InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Purity 9: Subterfuge ❯ Laughter ( Chapter 111 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

"Hey, Roka, have you seen this—oh . . . dear . . . God . . . What in the hell are you supposed to be?"

Evan glanced up at Valerie, sparing a moment as he fussed with the black Speedo.  "What do you mean?" he asked baldly.

"That," she said, waving a hand at him.  "That!"

Casting his gaze downward and back up to meet hers again, he grinned.  "Oh, this?  I'm Dr. Frank N. Furter."

She stood up slowly, crossing her arms over her chest.  "Who?"

His grin widened.  "Dr. Frank N. Furter," he repeated.  "You know, from The Rocky Horror Picture Show?"

"Is that a wig?" she demanded, looking entirely serious as she gawped at his hair.

"Yes," he told her, fluffing the curly, slightly frizzed black locks.

"Hmph," she grunted with a shake of her head.  She didn't look like she knew what he was talking about.  "Okay, so why are you wearing that?"

Heaving a sigh, rolling his eyes, he shook his head and closed the distance between them to slip an arm around her shoulders.  "'Cause I'm a sweet transvestite from Tra-a-a-ansexual, Transylvania-a-a-a-ah!'" he sang, bouncing his hip in time with the song he was singing.

Snapping her mouth closed, Valerie shook her head again.  "Tell me you're not wearing that," she begged dryly.

Evan laughed.  "Of course I am," he insisted.

"Oh, well, in that case, then I'm not going with you."

"What do you mean?" he laughed.  "You've gotta go with me!  It's The Rocky Horror Picture Show!"

"I'm not going anywhere with you as long as you're wearing that," she stated flatly.

Evan grinned as he glanced down at the black leather corset, the fishnet stockings, the gaudy black and white stack heels, the Speedo, the black leather gauntlets and garter, and the string of pearls . . . "What's wrong with my outfit?" he asked baldly.

"I can't believe you actually asked me that," she muttered, turning her attention back to the folder she'd been looking through.

"Hey, V?"

For a moment, he wasn't entirely sure that she was going to answer, but finally, she did.  "Yes?"

"Will you help me with my makeup?"

Her entire body stilled for several seconds, and when she finally, slowly, hesitantly lifted her gaze to meet his, he very nearly laughed out loud.  "Your . . . what?"

"My makeup," he repeated.

Valerie shook her head.  "Not in a million years."

"I got a costume for  you, too," he told her as he carefully leaned toward the mirror over the table that he'd had repaired after his outburst when he'd found out that the song he'd recorded just for Dieter had been released and picked up the white powder makeup.

"I shudder to ask," she said flatly.

"Columbia."

"Who's that?"

He paused in the middle of applying the makeup to peer over at her with a grin.  "Oh, come on, V . . . She's a groupie.  Sounds about right, doesn't it?"

"Are you trying to say that you think I'm nothing more than a groupie?" she demanded.

"Of course not, baby," he assured her.  "I wish though . . ."

She snorted but didn't respond otherwise.

"Aww, you've got to dress up," he insisted, dropping the compact on the table and turning to retrieve the costume bag from where it hung over the back of a chair.  It didn't take him long to unzip it, and when he held it up for Valerie's inspection, she blinked once, twice, and shook her head again.

"There's no way I'm going to wear a gold dinner jacket over a leotard with . . . are those tap shoes?" she asked darkly.

Evan laughed.  "Of course. Oh!"  Dropping the costume over the chair again, he strode over and grabbed her hands to haul her to her feet.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

His cheesy grin was enough to elicit a sigh from her.  "You've got to learn the Time Warp," he told her.

"The Time Warp?" she echoed with a shake of her head.

He nodded.  "Yeah.  It's a dance."

She heaved a sigh designed to let him know just what she thought of that idea.  He laughed, turning her around, placing one hand on her waist as he hit 'play' on the remote.  The television winked to life, and he scanned forward until he found the place he wanted.  "Just watch.  It's easy."

Valerie rolled her eyes, but did as she was told.

Ten minutes later, she'd mastered the easy dance, which wasn't at all surprising to Evan.  By the time they were finished, she was laughing softly, her cheeks flushed.  "See?  Awesome, right?" he asked her.

"Maybe," she allowed almost grudgingly.  "I'm still not wearing that."

Heaving a sigh, Evan shrugged and leaned down to kiss her cheek before heading over once more to finish applying his makeup.

"You know, you could save yourself a lot of time and money if you'd just plead guilty to the mooning charge," Valerie pointed out as she settled onto the sofa once more.

Evan snorted.  "I told you, V.  I was framed, remember?"

She grunted, mostly because she'd stood before the judge earlier today and had told him exactly that: that Evan had been framed by an unknown man who fled the scene before he could be caught.

To be completely honest, he wasn't sure how anyone in that court room had managed to keep straight faces during the proceedings.  Even the judge—the Honorable Nicholas Gearhardt—had shifted in his seat a few times as the police reports were entered into evidence, and the assistant DA had cleared his throat several times throughout, too.

Of course, it could have been the testimony from the security guard that did it.  He was hard pressed not to grin outright at the ridiculous notion that Evan had, indeed, been framed since he'd alleged that Evan was standing right beside him the entire time and still had his pants down when he was apprehended.

Evan grinned.

'Your father wasn't nearly as amused as everyone else was,' his youkai-voice pointed out.

That tempered the smile but didn't make it go away entirely.  'Didn't figure he would be, and he might have been—if he had a sense of humor, which he doesn't.'

'He had a point, though.  You could have just asked Valerie to stay on as your lawyer and paid her a retainer fee.'

'Aww, whose side are you on?  Besides, it made her laugh, didn't it?'

Which was as good a reason as any to have done it in the first place, as far as Evan was concerned.

'Well, okay, you've got a point . . .'

He chuckled and reached for the garish black and gray pallet of eye shadows.   No doubt about it.  Hearing that woman laugh was worth more than anything else in the world . . .


Stumbling into the mansion well after midnight, Valerie wrapped an arm over her stomach as she groaned and giggled by turns as she stopped short and ran her fingers through her hair, dislodging grains of rice that had she hadn't already shaken loose.  "Oh, my God!" she half-groaned.  "That had to be the most messed-up thing I've ever done in my life."

"Yeah, but you had a good time; admit it," Evan countered mildly as he followed her inside and closed the door.

She laughed and let him drag her into the living room.  "I had a good time," she allowed.  "Of course, I felt a little stupid, considering I was the only person there who was dressed normally."

"I told you, V," he said with a mock sigh.  "I tried to get you to dress up, too, but you said you didn't want to . . . and I gotta tell you, I'm damn sure that you'd have been the hottest fucking Columbia there."

She rolled her eyes but laughed as she gave Evan a playful shove.  "There was no way, Roka . . . and Bone had to be the weirdest looking Rocky Horror I saw all night."

Evan chuckled since he had to agree.  "A black Rocky Horror . . . That was fantastic."

Her lips twitched.  "It was the blonde wig."

He laughed outright.  "I thought he looked great!"

Shaking her head, Valerie covered her mouth as she giggled, like she was afraid of letting him see how amusing she really thought it was, but she finally wound down, slumping back against the arm of the sofa, her legs casually crossed at the ankles.  "So how many people do you think were there?" she asked.

Evan shrugged and tugged the wig off his head.  "I don't know," he mused slowly.  "At least two, three thousand?"

She considered that then nodded.  To be honest, she was amazed to have seen that many people gathered to see the spectacle and was even more flabbergasted when she realized that most all of them were dressed up as one character or another.

"Okay, Roka, the party's over.  Go put on real clothes, will you?  That's just disturbing as all hell," Valerie said, planting her hands on her hips as she shook her head at him though her smile didn't wane.

He laughed but headed for the stairs.  "All right," he called back over his shoulder.

Okay, so she had to admit that she'd had fun—lots of fun.  When she was in college, they'd showed the movie during an all-night party sponsored by the university, but she hadn't gone, opting instead to stay in her dormitory to study for an upcoming test in one of her classes, and while her friends at the time had raved about how much fun it had been, she had to admit now that she was kind of glad that she'd missed that original opportunity.  Seeing the show with Evan and his friends for the first time?  It was a hell of a lot of fun . . .

The sound of the front door opening interrupted Valerie's musings.  A moment later, Madison, Bone, Bugs, and Bitches and her current girlfriend, Tess wandered into the room.  Madison was laughing about something that Bone had said, but when she spotted Valerie, she hurried over to kiss her cheek.  "What happened to your maid's uniform?" Valerie asked with a smile.

Madison winked at her.  "I made a hot Magenta, right?"

Valerie laughed and hugged Madison.  Bitches sashayed into the living room with a couple bottles of wine and a handful of glasses followed by Bugs who had apparently decided that champagne was in order.   "Sweetie, you should have dressed up, too!" she insisted, sparing a moment to let Valerie take a wine glass from her.  "Zel said that he'd gotten you a Columbia costume, and oh!  Your legs would have just looked divine in that . . . What a shame!"

"Is that right?" Tess asked dryly, but she winked at Valerie with a smile that showed off the deep dimples in each of her cheeks.

Valerie shook her head.  "I really didn't know that everyone dressed up for that," she confessed.  "I thought Zel was just blowing hot air."

"And when do I ever do that?" he demanded as he loped down the steps.  At least he'd washed off the makeup, and he'd changed into a pair of ragged jeans, platinum blonde hair with black tipped ends and . . .

Valerie raised an eyebrow.  'A . . . spiked dog collar . . .?'

Bugs squealed when he spotted Evan, sloshing champagne into a couple glasses and hurrying over to offer one to the rock star.  Evan grinned and took the glass, gulping down half of its contents before slapping Bugs on the ass and winking when he caught Valerie's gaze.  Then he grinned, setting the glass aside, and pulled Bugs away from the furniture to do the Time Warp.

She heaved a sigh and shook her head, enjoying Evan's outrageous behavior for once.  Maybe it was just seeing him, having fun with his friends that was reassuring.  True, he had been pretty upbeat since his arrest for mooning in the Statue of Liberty, but she had to admit that this was the first time that she'd seen him really cut loose since then, too, and that . . . It made her feel a lot better.

Madison laughed and wandered over to the music station, messing around for a few minutes, and it wasn't surprising when the song started up a moment later.

"C'mon, hussy!" Bugs called, fluttering a hand at Madison.  She giggled, catching Valerie's hand and dragging her off with her.  Valerie barely had time to set her wine glass down  as she was dragged off to dance, and Madison's laughter echoed in the room as they lined up to dance with Evan and Bugs.  Bitches and Tess grabbed Bone, too, and despite the big man's laughing protests, he let them pull him over.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Valerie realized just how silly the entire thing was: gathered in the middle of Evan's living room, dancing to a goofy movie's silly song, and yet, it somehow fit, didn't it?  Evan and his friends . . . It was fun, and, she had to admit, she was glad that Evan had taken the time to teach her the dance before they'd gone to the open air showing in Central Park.

As the Time Warp ended, the music changed into something a lot heavier, a slow, throbbing rhythm.   Bugs' cell phone trilled, and he scooted off to answer it in the privacy of the kitchen while Bone pulled Madison over to dance with him, while Bitches and Tess began a very raunchy bump-and-grind that made Valerie wonder if the two of them remembered that they weren't alone.  Evan grabbed her around the waist and pulled her over to dance with him.  "Your cheeks are all flushed, V," he murmured, heavy lidded eyes burning with a lazy sort of intensity, his hips swaying against hers in a very lethargic, almost sinful kind of way.

She shook her head slightly, but she wasn't sure why.  Swallowing hard at the very proximity of Evan's body and hers, the dizzy feeling that set in was heady and somehow entirely welcome . . .

Something about his voice, the husky quality, the brush of his breath on her skin . . . a terrible sense of déjà vu that was dulled by the fog that enveloped her brain . . . His nearness felt . . . right . . . and that idea was both frightening and beautiful, all at the same time . . .

His movements were like water, flowing like the ocean, the gentle sway of his hips as he grasped her waist, as he coaxed her body to move in time with a delicate intoxication, a buffer of emotion that guided her.  A voice whispered in the back of her mind, but she couldn't hear the words.  Locked into a trance as she listened to him sing: low, hushed, mesmerizing . . .

Her heart hammered hard against her ribcage—a stark contrast to the pleasant sense of lassitude that seeped through her limbs, making her feel as though she would collapse against him, knowing deep down that he would catch her if she faltered.  He uttered a low half-growl in her ear; a strange sound that somehow seemed right, too, though she didn't fully comprehend why that would be.

"Damn," he murmured, his lips brushing against her ear, and he sounded almost like he was in pain.

Tightening her arms around his neck, she let her head fall back, gazing up at him in a complete haze, the dulled confusion rife in her stare.  "Evan?"

He tried to smile at her; he really did.  It looked more like a grimace as a ragged groan slipped from him.  "Damn," he whispered again, a shiver rattling through his body.  "Do you have any fucking idea how badly I want to—?"

"All right, Roka," Madison's voice broke in, "you've had her long enough."

Valerie blinked as Madison quickly pulled her away from Evan and smiled brightly at her.  Glancing over Madison's shoulder at Evan, Valerie saw that he looked like he might be considering some kind of mayhem.

"He's always had the manners of a common mongrel," Madison remarked lightly.

Valerie forced her gaze away from the man in question and managed a weak laugh.  "I know," she muttered, unable to staunch the flow of color that suffused her cheeks.  "I . . . I know . . ."


"They like you."

Valerie blinked and glanced up from where she sat on the piano bench, idly touching the keys.  "What's that?"

Evan grinned, pushing himself away from the doorframe and wandering over to the baby grand.  "They like you," he stated again.

"Who does?"

Chuckling softly, he moved around to sit beside her, nudging her over with his hip.  "My friends," he said simply, as though she ought to have known as much.  "Bitches thinks you're 'hawt'."

"Well, of course she does," Valerie replied baldly.  "I am 'hawt'.  Besides, you already knew that Maddy likes me."

He laughed and played a few chords.  "Well, yeah," he agreed easily enough.  "And I meant the others."

She snorted, wrinkling her very cute nose in the process.  "Bugs doesn't.  In fact, Bugs doesn't even acknowledge that I'm a female."

He rolled his eyes though his smile didn't dim.  "Bugs likes you just fine," he argued.  "He just thinks you're competition."

She pinned him with a no-nonsense stare.  "I gotta tell you, I just can't see myself in a competition with him for any man."

"Eh, you'd win, hands down," he assured her.  "You won me, didn't you?"

She shot him a chagrined look but smiled.  "You're the booby prize."

He grinned but didn't deny it.  "I like boobies."

Heaving a sigh, Valerie tried to glower at him, but the effect was ruined when she giggled.  "I walked right into that one, didn't I?"

"Yeah, you did.  You really, really did."

"Hmm," she said, watching his fingers move over the keyboard.  "Play for me, Roka."

"What do you want to hear?"

Shrugging offhandedly, she leaned on his shoulder.  Evan wasn't entirely sure that she knew she was doing it, so he didn't remark upon it, either.  "Make something up," she murmured.  "You can do that, can't you?"

"Sure."

Taking a moment to flex his fingers, he took a minute to warm up before casting her a grin and starting to play.  There wasn't really any structure to the song.  More of a rambling effort that ebbed from slow to fast then back to a gentle melody once more, without words, without the need to change the simplistic patterns that emerged.

Beside him, Valerie sighed softly, her eyes closed, a gentle smile quirking her lips.  He supposed that he'd be content to play for her forever, so long as she had that expression on her face.

And he would have; he really would have—if his cell phone didn't ring right about then.  He ignored it the first time, but when it sounded again a minute later, he heaved a sigh of his own though for entirely different reasons, and got to his feet, striding over to grab the device off the coffee table where he'd left it before they'd gone to the open air show in Central Park.  "Hello?" he answered without preamble.

"Roka?  Where the hell have you been?" Mike demanded, sounding even grouchier than usual.

"I went out," he replied evasively.  "Why?"

Mike sighed as Evan discerned the metallic creak of an office chair in the background.  "I've tried to reach you all night, damn it."  Letting out a deep breath, the manager seemed to be trying to get himself under control.  "Sorry," he growled, sounding anything but contrite.  "I just got worried; that's all."

"And here I didn't think you cared," Evan quipped.  "So what's up?"

"It's about Mr. Matthis," Mike went on.  "I was told by one of his nurses that he actually managed to walk a couple steps in therapy the other day."

"Yeah?" Evan said, eyebrows lifting as a slight grin broke over his features.  "Is that right?"

"Yeah," Mike repeated.  Even over the phone, Evan could hear the relief in Mike's tone.

"That's great," Evan insisted, pacing the floor in front of the coffee table.  "That's fucking huge!"

"Well, do me a favor, will you?  Try to stay out of trouble for a little while?  I'm getting damn sick of having to tell people who call and want to book you that I'm not sure if you're going to be in jail by then or not."

Evan grinned and rolled his eyes, not that Mike could see it.  "Yeah, yeah," he agreed, mostly to placate his manager.  "Thanks for the update."

Snapping the phone closed, Evan dropped it on the table before striding over to the French doors that overlooked the pool and back again.  That Matthis was able to take even a few steps was one of the best things he'd heard in weeks, and he couldn't help the sense of giddiness that welled up inside him.

"Is everything okay, Evan?" Valerie asked from her place, perched on the piano bench.

"Hey, V, I know it's kind of late, but you want to go for a pizza or something?"

Valerie stared at him for a long moment, the confusion on her face growing more and more prevalent.  "Pizza?"

He clapped his hands as he rounded to grin at her.  "Oh, or maybe gyros . . . I love those things, right?  Or hey!  I could take you to this place I know?  They serve the best—best—oysters—big, fat, juicy oysters, fresh out of the water!  Slightly briny from the ocean, soft and velvety on the tongue—kind of like eating pussy.  'Course, I have to admit, I'd rather have the pussy.  Oh, damn, just thinking about it makes me horny as all—"

Evan blinked when Valerie slid her finger through the silver tag loop on the collar still fastened around his neck.  Yanking his head down so that she was eye to eye with him, she shook her head and pinned him with the sternest look she could muster.  "You're babbling, Roka," she pointed out.

He laughed but didn't try to get away from her.  He hadn't even heard her stand up, to tell the truth, and not that it mattered.  "That was Mike," he explained at last.  "He heard that Matthis was able to take a couple steps in therapy."

"Yeah?" she asked, her gaze widening as she stared at him.  "That is great!  Do you think Miss would want to know?"

"Maybe," he allowed.

That was all she waited to hear.  Hurrying over to retrieve the phone he'd dropped, she didn't seem to realize that she was still leading Evan around by the throat.  When she bent over to grab the device, though, she pulled the collar a little tighter, and he choked.  "You know, V, you can drag me around all night if you want, but don't kill me," he teased.

Valerie blinked but didn't let go as she straightened her back and thrust his phone at him.  "Suck it up, Roka," she commanded, a telling glint dancing in the depths of her gaze.  "Just make the call, will you?"