InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Nature of Change ❯ Sunday ( Chapter 3 )

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

Kagome had to admit, despite the little exchange she and Eri had had over their brunch earlier that day, she had thoroughly enjoyed the rest of her stay. They had joked and laughed while watching stupid B grade horror movies, joking about the ridiculousness of it all. T&A had never been so appealing before, if only to add to the humor of the situation. Who knew boobs could be so funny?

Hell, not her.

Despite it all, there had only been one more note of seriousness, right as Eri was making her leave for the night. That was when Eri gave her a very cryptic warning.

"Don't ignore your heart's needs anymore, Kagome. Every person can only take so much."

Kagome had been too confused by her words to respond properly, her mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water, as her friend bade her farewell with a tender hug and a light tousle of her hair.

Like she was a kid.

The nerve.

Either way, Eri's concern was touching, and she had helped Kagome clean up the disaster she had left her apartment. Granted, she was down about two or three pieces of furniture... and had lost quite a bit of her dignity in the process. What with the sideglances Eri had given her, the slight shakes of her head and the soft yet disapproving clicks of her tongue Kagome had gotten the message. Loud and clear.

You're such a baka sometimes.

And, given the situation, she had to agree. She nursed her hangover well into the afternoon. But by nightfall she was feeling much better, and that was around the time Eri had departed.

And left up to her own devices, Kagome had let the latest of the titty-thriller movies run on mute, the colors of the pictures casting strange shadows in her darkened living room. She had stared out into space, focusing on nothing, long after the soft click of her front door had signaled Eri's exit.

Why had she done it?

Why had it affected her so?

What was her problem?

And hell, what was his problem? Why wouldn't he leave well enough alone?

What's to leave alone, a miserable woman in her mid twenties with no future and no past?

She hunched her shoulders dismally at the thought, resembling a despairing turtle somewhat, and she pursed her lips.

If only she had a shell to crawl into and call home, never to allow another mortal soul access to her most vulnerable insides.

She remained on her couch for what had been hours, long after the crappy movie had ended and auto replayed itself as some DVDs had the tendancy to do. She had leaned against the back of her tiny sanctuary, lost in time and translation, reflecting on her life as it passed before her eyes without pause. The dream probably wouldn't have ended until dawn if something unceremoniously broke its way into her reality.

The beep of her cell phone.

Another text message.

The sound made her jump, as the previous silence had been thick and almost secure, as if nothing could touch her there. Where the night before it had been oppressing, that night it was most welcome... a reprieve from the pressures of the outside world. A chance to come off her depression and work it out slowly, like unfolding a piece of origami you wish to learn how came to be without someone there to tell you. You had to be oh, so very careful with the paper, lest you tear it by accident.

And that just wouldn't do.

She stared in the direction of her bedroom, knowing her cell phone laid on the far side of her bed. Lethargy had seeped its way into her bones, settling there with the strength of fatigue and weariness. She felt like she had run a marathon across all of Japan, three times. Her muscles were sore as she slid herself off the cushions, grumbling to herself as she shut off the DVD player and her TV, encasing herself in total darkness. If she was going to be heading to her room, she might as well sleep.

Better than passing out upright on the couch.

She dragged her way to her bedroom, flopping herself on the bed as she lazily leaned over the edge to reach out for her cell. Her hair brushed the floor as she outstretched her fingers, trying hard to grasp it in the darkness. She could see the dim outline of it, the street light provided enough light for her to make it out. But it was just out of her reach. Grunting, she leaned precariously over the side, her mission undeterred as she felt her fingers brush along the edge of the phone, but without enough purchase to manage a grip.

Just a little further...

And she leaned a little more, just enough to cause her to fall face first off the beside. She yelped, mumbling curses and complaints and she righted her flailing legs and rubbed her offended nose. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes from the slight pain that had settled in the middle of her face and she frowned, looking down at the cell phone that laid innocently in her hands.

The urge to throw the thing again struck her, to shatter the damn thing to a bajillion little pieces, but she refrained. She had already caused herself a couple hundred dollars in damage with things she wouldn't be able to replace anytime soon, and she made sure that her cell phone wouldn't join the list of 'furniture graveyard' items.

She climbed back into bed, curling under the sheets like a little kid hiding from the boogeyman, as she clicked open her cell phone.

Another text from Sesshomaru.

She frowned, peeking her head out from under the sheets to glare at the clock.

1:24 a.m.

She shrugged, it was Sunday morning afterall, he didn't have to be awake early the next morning for work.

Still...

She found it strange to be texting the man so often. It was surreal. Like she was finding herself in a modern horror movie, her stalker being a daiyoukai.

Not to say he was stalking her, granted, he wasn't that creepy.

Well... a previously murderous demon who could kill her with his pinky finger would be considered creepy the way one might consider a sociopath creepy. But, he had mellowed out... right?

His human appearance made him almost approachable. Like... normal. Like there wasn't five hundred years of history between them. Like she had never watched him kill someone in cold blood, or seen the deadly and precise way he carried himself when battling Naraku. Like underneath his easy countanece there had never been a deep-set hatred for ningens or his hanyou brother, like once he had never been a Lord...

Royalty.

Kagome winced. The man was a goddamn demon-prince, and here he was talking to her like he was a white-collared average joe with nothing more interesting about him than his salary. Her brows lifted up at the thought, wondering how he managed to transform so thoroughly into someone else completely.

If she hadn't seen his goddamn eyes and heard the way he answered her by name, she would have guessed he was in fact none other than the very human man named Yamamoto Daichi.

Perhaps, he really is.

The thought was organic.

He's both.

Could someone change so much? She didn't know.

If anyone was living proof, it probably was this man. And hells if he didn't have enough time to do it.

All the time in the world, really...

She opened the text, resting her face in the cradle of her palm as she propped it up on her pillow. She bit her lip as she read it, and like every other time she had had correspondence with the guy it came with a mild anxiety. Anticipation? She wasn't sure.

He had a quick wit, for sure. And it was that about him that kept her on her toes.

'Rest well Kagome.'

She frowned, feeling somewhat cheated. That was it? He felt it necessary to text her at Gods late hours of the night just to tell her...

Goodnight?

She blinked again, feeling somewhat lost.

So, she did the only thing she could think of.

'You too.'

She laid her cellphone delicately on the nightstand, stared at it for five minutes as if waiting for a reply... and fell into a dreamless sleep.

"Higurashi! Higurashi! Do you get what I'm telling you?!" was the voice blaring in her ear as she peeled opened her sleep-caked eyes.

"Whuh?" was all she managed to reply to her mystery voice. Where was it coming from?

"Higurashi, you're late as shit, and if you don't get here within 20 minutes the boss said he's going to lay you off! Get your ass down here!" the voice cut out and the line went dead as he hung up. Kagome frowned, pulling the cell phone that had managed to reach her ear before she was awake away from her face. She had definitely picked up the phone in her sleep before, but it usually brought her right out of her coma on the first ring.

This was something completely different, entirely.

Then the world caught up to her, and promptly processed that vital piece of information the man had oh-so-courteously mushroom-clouded in her head.

Wait... WHAT?!

Kagome flipped over in bed, staring at her clock and let out a deep throaty whine.

9:35 a.m.

Amongst all the turmoil that had been going on the last two days, she forgot she had to work the morning shift! She was so late.

If I still have a job that is...

She scrambled out of bed, and in record breaking time had showered and bolted out the door and down the street to the bus stop. She was in her waitress uniform, looking all too awkward in a pink dress and a white apron, like she had stepped out of some lolita anime. She hated her uniform. She usually dressed at the job but time was of the essence at the moment and she didn't have any to spare. She tapped her foot impatiently, thankful the busses ran every ten minutes in her area of town.

She wouldn't have known what to do if it was any later than that.

Tilting her head to the side, she looked over the top of traffic and saw her chariot approaching her like some savior come to bring her redemption. Her reprieve, all contained in boxy metal and exhaust fumes.

What a package.

Finally, the autobus screeched and whined as it pulled to a halt where she stood, and Kagome winced at the sound. The brakes on the bus definitely needed a good and thorough check up, but she was no mechanic expert. She would have to do without worrying about faulty machinery for the moment.

...Except if it happened to fail during a red light and as a result sent her careening through a windshield at 60 kmph, causing her to be a fleshy pancake on the roadside...

She shook her head to clear the mental image as she paid the fare, mentally berating herself for being so morbid. Depression was one thing, contemplating ways her miserable life could end was another. She rolled her eyes at herself, and she reached up to hold onto the rail of the bus as it was packed to the brim with travellers. There was no extra seating for her, to her dismay.

It was full of people with no faces going no where, people she did not know and did not care to know. It occured to her that at some point in her life, these things had mattered to her. But having been jaded, all she could feel was the less people she knew the better.

They all leave in the end anyway.

She shoved the bitter thought that had bubbled unceremoniously to the surface far back into her mind, unwilling to relive her sorrow for the moment. She had more important things to focus on.

Like keeping my crappy job.

The bus lurched forward and she stumbled a bit, righting herself by pulling against the metal that framd the inside of the bus. She hated having to stand on buses. It was like trying to balance on a ball, with nothing to help her.

Not that she had any prior experience in that, at least. But she assumed it would feel somewhat the same.

Biting her lower lip, Kagome pulled her cell phone out of her purse and glanced at the time.

9:50 a.m.

Yep, she was so screwed.

Minutes that seemed like a lifetime later, she pulled the line that signaled when a person wanted to stop. The ding echoed through the bus, causing a few of the passangers to lift their heads and look directly at her, with a passive curiousity as to who was leaving. As the automobile careened to a stop, she began to walk toward the back entrance of the bus, for whatever reason she didn't know. The front was closer anyway, she supposed it was out of habit... and nearly exited until a pair on golden eyes locked on her as they lifted themselves from the Sunday paper.

She felt her heart skip a bit as those pupils caged by those amber irises dilated in recognition.

Kagome's moutth dropped open as Sesshomaru smirked, rolled up his paper and stood suddenly.

It had been obvious this was not his stop, and she could only wonder why he was getting off with her.

"Miss, are you getting off?" The bus driver called out to her with a hint of annoyance present in his voice. It and shaken her out of the trance she had with Sesshomaru, his cognac eyes ripping into her and burning her alive in the breath of a second...

"Hai, hai!" Kagome replied back peevishly, already irritated at being so late.

She looked toward Sesshomaru and he gestured that she precede him. She then shot him a dirty look, and rushed off the bus as he followed.

"I figured you'd have a car, you know," she grumbled at him, hefting her purse a bit higher onto her shoulder as she power-walked to her job as fast as she could. Sesshomaru had tucked his paper underneath one arm, shrugging slightly at her as he matched her pace with no difficulty due to his naturally long stride. From the corner of her eye she assessed him and his attire, noting that he seemed a bit more casual that day. His was wearing a regular black t-shirt and a pair of jeans. She never took him as the t-shirt and jeans kind of guy, but how well did she really know him?

"At times one wants a change of pace. I prefer walking, anyway. We'll call it a habit," he spoke without looking at her, and instead he chose to gaze with no real interest at his surroundings.

Some things never change, I guess, Kagome thought with ire. The man was a wanderer in the Sengoku Jidai and apparently he was still a walker. Still, it didn't explain...

"Don't you have someplace to be?" she asked, trying her best not to come off rude.

She didn't succeed.

He gave her a sidelong glance, one eyebrow raised as he began to look affronted himself due to her attitude. "Breakfast. And by the very conservative look you were going for, may I add very house-wife of you, I would assume you worked at a resturant."

Kagame felt her eye twitch as she rounded the final corner of the block that led to the street her job was on. "And you wanted me to serve you, is that correct?"

Sesshomaru sniffed and gave her the most monotone look he could manage, but nothing could stop the twinkle of amusement alight in his eyes, "Who better?"

Kagome felt her head hunch between her shoulders, her mouth a grim line as she felt herself becoming a great and wonderful joke for him. She could just sense it. His constant torturing of her was definitely in her immediate future.

He went from being a physical sadist to a mental sadist. I was wrong. He hasn't changed. Nope.

Not.one.bit.

She pulled the door open to the diner, the bell that chimed to alert the staff of new customers going off at her entrance. The hostess who normally greeted and sat customaers gave Kagome a sympathetic look. Kagome gave her an expectant look back.

So, I'm in deep shit. What's new?

Of course, when the hostess took a look behind Kagome to see her companion, she immediately forgot about her co-worker's plight in favor of the handsome man.

"Welcome to Angel's Diner! Table for one?"

Kagome narrowed her eyes, and stalked off to the back kitchen. All the while she felt Sesshomaru's eyes bore into the back of her with the heat of the mid-afternoon sun. It was a feekubg she just couldn't shake off, and it made her blood pump vigorously throughout her veins. It gave her goosebumps. She shivered, and she rubbed her arms to try and ward off the invisible chill that had settled inside her. She was hot and cold at once, and again she was left baffled at how Sesshomaru managed to effect her oh-so-strongly.

Ducking her head lower somewhat self-conciously at being the object of his undeniable scrutiny, she pushed against the swinging door to meet her inevitable fate at the hands of her Manager.

Welcome to Hell's Kitchen, may I have an order of my head served on a plate, please?

"Higurashi-san! My office, now!" came the yell of the head chef, the resturant's manager and her very own personal executioner.

"Hai Manager..." she groaned, setting her purse inside her locker and grabbing her nametag as an afterthough. She followed the stalky man into the back office.

He naturally towered over her, with squinty beady eyes and he was constantly sweating from the heat of the stoves. He reminded her of the oni she used to fight.

Too bad I can't purify the bastard.

She grimaced.

If only I could.

The world would be a much, much better place. Of that she was certain.

"This is the third time this month Higuarshi. Third. What's your lame excuse this time?" the man bellowed at her, and suddenly Kagome felt like she was the size of a doormouse. She winced, cringing a bit in the face of his anger.

"Y-yes... well, I was sick yesterday and I was coming off it today still so I must have overslept..."

Her manager raised his thick, bushy eyebrows at her as he glared the best he could through the scraggly hair that fell in his face.

"It's no excuse. You should have called out today then. You have a doctor's note?"

"W-well..."

The man snorted, cutting off any lame reply she could have half-assed. "I thought not. I have to write you up this time, Higurashi. One more time, and you're a goner. I need people who are reliable, and that means people that are here when they're supposed to be. Not when they damn well feel like showing up," the man turned his back to her and Kagome sniffed silently to herself, hanging her head in shame.

As if I needed something else to feel crappy about...

"I'm sorry, Tanaka-san. It won't happen again," Kagome half-heartedly spoke as she leaned over the write-up form and signed her name reluctantly. Tears welled in her eyes, and her hands were shaking, causing her signature to waver and dip below the line that was meant for her to sign across. Her hair fell over her shoulder, effectively hiding her face from her Manager. She didn't want him to see the big globs of shameful tears that were threatening to spill from her eyes.

But she felt his heavy hand on her shoulder. She didn't bother to turn and look at him. It didn't stop him from talking.

"I haven't let you go when I would have fired anyone else because I believe in your integrity Higurashi-san. You're an honest and hard worker when you are here. I see it everytime you are here. You try your best, even in this shithole. If you had been anyone else, I would have kicked you out the door ass first. Don't make me regret my decision, Higurashi."

He removed his hand and left her alone in the office to gather herself, shutting the door softly behind him. She stared at the the old wooden desk that had seen better days, in shock from the first kind words the man had ever spoken to her.

Those sweet, encouraging words poked and prodded at her heart, cracking it open and landing softly there to remind her of something echoing in her past that she had long ago lost. Something that needed to live inside her once again, make her feel something...

He believes in me?

Someone...believes in me.

It was then that she laid her head on the desk and cried, finally remembering what it felt to have someone rely on her.

Even for something as stupid as coming to work, and trying her best.

She had needed it so much.

For someone to think she was worth having around.

And for the first time in a long while, she was crying tears of relief.



Twenty minutes had passed before she finally felt presentable enough to return to work. Her manager did not comment on her prolonged absence, or her red puffy eyes. He merely gave her a list of tables, and put her to work with a knowing look. She nodded at him, determination shining in her features, and set off to address her first customer of the day.

One that had specifically requested her as a server.

Sesshomaru.

She walked up to him, confident and fierce, staring him directly in the eyes as she approached. He was sipping his coffee, his black hair tied back and quietly reading his paper. No food in front of him, only the coffee.

She waited for him to put it down and look up at her, as she refilled it for him without being asked to. Her gaze never wavered off his, and his orbs held a quiet curious intensity as he observed her actions. Setting the pot down on the table, she fished inside her apron to produce a crisp white pad and a pen, holding it poise and at ready, asking him directly, "Did you wait all this time for me?"

"Indeed," was all he supplied her with.

"Well, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting for so long."

"...Then stop making me wait."

Kagome wondered at the double meaning of their conversation, somewhat intrigued if it held the same significance to him as it did to her.

...And by the look in his face, the note of seriousness that had crept in his facade...

She was sure it did.

"Can I take your order?"

He nodded, leaning back and looking out the window momentarily.

"In all honesty, I haven't really looked at the menu yet. Besides that, though. I will be seeing you Tuesday still?"

Kagome sighed softly, tucking her pen into the mess of hair she had swirled into a bun moments before she had head out to the dining room area. She gave him pause for a moment or two, though she already knew the answer to his question.

"...yes."

He looked directly back at her, and gave her a quiet smile that seemed to exist only for her to see.

"Good."

Kagome rolled her eyes, plucking the pot of coffee off the table quickly to go make her rounds to the other customers.

"Now look at that menu, and I'll be right back."

He nodded at her, staring hard for a second before replying, "...I know you will."

She blinked softly at him, watching him in wonderment, this man who was such a puzzle in her life. His riddles and his double meanings, and she wondered if it would ever be simple and clear between them.

Knowing her nature, and his personality, she knew it never would be.

But she wasn't sure she'd have it any other way.
Converting /tmp/phpdsJgHk to /dev/stdout