InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Game ❯ Chapter One ( Chapter 1 )

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

“…Was it 1392? No, 1394! 1394, 1394, 1394… Aargh!” Kagome flung her textbook across her bedroom where it landed with a soft `plunk' on her bed. “I detest finals.” She wandered to her bed to grab the fallen book, but decided against it and collapsed beside the book instead.

She heard the window click open.

With a groan she sat up, took one look at the silver-haired, rather perturbed looking figure crouched on the roof outside her window, and collapsed again. “I can't go back yet!”

“The world doesn't stop for you, Kagome! Naraku's still out there and I need your help! Um, they need your help. Sango, Miroku and them. I could kill that bastard by myself.”

Kagome groaned and sat up again. “I'm not even in the mood to argue with you right now. Go bother someone else.” She pointed at the door before falling to her bed yet again.

Inuyasha shot her a quizzical look before realizing it could be taken for a caring look, and replaced it with a scowl. “What's wrong with you?”

“Finals are murder.” She stated simply without lifting her head from the pillow.

“Finals? What the hell is that?”

“Tests at school. I need to study and I haven't gotten enough sleep these last few days. I have one more tomorrow, and then it's over. I'll go then.”

“No, you'll go now!” He snapped.

“Inuyasha, you don't understand. These tests are important. They're the most important tests of the school year and I need to pass them. If I don't, I'll never get into a good school, and I'll never get a good job, and I'll be poor and live on the street and starve to death!” She momentarily lifted her head to glare at the Hanyou.

Growling, Inuyasha sat down on the floor with a mutter of “Fine, one more night.”

“Aren't you going back?” Kagome asked, somewhat confused.

Inuyasha mumbled something that sounded like “none of your business” (even though it was) and fiddled with the pommel of Tetsusaiga.

Kagome just reached for her book and read while constantly stealing sidelong glances at the dog demon thinking he wouldn't notice.

He noticed.

`Oh crap, 1392 and 1394 are both options…!' Kagome thought frantically while going through her exam paper. `Curse Inuyasha for distracting me!' She banged her head on the desk eliciting looks from her classmates varying from surprise to concern to amusement.

She looked around the class, and finally up at the ceiling in hopes that the answer would be written there somehow. It wasn't. However she did locate the whereabouts of several missing pencils.

During her search around the classroom, her eyes landed on a window to see something red and silver catch her now very wide eyes. `You're imagining things. You have to be. Concentrate on the test. Concentrate… con…cen…- ah hell, just guess.'

After five minutes of shading in circles, Kagome rushed to the teacher's desk, slapped down the test papers, hurriedly asked to go to the washroom, and ran up to the roof.

“WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU DOING HERE!” she screamed as she wheeled around the corner of the stairs.

Her yell was met by a very bewildered and somewhat scared look from the janitor.

“Um….” Was all the very red Kagome was capable of saying at this point.

“That's ok, I was just leaving anyways…” The old man said, then walked towards the stairs. Not before shooting one more odd look at the embarrassed girl, mind you.

When she heard the sound of footsteps descending the stairs, Kagome took a deep breath, and said, slightly quieter this time “What are you doing here? And I know you're here, so you may as well answer me.”

An equally embarrassed hanyou stepped out from behind a wall. “I can explain.” He said quickly.

“Really, Inuyasha? Well, let's hear it.”

“Eh?” He looked slightly stunned at her request, even though it was perfectly reasonable.

“Well, you said you could explain, so explain!”

“….Er… Well… Ihatenotknowingthatyou'resafesoIcame.”

“What?”

With a sigh, Inuyasha started again. “I hate not knowing that you're safe, so I came to make sure.”

Kagome look mildly dumbstruck by this. “I deal with youkai trying to kill me every day. Why are you concerned about my well being here?”

The dog hanyou looked at the ground and shrugged.

“Well… thanks I guess…”

“Keh! Don't make a big deal of it, wench. I just wanted to make sure my shard detector wouldn't die on me.”

With an exasperated sigh, Kagome headed for the door leading back downstairs. “School's over in half an hour. Wait up here I guess.”

Inuyasha gave an indignant huff, and folded his arms in a `what-makes-you-think-I'll-wait-for-you?' pose, but as soon as he again heard the sound of footsteps descending the flight of stairs, he dropped to the floor in his classic cross-legged position, and drew some invisible picture on the concrete with his finger.

“Ooh, thank GOD that's over!” Kagome said while desperately clinging to Inuyasha's back, watching Tokyo pass quickly below her. “Can we get something to eat before we go back?”

“No.”

“Oh, c'mon. Naraku isn't gonna take over the world while we take 10 minutes to eat something.”

“Keh!”

“I'll make you ramen.”

Slight pause. “Ok, fine. Where can we get ramen?”

“Um… home…?”

“You don't have any. I checked.”

“Inuyasha, what were you doing looting my cupboards? I left food out for you.”

“I finished that stuff. I was still hungry.”

“Inuyasha, I left you five sandwiches. You were still hungry after that!”

Inuyasha didn't answer, merely jumped into an alley and let Kagome off his back. “So, where can we get ramen?”

With an exasperated sigh, Kagome pointed across the street. “They'll probably have some at that corner store. Let's go. I think I have some money somewhere.”

Five minutes and 1000 yen later, they emerged from the store with 10 boxes of instant ramen. Inuyasha was happily trotting along when he heard Kagome gasp and push him towards the nearest door.

“Gah! What are you doing!” He exclaimed, rightfully annoyed at being forced into a building selling what appeared to be some kind of clothes that looked familiar, but he couldn't place them. When he did, he blushed furiously, and immediately stopped Kagome from leading him in there. “What are you avoiding?” Inuyasha whispered harshly at her.

“My friends from school! Don't you think they'll find it weird I'm with you?”

“I have the stupid hat thing, what's wrong?”

“Eh… well… I've kinda told them sorta about you… not anything to suggest time-travel, but -”

“Kagome-chan?” Three voices piped up from behind Inuyasha. He turned to find three girls about Kagome's age, and wearing the same outfit.

“Yeah, what?” He snapped, rather unkindly. He wanted them to just leave. The sooner they got home, the sooner he got ramen.

“Inuyasha!” Kagome hissed in his ear making him turn again to fix her with the classic `what-did-I-do?' look.

“I apologize for his insensitive behavior,” She rounded on Inuyasha and continued more harshly “but him being polite for a change would apparently be against his nature!”

“Hmph.” Inuyasha folded his arms and turned his head away pretending to be fascinated with a piece of newspaper floating idly around the street.

Meanwhile, Yuka, Eri, and Ayumi were staring at the pair with amused looks on their faces.

“So, Kagome, is this the mysterious boyfriend you've told us about?” Yuka asked, a bit of a singsong tone in her voice.

This comment made Inuyasha abandon his watch on the newspaper. Instead he decided to whip around and look at Kagome with a confused and embarrassed look on his face.

Kagome had turned very red. “Erm, well, yes, in a way… but he's not my boyfriend.” She glanced at Inuyasha who now had a strange look on his face. It wasn't exactly disappointment, but it wasn't far from it.

Inuyasha didn't really know what to make of this whole situation. He contemplated embarrassing Kagome by saying something along the lines of `sure I am, now let's get home. Your mother shouldn't be back yet' adding a wink. Then he thought better of it. “It's none of your business anyways.” He tried.

“But we're Kagome-chan's best friends! We deserve to know who she's dating!” Ayumi piped in.

“You're not Kagome's best friends, Sa- ow!“ An elbow in the rib made Inuyasha stop his sentence abruptly.

“Of course you guys are my best friends! Who else would be?” She put strain on the word `else' while sparing a sidelong glare at Inuyasha.

The girls looked unsure for a moment, before perking up and looking excitedly at one another.

Kagome apparently saw this. “What's going on you guys?” she asked, a questioning look on her face.

They pointed behind her, and Eri whispered “Houjou!” excitedly.

Kagome spun around, and groaned slightly. Inuyasha turned and followed her gaze. Houjou was walking their way.

“Kagome-chan! It's nice to see you looking well! I brought you some special eucalyptus tea, and some charms!” Houjou said brightly holding out a small package.

“Um, thank you Houjou! That was thoughtful of you…” Kagome reached over and took the offered package, and fiddled with it uneasily. Ayumi Yuka and Eri were softly squealing.

“So, Kagome, would you like to go to the movies with me this weekend since you're better?”

Inuyasha twitched.

“Um, well…”

Inuyasha twitched again. `She's actually considering it!'

“Look, Houjou or whatever, she can't go out with you.” He said with a slight snarl.

Houjou looked at the oddly pleased hanyou. “Kagome, I didn't know you had a boyfriend. I am sorry…” he looked rather dejected.

Ayumi decided this was a good time to stop squealing. “Oh, he's not her boyfriend. Kagome would love to go out with you!”

“Really, Kagome? Saturday then?” A new hope kindled in Houjou's eyes.

Kagome was staring rather blankly, blushing slightly. She shook her head a little and looked at Houjou. “No, Inuyasha's right, I can't go out with you.”

“Oh… well, if he isn't your boyfriend then why not?”

“Er… he is my boyfriend!” With that she put an arm around Inuyasha's waist. “Right Inuyasha?” She looked up at him silently saying `please just pretend!'

Inuyasha looked a bit stunned, but decided to play along. After all, it was a better excuse than `Oh, sorry, I have to spend the weekend killing monsters 500 years in the past!' He hesitantly snaked his arm around her waist, pulled her towards him slightly, and rested his chin on her head. `This is strange. Very, very strange.' He shifted uncomfortably.

“Kagome, you just said he wasn't your boyfriend. What's going on?” Yuka asked, trying in vain to keep the annoyance out of her voice.

“Well, I lied before. I didn't really want everybody knowing.”

Houjou looked dejected again.

“I'm not convinced.” Eri put in.

Kagome turned around to face Inuyasha, who was just looking at her quizzically, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him lightly on the lips.

Houjou looked even more dejected than before.

Inuyasha looked even more stunned than before.

Kagome looked up at him with a sly grin and a look on her face saying `Hah. I win.' She turned back around to face her friends, who were now gawking at her and thankfully too preoccupied to see Inuyasha being completely dumbfounded.

He had picked up on the `Hah I win' look and was pondering this. She was trying to embarrass him?

`Two can play at this game.'