of his steak slowly, thoughtfully.  "Ben told me earlier that Cain was fine, that he defeated Unker easily enough, but that he felt obligated to check into something before he heads back home."

"What kind of 'something'?" Mikio countered, his frown deepening.  "He needs to be home with nee-chan, not out there, doing kami knows what . . ."

Letting out a deep breath, Gunnar shrugged once more, and this time, he raised his gaze to lock with Mikio's.  "Apparently, Unker's got a couple other children at home, and his wife is going to die, so he just wants to make sure that the pups have somewhere to go."

Mikio considered that for a minute.  "Bet Papa's pleased about that," he muttered dryly since he knew damn well that InuYasha likely had a few choice things to say regarding the idea of Cain leaving Gin while she was pregnant for any reason.  Even if he could see the logic and necessity of it all, InuYasha would never admit as much, anyway, and Mikio knew it.

"Yeah, well, it was stupid on Unker's part," Gunnar stated flatly.  "He has two pups at home, and he knowingly endangered his entire family, all for revenge, so instead of just losing one daughter who had committed a number of crimes, he's destroyed his entire family, instead."  Shaking his head in obvious disgust, Gunnar looked entirely put upon.  "Damn fool."

Put that way, Mikio had to agree.  After all, in a formal challenge to a tai-youkai, there was no way for more than one person to walk away from it, period.  That the man had a family that he hadn't even considered was as sad as it was short-sighted.

"What'll happen if those children don't have another relative willing to take them in?" Madison asked softly.

Shaking his head slowly, Gunnar looked even more irritated, and, considering that Mikio knew well enough that Gunnar, in particular, wasn't entirely keen on showing much if any emotion, it stated volumes, as far as Mikio was concerned.  "Worst case?  Cain might well end up having to bring them back with him," he mused.  "I'm not sure how much interest there's been lately by anyone looking to adopt, but maybe he knows of a family . . ."

"Gin would probably want to keep them herself if she weren't already pregnant," Madison agreed.  "With twins on the way . . ."

"Well, it's all fine to speculate over it, but until something happens, one way or another, it's kind out of anyone's hands."  Gunnar sighed and reached for the pitcher of beer to refill Madison's glass.  "Anyway, enough of that . . . How's Gavin's case coming along?"

It took a moment for Mikio's brain to change gears, and he grimaced since the news on that front wasn't very good, either.  "His reports were altered sometime between when he submitted them and when they were audited, but figuring out who did it or even just who might have had access to the files is proving to be tricky."

Gunnar considered that as he set the pitcher down and retrieved his silverware.  "That shouldn't be too difficult," he countered.  "On any server, there are levels of access, so it should be simple for them to give you the names of the ones who are allowed."

"Sure, if they were of the mind to cooperate with me.  They're not."

"Keh."

"I'm going to have to petition for a subpoena . . . I didn't really want to.  I was hoping to avoid it, but I don't think it'll be possible."

Gunnar nodded slowly.  "Any way we can help?"

Letting out a deep breath that lifted his bangs straight up in the air, Mikio shook his head.  "Not that I can think of.  I mean, aside from hacking their server, there's really no way to do it, and even if you did do that, nothing we found would be admissible in court—if it came down to that, anyway."

Gunnar stared at Mikio in that lazy sort of way that usually meant that the future Japanese tai-youkai was considering something very seriously.  "Or you could just use the information so that you knew where to concentrate your investigation . . . There's no one in the company who would be willing to talk?"

"Not that I know of," Mikio allowed.  "They haven't been very pleased that I'm looking into it, to start with."

The scowl that deepened on Gunnar's face bespoke his belief that the company was simply being short-sighted, which Mikio agreed with completely.  "Yeah, well, let me know if there's anything I can do to help out."

Mikio nodded.  Discussing the case with Gunnar, however, only served to bring the entire situation back into focus once more, as well as the overall sense of frustration that seemed to linger over every aspect of it, too.

Glancing up at Madison, Mikio couldn't help but to smile back when her lips turned up at the corners in a secretive sort of expression, and he noticed once more, just how her smiles always seemed to add another sparkle, a heightened brightness, to her eyes—to her entire being.  If she was bored with the topics of conversation, she didn't show it, and he blinked in surprise when her cheeks flushed just a little under his scrutiny.

"Have you heard from Evan?" Gunnar cut in, oblivious to the undertones passing between Madison and Mikio.

Madison stared at Mikio for another long moment before rather slowly shifting her gaze to Gunnar once more.  "V called long enough to say that Evan took her to Iceland," she remarked, casting Mikio another quick glance.

For some reason, the secretive little smile that still twitched her lips brought a certain heat to Mikio's cheeks as he dropped his eyes, as he concentrated on the steak on the pan before him.  What was it about her? he wondered absently.  It wasn't something that felt contrived or anything, no . . . More like she was telling him something that he simply didn't understand, even if he felt like he ought to . . .

"Iceland?  Seems like a weird choice for him, but then, I guess Evan's a little weird, anyway," Gunnar mused.

"V said it was beautiful, even if she's only managed to talk him into leaving the hotel once so far."

Gunnar grunted and rolled his eyes despite the hint of amusement that lingered in the depths of his golden gaze.  "Somehow, that doesn't really surprise me, either . . ."