InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Simple and Clean ❯ A Winter Escapade ( Chapter 9 )

Hey everyone, so yes, I found a little time in my busy schedule to write, just because I love you all so much. >.<;;; Riiiight, going on… so I want to give a big thank you to Mr Roboto7469 who took the time to write out the whole song to `Simple and Clean'. Though I have the CD, it was very nice of you to think of me! Seriously, I wouldn't have taken the time to write out the whole song, this shows that reviewers, despite popular belief, are not evil things sent from the depths of hell to torture people who suck at writing (not that I thought that or anything…). Okay, so, on with the story:

Chapter 9

 

A Winter Escapade

 

Kagome sighed as she made herself comfortable in Sango's squishy bean-bag chair. Sinking into comfort, she closed her eyes and listened to the sound of splashing, Sango swearing, and Shippo complaining about having to take a bath.

“I smelled perfectly fine beforehand, now I smell like shit!” She heard Sango mutter something crude under her breath, and then say back to the very annoyed, and squeaky clean Shippo. “Well doesn't that just suck for you? At least it's jasmine scented shit, for Kami's sake!” Kagome laughed at this, craning to get a look inside the bathroom. Apparently Sango had heard her laugh.

“Would you like to be bathed in dirt, ice-cream, and jasmine scented bathwater as well Kagome?” Sango demanded crossly, “Not laughing anymore, are you?” But Kagome was laughing more, because Sango had appeared at the bathroom door, drenched from head to foot with a clump of bubbles stuck in her hair and dirt smudged across her face.

Sneering sarcastically at Kagome, Sango grabbed Shippo and began to dry his hair with a towel. It didn't wok as well as she'd have hoped though, and I a matter of fifteen minutes, she had managed to acquire a few new scratches and become even more wet. Shippo, on the other hand, was still as wet as a dog (at least he didn't smell like one).

“You have on helluva lot of hair, kiddo.” Sango said as she flicked a stray bubble off her nose. Shippo just glared up at her, looking like a small soggy rat. “I feel so loved.” Smiling painfully now, Sango insisted, “You should, you little cute brat of mine!!!” Sango leaned back into the bathroom and pulled out a hair dryer. “One of the most genius of man's inventions,” She said, motioning to the contraption, “The blow dryer!”

Shippo raised one eyebrow but consented to having his bushy hair blow-dried by an overly hyper Sango. She smiled mischievously as a plan formed, “Let's do makeovers!” She said happily, ignoring the sounds of protest coming from the small boy. “You'll look so cute!” Kagome shook her head as she watched Sango bouncing around collecting makeup and facial masks.

By the time the evening was over the thing tied to the beanbag chair didn't look like a boy anymore (if it did in the first place…), instead it resembled a rosy cheeked, red-headed little girl. Shippo wriggled hopelessly, trying to escape the torturous holds of Kagome and Sango, who were proceeding to hug and snuggle him until he felt like being sick.

“Aww, I wanna hug him, and snuggle him and call him fluffy!!”

“Okay, geroffme!!!” Shippo finally managed to squeak pathetically. Sango put him down, and for the umpteenth time that day, patted him on the head. She received the usual glare as soon as Shippo was out of the girl's reach.

“He's so cute, isn't he?!” Sango exclaimed to Kagome, they both fell over laughing as Shippo put on a frustrated look that made him look a little constipated, but none the less cuter that ever. This only made the two girls laugh harder, much to Shippo's frustration.

“This is some kind of heinous child abuse…” Shippo grumbled.

* * *

The next few months went by fast, but not without incident. Sango's mother brought Shippo back to the orphanage, much to Shippo's discomfort. It didn't work out, and finally she got tired of him always running away back to their house. She offered to foster him, which Sango and Kagome hoped meant that she would adopt him sooner or later.

Inuyasha seemed to settle down and keep out of trouble, and he and Kagome became closer friends. He still didn't handle his brother as well as any of them hoped he would, and always got grumpy whenever he was mentioned, but that was not to be helped. As the weeks went on, he became more and more comfortable in Kagome's presence. She hoped that meant that he could trust her more.

Old memories seemed to be less thought about, and all Kagome could do was hope that old loves would heal, but since Kikyo was never mentioned around Inuyasha, Kagome could never be quite sure what the status of Inuyasha's heart was at the moment. All she could do was wish for the best.

In a blink of an eye winter was upon them and snow blanketed the ground, muffling the harsh sounds, and covering the school in a kind of silent peace that was hard to explain. The cherry tree that Kagome and her friends sat under had lost its leaves and offered no more protection to the cold high schoolers who now spent their time inside the school gym and random classrooms for lunch.

It was on one of these days that the subject of ice skating came up. The outdoor rink had opened and Kagome had been bothering Inuyasha and Sango about it for days. She was so persistent that Inuyasha was now trying to avoid talking to her in between classes so she wouldn't bother him anymore.

“Come on you guys, it'll be fun!” Inuyasha stared at her, a glazed expression on his face, watching snowflakes fall on the windowsill behind Kagome. She glared menacingly at him.

“Inuyasha,” She said angrily, waving a hand in front of his face, “Are you even listening to me?” Inuyasha snapped out of his daze quick enough to dodge Kagome's hand that was currently trying to slap him awake.

“Did you say something?” Kagome was boiling mad now, and Inuyasha had the good sense to back away. “Deep breaths Kagome, deep breaths...” Kagome turned around, glared out the window while counting to ten. As she did so, Inuyasha could have sworn he saw a couple of large snowflakes melt under her fiery gaze.

She whirled around to focus her glare on Sango, “YOU!” she yelled so fiercely that Sango jumped, “Your not helping! Back me up here!” Sango nodded rigorously giving Inuyasha the “shut-up-and-work-with-me-here” look. Inuyasha glanced at the fuming Kagome and decided to play along with Sango; it was the safest thing to do.

“I'll go with you, but I'm a horrible ice-skater.” Sango informed Kagome truthfully. Kagome looked satisfied enough, but she glared over at Inuyasha to get the point across to him too. He sighed dejectedly, “Fine, I'll go with you,” Inuyasha couldn't help adding, “But only `cus you would bite my freaking head off if I didn't.” Kagome took a deep breath and lowered her eyelids to glare harder than ever at the boy, but decided to prove him wrong and not bite his head off. “Don't look so excited Inuyasha!” She growled at him. Okay, just a little nibble…

* * *

Inuyasha arrived at the rink five minutes early, bundled up so much that he resembled a pillow with snow white dog ears. He had probably gained about ten to fifteen pounds of extra weight and grown a few sizes in clothing because of all the jackets and parkas that he was wearing to keep warm. He didn't like the cold.

He sat down on one of the bleacher-like benches to wait for the two girls, just to jump up in dismay to find that he had been sitting in a puddle of ice water. Inuyasha glared menacingly at the splotch of water running its course down the leg of his jacket. Great, He thought exasperatedly, I'm wet, annoyed and Kagome and Sango are gonna kill themselves laughing at me. Mrfff…

Inuyasha half-hoped that the girls would hurry up and arrive so that he wouldn't look like a complete idiot, just a lone puffball (plus ears) sitting in the bleachers without anyone else. What kind of guy went to an ice skating rink for fun???...A lone, gay puffball. Then again he also half-hoped that they would take their time so his pants could dry... I guess I can't have my cake and eat it too. He thought, marveling at the fact that he remembered one of those stupid sayings that never actually made all that much sense anyways.

Finally, after what seemed like a zillion years (actually only five minutes), Kagome and Sango arrived. Inuyasha was relieved to see that they hadn't brought along the little foster brat. His pride was still wounded from his last encounter with the evil little fucker. He mused to himself, realizing that the first letters to the nickname he had dubbed the kid spelled ELF. Perfect…

“Inuyasha, we're over here!” Kagome called, waving her arms in large arcs and causing a few people to turn and look at the ditzy teenager. Inuyasha, of course, already knew she was there, but to spare himself the trouble, he decided not to grace her that knowledge.

The evening ran its course as smoothly as possible. Kagome skated almost perfectly, performing a few simple tricks and managing to teach a very unbalanced Inuyasha how to “skate” backwards. Actually, it wasn't exactly skating; it was more of Inuyasha edging backwards trying to avoid passing people as he wiggled his hips around trying to get some momentum. By the time he had gotten around the rink backwards a few times Inu Yasha had collected a number of interested fans who found his escapade very amusing. Needless to say, he excused himself and went to sit down, saying that he was getting tired and hot. Kagome assumed the redness of his face had nothing to do with him being hot or tired.

Sango wasn't having as much luck. She was able to take a few (the record was four) steps before falling over herself onto the ice. Kagome's arms were beginning to burn from all the times she had helped her to get back up again, and Sango's backside wasn't in the best condition either, to say the least.

Inuyasha watched as Sango made her weary and downtrodden way towards him. She sat herself down on the bench beside him, rubbing her hands together to keep warm. Inu Yasha gave her a teasing smile and she motioned to her backside. “You wanna try?” She asked, faking that she was annoyed. Inuyasha put on a horrified face, “You wouldn't…” They both smiled and turned their gaze onto the rink.

Something caught Inuyasha's eye. A woman with black-blue silk for hair and rich, creamy skin was flying across the ice. Her moves were fluid, simple, and graceful. Music was playing in the background, and her whole body pulsed with the beat. She was the music. Inuyasha watched her in awe, unaware of the fact that Sango was looking at him strangely. “Do you-did you see-?” Inuyasha stuttered, pointing to the woman.

Suddenly she looked up, amber met deep brown. A smile cracked on her face and the woman broke the bond with the music, skating towards the railing. “You love those moves Inuyasha!” Kagome's voice popped the bubble of a trance that Inuyasha was under. He realized who the woman was and was immediately horrified. Kagome? It was Kagome?

Sango was eying Inu Yasha with an amused and secretive expression on her face. Inu Yasha felt her gaze on him and turned to glare, hiding his surprise, “What?” He demanded. Sango shook her head while mumbling, “Nothing…”

Kagome, unaware of the exchange between her two friends in the bleachers, ambled her way up, tugging on Sango's arm. “Come on, let's go skating s'more!” Sango gratefully followed her, letting her eyes stray to glance up curiously to Inuyasha again. There was confusion and something oddly like pain beneath his tense, yet innocent expression.

Inuyasha thought hard, wondering why he was so surprised at the fact that the woman was Kagome. He hadn't noticed it, but in the back of his mind, he had imagined the face of that woman similar to Kagome's, and yet so different. This woman was older, and more serious, there was no liveliness in her smile and no girlish joy in her eyes. The image of Kikyo wavered in his mind and then vanished.

The Hanyou understood that he did not feel the sorrow that he had felt when he had let Kikyo go. He now felt only anger, anger at the one person who had ruined his perfect world: Naraku. He realized now that in the time that he had befriended Kagome, his emotions that were locked away were seeping through his sturdy barrier, and he had no idea why.

His mind was jerked back to the real world when a pained yell split the calm air. Inuyasha picked up the scent of fresh blood; Sango's blood. His amber eyes, alert now, swept the ice until he found her. In a flash he had scaled the bleachers and headed onto the ice with ease that should not have been possible for someone who sucked at ice skating as much as he himself did.

Kagome was crouching over Sango, and Inuyasha soon joined her, as well as the curious crowd of ice skaters. The problem was clear at once: A large, deep gash ran along the upper part of the inside of her leg. Blood spilled onto the ground and a small boy peaked out from behind his mother to announce smartly, “It looks like Kool-Aid.” Inuyasha sent the kid a glare and he shut up.

He then turned his eyes back onto the wound on Sango's leg. He realized as he looked at the cut, that it was much worse than he had originally thought. The gash ran from the middle of Sango's upper leg to her knee, and where the skin on her knee was cut, Inuyasha could see bone. He glanced around at the curious people, infuriated.

A few children were watching, some had interested looks on their faces, others seemed about to throw up. He made a point of glaring at most of them. One girl, with short brown hair in various ponytails and an orange and yellow dress even glared back at him. She looked familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on who she was, so he continued to glare at the innocent bystanders until he couldn't take it any more.

“WILL ONE OF YOU DIMWITS COME TO YOUR SENSES LONG ENOUGH TO DIAL 911 ON ONE OF YOUR STUPID, BRAIN DAMAGING PHONES????” Inuyasha yelled, making a young girl around his age jump rather high, causing her to fall flat on her bottom.

Her face contorted with rage as she examined the extent of the water damage on her short, pink, leather-could it even be called a skirt??? Turning her face to look up at Inuyasha, she said in a highly preppy voice, “Omigod! You like ruined my new Gucci skirt you bastard!!!” With that she let her hand fly, colliding with Inuyasha's face.

“Gee, I'm just feeling the love today, ain't I?” He declared to no one in particular, rubbing his face. Luckily, one of the other spectators had used the little common sense they had and was calling 911. Inuyasha let out a deep breath, keeping his temper under control.

“Look bitch,” He told the Gucci girl, “You caught me on a bad day, leave me alone, or your little Versace purse might follow your skirt to hell.” The girl nodded, looking half stunned and half frightened. She turned on her heels (which was pretty hard, since this was on the ice rink and she was wearing four inch high stiletto heels) and scuttled away.

When he finally turned back to Sango, Kagome had torn off the lower part of her pants, so she could get at the wound. She had used some of the pant leg, and some poor person's shirt, and was stripping them into long pieces and making a temporary tourniquet for the gash.

Inuyasha was happy that at least the flow of blood was stopped, for a while at least, but he knew he would breath a lot easier when the paramedics got there… she had lost a lot of blood.

* * *

So sorry this took so long, just because my teachers hate me oh so much, they have decided to pile on a crapload of homework, making me a stress case. My internet connection was also down… I do have a logical reason!!! PLEASE don't hate me!! I say I seriously need to have some time to relax. Oh, well, review to make me feel better! A happy writer makes a happy reader!!! Now off to more homework… I can hear my brain groaning already… I hope you enjoyed the fluff!! By the way… happy Turkey Day! Let's all celebrate the people who committed mass genocide to the American Indians! Wheee (I'm such a pessimist)!!