InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Sengoku Jidai High School ❯ Mondays Suck part 2 ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

By: Lcsaf

DISCLAIMER: Given the work of mine that you've read, could you honestly believe that I am the creator for something as great as Inu-Yasha?

A/N: Here's the next installment. I know it's short, but remember that it's only a part of chapter 3. If the argument between Sango and Inu-Yasha sucks, please forgive me. I tried so hard to keep the balance between what would be considered in character for a tomboy like Sango and the character that we all know and love from the real IY series.

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Rin nearly tossed herself at the older girl and wrapped her arms around Kagome's waist. “Kagome, Kagome! Rin drew a picture for you!” Quickly, she thrust the paper at Kagome and then hid her face in her hands, as if embarrassed at her own work. On the paper, Rin had drawn a picture of a smiling Kagome in her shrine maiden outfit, and the even the God Tree in the background.

Kagome laughed and kissed the top of Rin's head. "Thank you Rin, I love it! I'll hang it up in my room."

The little girl smiled and blushed. "I drew you smiling `cuz you looked pretty when you smile."

"I told her that Grandfather makes you work at theShrine and about the God Tree." Souta explained.

“This is a very good picture, Rin,” Kagome told the girl. “It looks just like me.” Give or take a few of the scribbles for hair.

“Come on, Rin,” Inu-Yasha called. “We're going.”

“Bye, Kagome!” The little girl trotted off to join her crew.

“See ya tomorrow,” Sango told her before they parted ways.

******

“Smells like Father has something in the oven,” Kohaku noted as he and the others entered the compound.

“Smells sweet,” Shippo added.

“Why don't you guys go inside and check?” Sango suggested. “I'm gonna talk to `Yasha for a sec.” It had taken some wheedling, but Sango had managed to convince Inu-Yasha to make the detour with his crew to the Taijins' home.

Kohaku nodded and turned to the younger children. “Come on, we'll all get a snack.”

“Yay, food!” Shippo cried as he and Rin followed their playmate inside the house.

Sango watched carefully as the trio marched into the house and the door closed behind them. The moment it did, she whirled on her companion. “Alright, give,” she demanded. “What's wrong?”

Inu-Yasha folded his arms over his chest and refused to make eye contact. “I dunno what yer talkin' `bout,” he mumbled.

Sango stared him down, watching him fidget. “You suck at lying. You know that, right?” She crossed her own arms. “You've been moody all day. I know something's going on.”

There was an awkward moment of silence before Inu-Yasha finally spoke. “Who's your best friend?” he asked seriously, locking his gaze on Sango.

She was visibly taken back by the question but there was no hesitation before she answered: “You are.”

“Then how come fuckin' time I turn around you've dropped me t' go hang out with her?!” He gestured to the direction they had come from, but his meaning was obvious. “She ain't been here a week and you two are already glued at the hip.”

Sango narrowed her eyes. “What is your problem with Kagome? I didn't “drop” you to hang out with her, but you're bein' a total ass to her just `cause she looks like Kikyou and the poor girl is new. How is she supposed to make friends?”

“Since when's anybody else's social life your problem?” Inu-Yasha demanded. “Ya got enough of yer own without havin' t' worry `bout shoppin', `n' gigglin' `bout boys `n' shit.”

The narrowed eyes went to slits. “What?”

Inu-Yasha mentally cringed, realizing a little too late that he'd dug himself a deep one. Quickly he tried to get back out. “Well, it's not like ya even LIKE that shit....”

But Sango was having none of it. She was up in his face in a flash. “Has it ever occurred to your pea sized brain that maybe I'd like to `like that shit'?”

Inu-Yasha opened his mouth to respond, but Sango cut him off.

“Probably not! There's not enough room in there with your oversized ego! Look, I don't even know if I really like to do that stuff `cause I've never had the chance to do it! You hate shopping for clothes and anything remotely feminine, you ignore! So, if I can't do that with Kagome, then please, tell me who I cando that with. Because in case you've forgotten over the years: I'm a girl!”

Inu-Yasha just stared at her with the classic deer in the headlights look. He was never sure how to respond to her anger, because he was never sure if it was PMS or not. The last time he tried to figure out, it had ended up with him on the Taijins' dojo floor, in a great deal of pain.

“Sorry,” Sango said in a tone that suggested that she was not quite done being upset with him. “Just had to get that off my chest, yanno?” She puffed out her cheeks and held her breath while crossing her arms. Ever since she could remember, it had always been her, Inu-Yasha, and no one else. A tomboy who could beat up half her classmates at any given time was best friends with the school delinquent. Sometimes she wondered if they would've been friends at all, if they hadn't both been victims united under the circumstance.

“It's not like I've been meaning to ignore you,” she told him. “It's just...Kagome likes doing the stuff that you don't wanna do and she's the first chance I've had at making a friend since I met you.” She struggled for the words to put her sentiments to. “And I know you don't like her....but would it kill you to get along with her....for my sake?”

“Whatever,” Inu-Yasha grumbled, looking away. He hated seeing that pleading look on Sango's face—he could never say `no' to it.

Kagome and Souta reached the top of the shrine steps in time to see Grandfather emerging from the house wearing brown slacks and blue cable knit sweater.

His eyes lit up once they landed on Kagome. "Ahh, Kagome, there you are! I need you to take care of the shrine while I go meet an old friend."

Kagome refrained from letting her irritation show as she nodded and hurried to her room. Why couldn't Grandfather's friend come to the shrine to meet him? She had homework after all, and that test to study for. She stopped—appalled at her own train of thoughts. How selfish she was being! True, Grandfather had some ill-timed requests, but he deserved to have what little social life he could afford. Besides, as long as she compromised and brought her books to the Shrine with her, she could still get some studying done.

Grandfather had already left by the time she came back down and Kagome quietly took up the task of sweeping the steps.

In the two hours that Grandfather was gone, the Sunset Shrine actually got some business. A few people had come to buy charms and incense sticks to set in front of the alter. Even some curious Americans had come in to look around and bought some of the dinky stuff as souvenirs. When she wasn't watering the area around the Goshinboku and tying on new prayers to the tree and the well house, she reviewed for her Trig retest.

Half an hour before sunset, Kagome was ready to call it quits for the day. There had been absolutely no one but herself and supper was bound to be soon. After taking inventory and locking up, Kagome crossed the courtyard only to be intercepted by Souta, who informed her that Grandfather had returned with dinner guests.

Before going to her room to change, Kagome carefully slid opened the shoji door to the living area a fraction of the way to get a peek at the guests. But, from her angle, all she could see was Grandfather laughing over a cup of tea. Oh well, they were probably old men anyways. She tried to slide the shoji back quietly, but something was preventing it from sliding back all the way. She applied a little more pressure to the panel.

MEOW!!!

A very put out Buyo glared at her from his spot covering the track. He'd apparently decided that in the doorway was the best place to rest his girth.

“Sorry, Buyo,” Kagome apologized. “But you really shouldn't be in the way.”

"Oh Kagome, is that you? Come here and meet our guests."

Kagome plastered smile on her face as she opened the door to greet her grandfather's guests. Only years of practice at her mother's insistence, kept her smile in place.

In one of the corners of the sofa, a middle-aged Buddhist monk in dark robes set his teacup down and smiled at her. In the other corner sat Miroku, dressed in a black ribbed turtleneck and ironed khakis.

“Surprise.”

Kagome could not utter a syllable.

"This is my granddaughter, Kagome....who is apparently impersonating a fish right now...” Grandfather frowned at her but continued anyways, extending a hand in the direction of the guests. “Kagome, this is my old friend, Houshi-sama and his son, Miroku. They are our guests this evening."

The elder Houshi turned to Grandfather. "You didn't tell me you had such a beautiful family. Such pretty ladies--this one looks just like her mother."

Kagome came to long enough to thank him graciously and bow out, tactfully excusing herself from the room to upstairs to change. She got dressed in record time and came down stairs to find that while her grandfather and the monk had left the room, Miroku accompanied an attention seeking Buyo in his lap, and her brother, who was happily chatting away at the older boy.

“....and my Pokémon cards collection is almost complete. Wanna see?”

“Houshi doesn't need to be subjected to that. Why don't you go help Mama in the kitchen?"

Souta made a face. "That's a girl's job.”

Kagome merely raised an eyebrow.

“That's very thin ground you're treading on, Souta,” Miroku warned in a stage whisper. “In my experience, it is always safer to help out in the kitchen and then hang out with the boys.”

The younger boy looked confused. “Really?”

Miroku nodded solemnly. “It's very manly....”

Souta looked torn for a moment between giving his sister a hard time and doing the manly thing. After a moment of silence, he nodded and gave Miroku a little wave before heading to the kitchen.

Kagome sighed and sank into Grandfather's recliner. "Thanks, Miroku, you're a life saver."

He smiled. “I recall a few conversations like that with Kohaku when I first started tutoring Sango.” He looked down at Buyo. “I like your cat. He's really friendly.”

"Yeah, Buyo's pretty affectionate and he really likes attention. Right now, to him, you're a god."

“What a fitting name. How much does he weigh?"

"Last time Souta put him on the bathroom scale he was like, seven and a half kilos. That was like, three or four months ago. Mama even tried putting him on a diet, but he would make such a fuss if he wasn't fed four time a day. So, Souta finally gave in and started giving him rice balls and junk when Mama wasn't looking."

"Seven and a half kilos?" Miroku echoed looking down at the purring feline in his lap.

Kagome just nodded. "I think if he gets any bigger, we're gonna need a wagon to transport him."

"Maybe I should come over here more often and use him as a dumb bell when I lift weights," Miroku joked.

Kagome giggled. "I don't know about that, every time Souta picks him up, Buyo kinda....liquefies and just oozes through his hands....” She stared at the content calico in the boy's lap. “So why didn't you tell me you were coming over?”

"I didn't get any more notification than you did that we were coming over. I just thought we were gonna go visit one of Uncle Mushin's old drinking buddies. We didn't even take my car. Some robber held up a bank on the other side of the city and the getaway car is the same make and model as mine, but no one got the plate numbers, so all of Tokyo's looking for this car. So, Dad's having mine sit in the garage for a while so we walked to meet your grandfather and then took a taxi here.”

“A bank robbery?”

“Yeah. The worst part is I can't even take my car to school until this whole thing winds down.”

“You're gonna have to take the express train like everyone else...” Kagome said slyly, catching on to his plight.

Miroku looked pained as he nodded. “How am I supposed to impress the ladies if I can't even use my own car?” he moaned.

“At least, Sango won't have to be afraid of your driving skills,” Kagome pointed out.

“Women like men who drive fast cars,” Miroku insisted. “Everyone knows that.”

“Girls like fast cars,” Kagome conceded. “But they also like knowing their lives aren't in danger when they get in a fast car. They like someone who knows how to drive too.”

“Hmm....interesting. And here I thought Sango arguing was simply her way of flirting with me....”

“So what is the deal with you and Sango?” Quickly, Kagome slapped a hand to her mouth, horrified she'd thought aloud again. “I'm sorry,” she whispered. “That's none of my business; I had no reason to ask.”

"No, it's quite alright,” Miroku assured her. “The truth is I enjoy Sango's company very much. However, it seems she does not reciprocate my feelings...and I am at a loss on what to do..." He sat there solemnly stroking Buyo.

"She did dance with you,” Kagome pointed out. “And she seemed to be having a good time before we left...”

Miroku said nothing.

“Maybe she's nervous?” she suggested.

This caught her companion's attention. “Nervous? What would she have to be nervous about?”

Kagome paused, and took the time to pick her words carefully. Affairs of the heart were always tricky, especially, when matchmaking was involved. “Well, I don't know of course, but maybe she's never had a boyfriend before and doesn't know how to act around one. Why are you looking at me like that?”

The awe on Miroku's face was starting to make Kagome nervous, but it didn't diminish.

“You are a genius!” Miroku insisted. “Why didn't I think of that? I'll have to thank your grandfather for passing his wisdom onto you.”

“Dinner!” Mrs. Higurashi announced from the kitchen.

Gingerly, Miroku set Buyo aside and stood up, sending Kagome into a fit of laughter.

"What?"

"You have cat fur ALL OVER the front of your clothes!" She pointed to Miroku's front to support her claim.

Miroku looked down at his lap. Buyo had indeed left his mark. In fact, it looked like there was enough fur there for another cat. He mumbled some choice words about furry animals as he vainly tried to brush off the fur.

"Wait here." Giggling, Kagome ran upstairs to her room to rummage under her bed. She returned to the living area a lint roller made of inside-out masking tape. "Roll it across your clothes," she instructed

After a few moments and a couple of layers of tape later, Miroku had gotten most of the fur off his clothes. "I'll just deal with this. Everyone's probably at the table waiting on us.”

Kagome smiled and led the way to the dinner table, not even looking back when she hit Miroku because his hand "accidentally" brushed her butt.

Behind her, Miroku mumbled something to the extent of Sango being too much of an influence.

Mrs. Higurashi had prepared a French fish dish. “And the bottle of white wine Houshi-sama brought will go well with dinner.”

Wine?

“It's okay,” Miroku assured her in a low tone. “There's nothing in the Buddhist religion that forbids alcohol. Trust me, I'd know...” He leaned over to whisper the next part in her ear. “And if there was, Dad would've converted to a different religion long ago.”

Kagome giggled and allowed Miroku to pull out her chair for her. Houshi-sama was doing the same for Mrs. Higurashi.

Dinner delicious and the company was wonderful. If Houshi-sama and Grandfather weren't reminiscing about one thing or another, then Houshi-sama was engaging Mrs. Higurashi in conversation. Miroku did his part, entertaining Souta was jokes and short stories that amused Kagome as well. She felt especially grown up with a glass of wine in front of her plate. It was very sophisticated.

After dinner, Kagome and Souta were asked to entertain Miroku while the adults talked some more over tea. Souta insisted that Miroku come up to his room to see his collection of cards.

Kagome shook her head, then stopped. Oddly, that small gesture made her the tiniest bit dizzy. Must've been the wine. Shrugging it off, she went to her own room to study.

**********

After half an hour later of trying to study Chemistry equations, Kagome realized she hadn't gotten anything done. She just felt mentally off balance. Her brain just wasn't grasping things. `I'm not drinking before I'm done with my homework again!' she vowed. Maybe some green tea would help her focus. She pushed her chair back from her desk and stood up. Big Mistake. Her head pounded and her face flushed as she gripped her chair to keep from losing her balance.

How much alcohol was in that wine?

A trip to the medicine cabinet was in order and Kagome slowly made her way to the toilet down the hall. Upon inspection however, the only thing in the cabinet was some joint cream and an empty aspirin bottle. Wonderful. Kagome sat down on the toilet and held her head in her hands.

"You know, I'm not a girl, but I think you have to at least lift the lid up to pee." Kagome looked up to see Miroku leaning against the doorframe with a smirk on his face. "One also generally shuts the door for some privacy. Hey, are you okay? You don't look so well.”

Kagome shrugged it off. "Just a headache. No more aspirin." She showed him the empty bottle. "Some idiot must have put back an empty bottle in the cabinet." 'It was probably Souta too,' she mentally accused.

“Not much of a drinker, eh? I told Dad that wine was too strong,” Miroku insisted. “Well, the good news is that you don't need the aspirin because the bad news is you can't have it anyways.”

“Eh? What do you mean?”

“You don't take medication with alcohol, silly. Everyone knows that. You'll just have to ride it out. Hey, if you make yourself throw up now, you'll feel a lot better in the morning.”

Kagome blanched. She couldn't even handle throwing up when she was sick. There was no way she was going to induce it willingly.

“Here, let's get you back to your room and I'll bring you some water and tea.” Miroku maneuvered to help Kagome navigate her way back. “You really DON'T drink, do you?”

“First time,” Kagome answered sheepishly. “Sorry, about this.”

“Nah, I go through this all the time with Uncle Mushin,” he told her. When they returned to her room, Miroku shouldered the door open and led Kagome to her bed. “You might as well get ready for bed,” he told her after she cast an eye at her books. “You're not going to be in the mood to do anymore studying tonight. I'll be back.” He left and closed the door behind him.

Kagome realized sadly that he was right. She didn't even want to look at her books right now. But getting ready for bed was too much trouble. She lay back on her bed and closed her eyes. `I'll just wait for Miroku to get back,' she told herself.

She was asleep by the time Miroku returned with her tea.....

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A/N: If you wondered why Miroku thinks Buyo's name is fitting, it's because I've read somewhere that Buyo is Japanese for something like fat/obese/overweight/heavy. I put the weight in kilos because I'm almost positive that Japan uses the metric system. The American equivalent is roughly 16.5 lbs.

Also, I looked as hard as I could, and nowhere did I see alcohol on a list of forbidden edibles for Buddhist monks. If, for some reason, I am wrong, please let me know.

By the way, the French fish dish is not something I made up. I found a random recipe online and let me just say, that it is yummy and I am willing to share with anyone who's interested.