InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Strictly Taboo ❯ It's Not Love But It's Still a Feeling ( Chapter 34 )

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

“Please, please, pleasepleasepleasePLEASE be nice, Inuyasha.”

Said half-demon crossed his arms and harrumphed, turning his head away from her. Kagome’s eyes were doing that thing where they got all shiny and big and pleading, and if he stared for too long, she’d get what she wanted, and that was not going to happen this time. The girl sighed and straightened the collar of his shirt, brushing off imaginary dust with the tips of her pale fingers.

“Whatever you do, don’t start a fight. I need this night to go well.”

He rolled his eyes. “I didn’t even want to eat with that idiot. You’re the one who made me dress up and come down and now you want to change my personality? No.”

“It’s just one dinner!” Kagome begged, placing one hand on either side of his face and forcing him to look at her. “Please. Mother was the one who invited him. Just please make it go smoothly.”

He sighed. “I can’t stand him. I can’t stand knowing that he thinks you’re his.”

She nodded in understanding and opened her mouth to say something when they heard the tell-tale clickety-clack of Kikyo’s high heels coming down the stairs. Giving him a quick kiss before scurrying away, she walked to the kitchen to take her spiral glazed ham out of the oven. Kagome had spent the entire day cooking the meat and side dishes, something that was almost as bad as seeing her kiss her stupid boyfriend. She never cooked like that for Inuyasha. True, he preferred quantity over quality and she knew that and always surpassed his expectations, but he would have liked an entire ham to himself once in a while.

His wife sidled up to him and put her arm through his. He let her, even though he hated when she would just act like nothing had happened and everything was normal. Hearing the car in the drive-way, Inuyasha growled and bounded to the door, not caring that Kikyo was looking at him like he was an animal. Truth be told, he felt like one. An intruder was approaching, an enemy, someone who wanted to take away what was rightfully his. If Kagome was not so attached to the boy, he would have handled him like he had handled countless other rivals in the old days: decapitation. Perhaps disembowelment. Definitely castration. Kagome deserved more effort.

He yanked open the door just as Hojo was getting ready to ring the bell with his shoulder. The boy was holding two bouquets, one of pink roses and baby’s breath and one of pure white calla lilies. Inuyasha sneered and was about to comment on his unoriginality but then remembered he had also gotten Kagome roses. There just weren’t so many choices when you want to wow a girl. Glaring at him determinedly, his chin stubbornly dimpled, the boy shouldered past him and into the living room. Not wanting to make a scene this early in the evening, Inuyasha let it go. After all, he had not only given Kagome roses, he had fucked her on them. Smiling, he studied the boy’s interactions with Kikyo. Now that he knew he had someone gunning for him, he was becoming bold, and that would be a problem.

“These are for you, Mrs. Taisho,” Hojo said sweetly, his voice ringing with schoolboy clarity as he handed Kikyo the lilies.

“Why, how nice of you, Hojo!” Kikyo said, delighted. “Kagome is a lucky girl. Inuyasha hasn’t gotten me flowers in over ten years.”

Wisely, the boy chose not to comment on that and instead turned his attention to his girlfriend, who was just now entering the room.

“Kagome, please accept this gift of my heart.”

Blushingly, she did so, holding the roses close to her face and sniffing them. “They’re lovely, Hojo. Thank you.” She turned to the adults and beckoned them with the bouquet. “The food’s all ready and the table is set, so we should go eat while it’s still hot.”

Inuyasha glared at her, guessing correctly that she had hurried up the meal in order to spend as little time as possible on conversation. She was probably hoping he would be more amiable once he had food in him, but he was determined to at least make the boy profoundly uncomfortable.

The group traveled to the kitchen and sat in their places at the round table, Inuyasha making sure to sit right next to Hojo who was already next to Kikyo. Meanwhile, Kagome took out a glass vase he didn’t even know they had and filled it with water, plunking the roses in. Arranging them to her liking, she smelled them again, the soft color of the flowers complimenting her face and making her skin glow entrancingly.

Inuyasha couldn’t help himself. “I thought you prefer red roses, Kagome. Lots and lots of red ones.” The girl pointedly avoided looking at him and turned as red as the flowers he had gotten her. He leaned back in his seat, somewhat satisfied.  “I’m hungry now. You promised us food, so where is it?”

Her hands gripping the dish hard until her knuckles turned white, Kagome set the platter of ham down in the center of a table just a little more forceful than necessary. She followed it with a bowl of mashed potatoes, a basket of home-made yeast rolls, a bowl of peas and grilled onions, and a lidded gravy boat full of the thick substance. Placing the crystal butter dish in the center of the table along with the serving utensils, Kagome finally took her place at the only seat left, the one in between Inuyasha and her mother.

Salivating at the feast laid before him, Inuyasha dunked a serving spoon into the potatoes and piled them on his plate, followed by more than generous portions of each available dish. He poured gravy over it all and began to cram the food in his mouth indiscriminately. Soon, he realized that the only sounds that could be heard were his own rather rude smacking noises, so he stilled his movements and glanced around at the table’s other occupants. Kagome was glaring at him, Hojo had his head bowed and his hands folded, and Kikyo was staring at the boy like he was tiny dog and she was a Beverly Hills socialite.

“Grace?” he sneered, careless of the gravy dribbling off his plate and onto the white lace table cloth. “People still do that?”

The boy kept his head bowed for a few more moments, then raised it and crossed himself, opening his eyes and looking at Inuyasha as though he were nothing more than a particularly troublesome child that had the audacity to not even be cute.

“”This food is wonderful, Kagome!” the boy chirped, not even having touched it yet. “I wish I could have your cooking every day of my life.”

Kikyo and Kagome laughed, the former laying a hand on his shoulder. “Keep up that behavior and you definitely might! You’re a keeper, Hojo.”

The teen laughed and spooned some peas into his mouth. “I certainly hope your daughter feels the same way, ma’am.”

The girl said nothing, instead picking at the potatoes on her plate with a look of concentration. Inuyasha felt like reaching out and smacking the boy next to him. He was practically proposing!

“I certainly hope she has some sense,” Inuyasha mumbled.

The fork fell from Hojo’s hands with a clatter and he whipped around to face him, long repressed anger visible in his face, cheeks pink with frustration.

“Sir, I have been nothing but respectful and polite to you and your family, but I can no longer tolerate this treatment. What is your problem with me? Tell me so I can try and fix whatever it is.”

Inuyasha glared at him, not liking being confronted in front of the women. “You wanna know my problem? You’re annoying. You’re ridiculous. You’re a fucking idiot and you are not good enough for Kagome.”

Silence reigned at the table and all eyes were on him. Finally, the boy replied. “You have no say in what Kagome can or cannot do. You don’t even know her! You’re not her real father. Heck, you weren’t even in her life until not even a year ago, and—“

Inuyasha was on his feet, holding Hojo by the throat with one hand. He squeezed, relishing in the look of pure shock and fear on the boy’s face.

“How dare you,” he growled, bringing their faces close enough so that the boy would breathe the air from his words. “How dare you come into my house and try and tell me what to do.” Inuyasha shook his prey, squeezing harder so the red of his face turned almost purple. He heard his wife screaming and brushed it aside. That didn’t matter. Justice mattered. Punishment. The boy had had it coming for far too long. He should have done this the minute he saw the idiot on top of her all those months ago.

“Inuyasha!” Kagome’s voice called out to him desperately and he felt her arms around his waist, her face and body pressed against his back. There was wetness: her tears were soaking through. He stopped squeezing but continued to hold him. He didn’t want her to cry. “Please put Hojo down, Inuyasha. Please. I’m sorry. Please don’t hurt him.”

Dazedly, he did as she asked, her voice the only thing he could hear, her touch all that he could feel. Couldn’t she see that he just wanted her safe? That the one who wasn’t supposed to touch her had to be done away with in order to restore her honor? Shaking his head, he dismissed the archaic thoughts, forcing himself to step away from the gasping boy. Hojo was on his knees, his eyes watering and his throat wheezing. His hand was on his forehead and he laughed, the sound hoarse.

“I see how it is,” he said, looking from Inuyasha to Kagome. “I see now.”

He got up and stumbled out of the room.

“Hojo, wait!” screamed Kagome, her arms still around Inuyasha. She separated and darted after him.

Inuyasha moved to follow her but was stopped by his angry wife. Kikyo slapped him across the face, hissing in pain at the contact.

“You bastard,” she hissed, her eyes filled with tears.

“Kikyo, I didn’t…” he started, not sure how to explain what was now so obvious. How would someone tell their wife they were in a relationship with her daughter?

“I have never been so embarrassed in my life!” she shrieked.

“…What?”

“Hojo is a child of very important people, and as such he himself will become a very important person. We’re lucky he’s interested in Kagome. With someone like him in the family, Shikon would never fail.”

Inuyasha couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Did she not notice the intimate way he and Kagome had been pressed against each other, that she had been the only one to stop him from killing?

“Kikyo, you’re a fucking idiot.”

“If I’m an idiot, then there’s no word for what you are,” she said spitefully, stomping up the stairs to her room like an angry pre-teen.

He ran outside. Hojo was standing with one hand on his open car door and Kagome was holding the other, crying and apologizing. Spotting Inuyasha, the boy yanked his hand away in disgust.

“Don’t even touch me you-you-you—“ Hojo shook his head, and anger turned to tears. “How could you do this to me, Kagome? To your mother? I loved you!”

Kagome glanced at Inuyasha, unsure of how to respond. He stood by her side and glared stonily at the boy. With what he knew, he might actually have to follow through and kill him, no matter how much pain it would cause Kagome. He was uncomfortable letting him live as it was.

Hojo gestured wildly between the two of them. “How could I not have seen it?! I should have known. With the way he acted around you, about you. The way you looked whenever you said his name. How? How could you?” His voice cracked at the end.

Kagome was full on sobbing now, taking large, gasping breaths. She flung herself at Hojo and threw her arms around him. The boy just stood there. Inuyasha growled and pulled Kagome back to him, holding her in a backwards embrace when she tried to struggle away. Giving up, she went slack and leaned back into him and he savored the warm contact, especially in front of the other teen.

“Hojo, I started to fall for Inuyasha before you and I even met. Every day is a day I fall deeper in love with him. I tried to make it work with you, and I do love you, just in a very different way. But I can’t be who you want me to be,” she said in a strained voice.

Hojo shook his head sadly, defeated. “I just wanted you to be you, Kagome.” He looked at her with a small smile, new tears glistening in his eyes. “But I guess the person you really are belongs to someone else. I have to say this, though. I am incredibly disappointed in you as a friend. You were the last person I’d expect something like this from.”

“We don’t give a shit what you think, dirt bag. Now get the fuck off my property,” Inuyasha growled, no longer able to keep himself from getting involved. The way Kagome had slumped in his arms when he had told her he was disappointed in her had hurt him down to his very soul.

Hojo just sighed. “Take good care of her.”

“Hojo, wait!”

The boy stopped halfway from closing his car door. Inuyasha wondered why Kagome felt a need to delay the idiot’s departure.

“You… You’re not going to tell anyone, right?” Inuyasha couldn’t see her face, but he knew she was doing that thing with her eyes. If Hojo was any kind of man at all, he’d be a puddle at her feet.

His face went hard, but he shook his head. “You’re the one the truth needs to come from, not me. That responsibility is on your shoulders.”

And then he drove off.

Kagome turned in his arms and cried into his chest, big hiccupping sobs racking her body and making him hold her tighter, afraid she was hurting herself somehow. Gently, he rocked her back and forth, the movement feeling natural. He may have missed out on most of her life, but he could be her father now. He could be her everything.

“Did he leave?”

Inuyasha went still, as did Kagome. How had Kikyo come outside without him hearing?

He turned to face her, keeping Kagome’s face pressed into his chest since she still needed comfort. Kikyo’s face was concerned, but not for her daughter. She was squinting into the darkness of the driveway, looking for some sign of Hojo.

“Do you think he’ll sue?” she whispered, dread showing on her face.

He rolled his eyes. “Shut up, Kikyo.”

He walked past his wife’s stunned form, his arm around Kagome, who was shaking lightly. Silently, he took her to her room, his concern magnifying when she walked in a daze, her swollen eyes staring at nothing. He wanted to kiss her and make her feel better, but Kikyo had followed him and was standing in the doorway. Gently, he sat Kagome down on her bed, trying his utmost to treat her like the delicate being she was in order to make up for what he had done.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, ghosting a kiss across her forehead.

“No you’re not,” she sighed wearily, a few more tears escaping.

He kissed her forehead again and left, closing her door softly behind him. There was nothing more he could do with Kikyo standing right there, witnessing everything. Hardly was his hand off the doorknob than his wife started in on him.

“How dare you tell me to shut up!” she hissed, apparently trying to keep her voice down.

“Shut up, Kikyo,” he said again. It was fun to say, and he couldn’t believe he hadn’t done it more often.

“This is not the way a man treats the woman he loves!”

Inuyasha laughed. “You’re damn fucking right.” Kikyo’s mouth dropped open in shock and he continued. “You’re always so fucking concerned about yourself, and that’s okay up to a point, but your daughter is suffering, Kikyo. If you won’t pay attention to her, then I will.”

Kikyo’s eyes narrowed and the corners of her mouth turned down. “I don’t like you spending so much time with Kagome.”

So she had noticed something was off. “I don’t give a fuck, Kikyo, so fuck off. Just because you look like you could be my mother doesn’t mean you can act like you are.”

The tears were instant and Kikyo gasped, turning and fleeing to her room with the back of her hand pressed to her mouth, keeping in her sobs. Inuyasha retreated to his room and slammed the door. He wanted to go and be with Kagome, but how could he be in her presence when he felt like the world’s biggest failure?