InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Boyfriend ❯ Facing Life Again ( Chapter 16 )

Disclaimer: InuYasha, Kagome and anyone else you saw in the manga or anime does not belong to me. Yukio does. If I saw so much as a shiny penny for this story, you think I'd be writing fanfiction still? Okay, I would… Damn other authors and their more interesting universes…

 

Genre: Angst, Romance

Rating: M
Codes: Inu/Kag
Feedback: Keeps my muse talking and the stories coming! Do tell. But if you have a flame, use it for something more productive, like setting your clothes on fire.

 

 

The Boyfriend
Chapter 16

 

“Seriously, InuYasha, I can go to the bathroom on my own,” Kagome assured him as she shoved him out of the small room and shut the door in his face. She heard him slide down the door to guard it and sighed. She stared at herself in the mirror and made a face. The bruises and swelling had diminished, but there were a few scars that would never leave her now. Thankfully, they were small and she only noticed them because she was looking.

 

Unfortunately, the same could not be said for her body. Repeated beatings by the man who had bought her from the slave traders and from the traders themselves before she was sold had left marks on her back, arms and legs that would always be there. She was just glad that InuYasha had not seen her naked since the ordeal, or he would be even more paranoid and overprotective than he was now. It was bad enough that a few of the leg scars showed when she put on a skirt.

 

She used the toilet, wondering if he would always be this way now and was torn in her feelings about it. On the one hand, she was terrified whenever she wasn't sure where he was. On the other, there were times, like now, when she needed privacy and InuYasha didn't want to give it to her. He only used the bathroom himself when she was in her room and he did it so fast she was afraid he was going to hurt himself.

 

She looked over at the bathtub longingly as she stood and flushed, but she knew there was no way he would let her out of his sight for that long. She needed a bath desperately, but she didn't want him to see the scars. Nor did she particularly want him seeing her naked. She was okay with him kissing her and sleeping next to her bed, but she was now more nervous than ever about him seeing her in the bath.

 

She washed her hands and sighed at the door again. It was more than just his need to protect her, too. She was afraid he would find the scars ugly, find her ugly. She was sometimes surprised that he stayed with her after what happened. She was even more astonished that he didn't blame her. She reached out and turned the doorknob, bracing herself for losing her little bit of time alone to think.

 

She opened the door and no one was there. She immediately went from mildly irritated to panicked. “InuYasha? InuYasha!” she called, running into her room. He looked up from his place on the floor and she sighed with relief. He looked so sad though… She walked slowly to him and knelt in front of him.

 

“I'm sorry that I keep crowding you,” he said quietly.

 

“It's okay,” Kagome said. “I know that you're just worried.” She leaned forward and rested her forehead against his. “I get afraid when you're not nearby, too.”

 

“Kagome…”

 

“We'll figure this out. But, InuYasha, it wasn't your fault. None of it was,” Kagome whispered. InuYasha grabbed her and pulled her into an embrace.

 

“I don't ever want to lose you again,” he whispered. Kagome went stiff, a little of the panic at being held captive returning to her and he released her. She felt relief when he let her go, but it was mixed with disappointment and loneliness. She reached out and hugged him again, relieved when his arms only lightly encircled her body and forced herself to relax.

 

She was tired of the mixed emotions that flooded her every time they were together. It wasn't InuYasha himself that frightened her, but whenever she felt like she was trapped, no matter how irrationally, she became terrified. She would flashback to the night with Yukio, then the demons that captured her, the youkai that had held her and the man who kept her captive, intending to take her as a wife, and want to run away as fast as she could. But she wanted to run away to be held and comforted, which was what she was running from in the first place. `I need counseling,' Kagome thought, `But how can I get it when I can't talk about what happened to me in the feudal era?'

 

“Kagome,” Mrs. Higurashi called, sticking her head in Kagome's room. “Eri is on the phone.”

 

“Okay, Mama,” Kagome said, pulling away from InuYasha and standing up. He watched her walk away, but didn't start to follow until she was almost out of the room. When she saw that he was keeping her in sight, she relaxed again. He waited at the top of the stairs while she took the call and she was relieved. He was giving her distance, but staying close enough that he could come at a moment's notice if she needed him. “Hello?”

 

“Kagome-chan! How are you?” Eri nearly shouted into the phone. Kagome blinked in pain as she flinched away from the receiver, then placed it back against her face.

 

“I'm a little better, Eri-chan, how are you?”

 

“Who cares about me? How was the US? What happened? Is it true that Yukio attacked you? Did the treatments at the hospital finally put your leukemia into remission?” Eri's barrage of questions made Kagome close her eyes, but she smiled at the last part. So, even while she was kidnapped, her grandfather kept up the whole `Kagome is sick' routine.

 

“I care about you, I haven't talked to you in ages! The US was… uh… well, I never actually got to see anything outside of the hospital,” Kagome improvised. “Yes, Yukio really attacked me and yes, they said my leukemia's in remission.” Kagome's heart started slamming into her chest the moment she spoke Yukio's name and she realized she hadn't said it since she talked to the police. She had written it on the birth certificate, but she hadn't spoken it aloud in over seven months.

 

“I can't believe they let him off by just expelling him! Just a `dating violation'!” Eri exclaimed. “I told them that you told me you were going to break up with him, but they believed him anyway.”

 

“I wasn't there,” Kagome said. “I couldn't go… What did he say, anyway?”

 

“He said that you agreed to… before you broke up,” Eri said quietly. Kagome heard a noise on the stairs and turned, but Eri's next words distracted her. “But at least someone out there believed you. Besides your mom, that is. She was there, fighting for you every day. She really believed that you were going to win and for a while, so did we. I can't believe he actually ended up getting away with it! Like I said, though, at least someone else believed you and got justice for you.”

 

“What?” Kagome asked, confused. “What do you mean?”

 

“You know, the `zainin' incident,” Eri said.

 

“The what?”

 

“You don't know? It was in the paper and everyone was talking about it…”

 

“I was already in the US, I guess,” Kagome said.

 

“Oh, well, someone beat him up and carved `zainin' in his forehead with glass. Apparently, he was too scared to say who did it. I guess you don't know who, then, huh?” Kagome was quiet and Eri continued. “I just thought it was your boyfriend, you know? You're always saying he's violent and jealous. Or… did he not believe you?” Kagome was about to answer, but the phone was ripped out of her hands.

 

“Like hell I didn't believe her! What kind of—” InuYasha shouted at poor Eri. Kagome grabbed the phone away from him, but he held on, trying to yell at her some more and Kagome attempted to cover the mouthpiece.

 

“I was just going to say that!” Kagome yelled, trying to wrestle the phone back. “How did you even hear that? I thought you were on the stairs!”

 

“I came down when I heard that little fucker's name!” he growled, pulling on the phone.

 

“Are you the one who did it?” Kagome asked and InuYasha let go. His ears were back against his head and he looked away.

 

“You said… you said I could kick his ass,” InuYasha said, “If the `police' didn't do anything. I did.”

 

“So that's where you were that night,” Kagome said softly and then remembered the phone in her hand. She waved InuYasha away as she lifted it back to her face. “Eri? Are you still there?”

 

“Yes,” Eri answered quietly.

 

“I'm sorry about that, I didn't realize he could hear our conversation,” Kagome apologized.

 

“It's okay,” Eri said. “I didn't even know he was there. I take it you're still together then? I heard… I heard that you… had a baby.”

 

“Yeah,” Kagome said, flinching. “Her name is Tama. She's still at the hospital, because she was born early.”

 

“What are you going to do?” Eri asked. “Are you going to try to make up the school year? Will you be able to with the baby?”

 

“I don't know,” Kagome said. “There's so much work… I was barely keeping up last year.”

 

“Well, the school still accepted you and everything,” Eri said, reasonably, “And it's not your fault you were in the hospital so long. I'm sure they'll let you make it up and start classes next term.”

 

“But it's the last term,” Kagome protested. “I've missed almost all of my first year!”

 

“It's up to you, Kagome, but last year, you were so determined…” Eri replied softly. Kagome blinked hard and looked over at InuYasha, who was watching her silently from the other side of the room. She still had to go back to the feudal era to search for the last shard of the jewel. InuYasha had told her that Naraku had collected all but the final shard and had been wreaking hell on the sengoku jidai. Could she really balance motherhood, shard hunting and high school?

 

“Seems stupid that this whole thing started 'cause you were mad at me over your school stuff… if you don't go back,” InuYasha said, answering her unspoken question. The phone started shaking in her hand and her eyes misted over at his words. `I'm saying that… you won't be alone,' his words to her in the hospital came back to her and she made a decision.

 

“You're right, Eri,” Kagome said. “I can't give up. Not after everything I've been through!”

 

“I'm glad to hear it! I'll call Yuka and tell her right away. I hope you get to come back to our class!”

 

“It's too bad that Ayumi isn't with us anymore.”

 

“Yeah, but she got accepted into that really prestigious private high school,” Eri agreed.

 

“Somehow, I wasn't surprised,” Kagome said, sighing. “It's just not the same without her.”

 

“Yeah,” Eri said. “I'll talk to you later!”

 

“All right. Bye-bye!” Kagome hung up the phone. She turned to InuYasha, who smiled at her and she smiled back. It felt good to have made a decision to return her life to some sense of normalcy. Whether or not she could handle it… only time would tell.

 

 

To be continued…

 

A/N: In Japan, you have to make up anything you fail, period. But you don't get held back—rather, you have to take the classes over on top of the classes you have in the next year. So Kagome's got to make up all the work she missed until she passes it. Attendance isn't a big deal as long as you make up the work, but not being in class means you miss out on the teaching part and they don't make accommodations for that. The classes are fast paced and school isn't taken lightly there—their educations are appreciated. The dropout rate is miniscule and most people go to high school, even though it isn't mandatory and you have to pay for it.