InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Stealing Heaven ❯ Time and Place ( Chapter 26 )

Chapter Twenty-Six

Time and Place

For a long, painfully silent moment, Kagome and Sango could only cautiously watch Miroku. He'd entered the store room with Sango- after a skittish, still shaky and incredibly wary Kagome had scrambled off of poor Kouga to unlock the door for them, only to resume her original position, complete with tense, white-knuckled book-holding- and had simply stood in the doorway, staring mute and wide-eyed from Sango, to Kagome . . . and then reluctantly to the battered man the petite woman was sitting on and back again as said petite woman explained what had transpired.

It seemed he was trying to think of something to say, but could not quite find words to do his reaction to this markedly unusual situation justice. Taking a few steps into the room, finally, he made a brief gesture of stabbing his finger at the air, pointing from Sango to Kagome and then Kouga before clenching both hands into fists and then wringing his fingers out once, twice . . . .

He nodded slowly, uncertainly a few times, folding his arms across his chest as he pulled his lips into a thin line. Around his shoulder, Kagome glanced at Sango, who could only answer with a bewildered look and a quick shrug.

"HOLY FUCK-NUTS OVER A BARREL!"

The girls both gave a start at the unexpected outburst, to say nothing of the unusual collection of words.

Miroku clamped his hands over the sides of his head as he let his gaze circle the room's other occupants. "What the hell have you two gotten me into? And you," he pointed a shaky finger at Kagome, "how did you . . . I mean . . . he's damn near twice your size!"

Kagome shrugged, brandishing the book she was holding at him. "Never underestimate the element of surprise. What was I supposed to do? He was going to rape me- or are we forgetting that all because I managed to kick a man's ass."

Miroku shook his head, frowning- seeming to slowly be regaining his usual demeanor of mellow coolness. "I know Kouga, he can be a dick sometimes, but he's mostly a good guy, he'd never . . . ." His voice trailed off as he turned toward the throat clearing sounds Sango was making.

"Baby," she murmured, affecting a reasonable tone, "I know you were still in shock when Kagome was telling us the first time around what had happened, but try to think back." She pointed down at Kouga and mouthed the word Lyka.

Pressing the tips of his fingers to his forehead for a long moment he responded, "Right, right- crazy ghost bitch . . . okay."

Kagome pushed herself up to stand once more, dropping her book loudly on the floor. "Okay . . . so we need to get him over to Myoga's, like now, but we need to not be stupid about it. Sango, you know the address, so . . . go get Miroku's car," the poor guy was nodding numbly as he obediently fished his keys from his pocket and held them out for his girlfriend to snag.

"Miroku, you're going to stay here with . . ." she made a vague waving motion in Kouga's direction, "them. I have to run up and return this key before Hana starts thinking she has reason to come down here. Um . . . okay, Sango, then I'm going to call you and you pull around to rear parking area and then . . . I'll come back down and play look-out while muscles smuggles Kouga out to the car."

". . . Muscles . . . ?" Miroku echoed with an indignant sniffle. Only a moment passed before he gave himself a once-over and shrugged, "I suppose it's nice to be appreciated."

Sango rolled her eyes as Kagome shook her head, both girls immediately turning on their heels nearly in unison and heading out of the door. Drawing in a heavy sigh, he took a backward step to lean back against the shelves and folded his arms across his chest as he waited for Kagome to return. He wondered briefly if this wasn't all some bizarre dream he would wake up from the moment he let himself accept that this insanity was real. He'd been completely certain that the girls had been pulling some sort of prank on him . . . until he saw Kagome perched atop a rumbled, waylaid human being that had eight inches of height and over fifty pounds of weight on her.

Lowering his gaze to rest on Kouga for a long time, he could only shake his head. "You poor bastard . . . ."

* * *

Kagome had darted in, placed the key beneath the mouse pad as instructed and was dashing out of the library again when she collided with someone . . . hard enough to send her tumbling backward to land on her bottom. Before she could work up a shout, or even gain her bearings, a pair of strong hands had latched gently around her upper arms to hoist her to her feet.

She didn't need to look up, didn't need to register the familiar mode of dress, didn't need to brush her gaze over the golden-olive hands that clasped her arms to know who it was. . . . Somehow she could just feel that it was Professor Taisho Sesshomaru.

"I'm sorry, Higurashi, I didn't see you. Are you alright?"

Oddly, she was almost afraid to raise her eyes to meet his. Not because she didn't wish to look at him- she was beginning to realize she loved to look at him- but that she felt if she did, she wouldn't be able to look away . . . that she'd be too obvious, that being this close to him would make her do something that would be horribly telling to anyone that might see them. . . . Just in case his hands not yet having fallen from her arms wasn't enough.

"I'm . . . I'm okay, professor," finally lifting her gaze she pointedly roved it around the area, hoping to hint silently to him as she shrugged lightly. "Thank you for helping me up."

Seeming to understand, he relinquished his hold on her, though the way he did it- his palms and the tips of his fingers skimming slowly down the length of her arms until hers hands slid out of his, breaking their physical contact- did not go unnoticed by her. As he stepped around her to proceed down the corridor the simple gesture left her feeling a pleasant, buzzing mix of butterflies in the stomach and heart-warmed blissfulness.

"You're welcome, Higurashi," the professor called over his shoulder, just loud enough for her to hear before he rounded a bend in the hallway and was gone from sight.

Despite her awareness of where they were- helped along by the fact that daytime classes were over, so the corridors weren't incredibly populated- Kagome felt nearly trapped in place for a long moment, simply staring after him. That little voice in her head, that was usually so irritating and nagging, was sighing pleasantly over the notice that even his walk was sexy . . . .

This was the moment she brought a hand up, slapping herself soundly on the cheek. Never mind the place, this was no time to get herself tripped up by googly-eyed appreciation of her archeology professor. She was ignoring that by now he was much more to her than just her teacher, but this was neither the time nor the place for mulling over such thoughts.

Shaking her head, she dug her cell phone out of her pocket, dialing up Sango as she jogged back to the basement door.

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