InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Short Straw ❯ Chapter six ( Chapter 6 )

I apologize for this chapter being so short, but it's for the most part a follow up to chapter five. I promise that with chapter seven things will be getting quite interesting . . .

The Short Straw

By Flamingwillows

Chapter six

"It was just awful, Sango. It looked like I'd shot him with a shotgun, only it had been loaded with cherry pie instead of buckshot." Kagome's face flushed at the memory.

"It doesn't sound like he was upset." Sango Kurata picked up the teapot and filled both their cups.

"He was as nice as could be," Kagome agreed. "And that little cat Kagura just sat there with a smug little smile on her face. I just wanted to shove her headfirst into a mud puddle."

"Or a cherry pie," Sango suggested.

"That would have spoiled her mood." Kagome nodded, smiling at the thought of Kagura with a faceful of cherry pie. "Koga must think I'm clumsy as a bull at a tea party."

"Koga?" Sango raised her eyebrows at the familiarity.

"Mr. Sukanami," Kagome corrected herself with a guilty blush.

"I've seen him and his brother in town a time or two even before I met them at church last week." Sango said. "They're both very attractive men. You could do worse than to set your sights on one of them."

Kagome choked on a mouthful of tea. "Me? Set my sights on a man like Koga Sukanami? I'd be making a total fool out of myself."

"I don't see why." Sango's pretty chin set stubbornly.

"What would a man like that see in a little dab of a girl like me? Ouch!" She cried out more in surprise than in pain as Sango rapped the back of her knuckles with the silver spoon she'd picked up to stir her tea. "Why did you do that?"

"Because you sounded just like your aunt Kikyo." Sango said, showing not the least sign of remorse. "You're not a dab of a girl, Kagome Higurashi."

"I'm hardly statuesque, either."

"Haven't you heard that good things come in small packages?" Letty stirred her tea and fixed her friend with a stern look. "You've lived with that harpy of an aunt and that nasty little cousin of yours too long."

"I haven't had much choice." Kagome muttered. She took a sip of tea, savoring the rich flavor of it. When Aunt Kikyo made tea she always skimped on the tea leaves, turning out a watery brew more reminiscent of dishwater than a beverage.

Good tea was only one of the many pleasures Kagome took in visiting Sango. Sango was her dearest friend. She'd moved to Black Dog two years before to take care of an elderly uncle. When her uncle passed away, leaving her a small house and a comfortable inheritance, Sango had stayed on. There were those who were scandalized by the idea of an attractive young woman living alone, but that fact that Sango could always be counted on to donate both time and money to any worthy cause kept whispers to a minimum.

She was a widow, after all, the ladies in town comforted themselves. Though she was still young, it wasn't as if she were a single girl living alone. Sango's husband had drowned when the wagon he was driving overturned in the midst of a river he'd been trying to ford. A widow at twenty, Sango had welcomed the opportunity to leave Ohio and all it's painful memories behind.

Sango and Kagome had met in church and became fast friends almost immediately. Sango was the one person in Kagome's life with whom she felt completely at ease, the one person with whom she could share her dreams and her fears.

"I've decided to marry Hojo," Kagome announced abruptly.

"What on earth for?" Sango set her teacup down and frowned at her friend.

"Because I don't want to spend the rest of my life as Aunt Kikyo's unpaid housekeeper."

"You don't have to marry Hojo just to avoid that. I've already told you that you could come live with me. We'd have such fun, Kagome. You know we would."

"You know as well as I do that it would never do."

"I don't know any such thing." Sango's fine brows drew together and her soft mouth set in a stubborn line. "I have a spare bedroom just sitting empty. And if it would soothe that annoying pride of yours, I could even hire you as my housekeeper. Since there's not much house to keep, we'd have plenty of time to enjoy ourselves."

But Kagome was already shaking her head. "Can you imagine what people would say about two young women living alone together?"

"I'm a widow. How can anyone complain if I choose to hire a companion?"

"A companion even younger than you are?" Kagome asked, raising her brows.

"I ought to be able to have any companion I want." Sango said stubbornly. She caught Kagome's eyes and sighed. "Oh, all right. You're right and I'm wrong. But I don't have to like it."

"I thank you for your offer." Kagome smiled at Sango's disgruntled look.

"Even if you can't come stay with me, I don't want you to marry Hojo just to get away from your aunt and uncle," Sango said after a moment.

"I don't see that I have much choice. I've no skills with which to earn my own living. He seems like a kind man and his children need a mother." Even to her own ears, Kagome sounded less than excited. She forced a false not of ethusiasm into her voice. "I've always wanted children of my own, you know."

"That's an altogether different thing from gaining a husband and four children on the same day and not knowing any of them better than you do some stranger that just arrived on the train from St. Louis."

"They're not exactly strangers," Kagome protested

"What are the children's names?"

Sango's unexpected demand left Kagome momentarily speechless. "The oldest girl is Mina, and the boys are-" she hesitated, groping to put a name to the four children who sat so quietly beside their father in church. "Shigure and Kishuku. And the littlest is Yuki- no, it's Yui." She gave Sango a triumphant look. It was short lived.

"The oldest girl is Mihona. The second boy isn't Kishuku, it's Koutoku, and the baby's name is Yuimi." Sango ticked off the names on her fingers before fixing her friend with a stern look. "You can't marry Hojo when you don't even know the names of his children, Kagome."

"I can learn their names." Kagome set her chin in a way that would have startled Koga Sukanami.

"You don't love him." Sango noted.

"Not everyone marries for love. Love can come after marriage." Kaogme tried to sound more confident than she felt. "He's a nice man."

"With terrible taste in hats," Sango observed, nodding to the over decorated hat that Kagome had set on the sofa next to her.

"I can learn to live with that," Kagome said, casting a doubtful look at the item in question.

"I don't think it's possible," Sango said, shaking her head mournfully. "A man who'd choose a hat like that for a woman . . . there's just no telling what else he might do."

Kagome laughed, just as Sango had intended. "I've never heard anyone suggest that poor taste in millinery was an indication of serious character flaws."

"Well, it can be, so I forbid you to marry the man until we know something more about him."

"He hasn't asked me yet," Kagome observed. "But if he does, I'm going to say yes."

"Then I hope he doesn't ask you, because I can't bear to see you marry someone just to get away from your aunt." Sango's eyes reflected her distress. "There must be someone you'd rather marry."

Koga Sukanami's strong features immediately popped into Kagome's mind but she pushed the image away. The idea that he'd have an interest in marrying her was so far-fetched as to be an absurdity. She might as well wish to marry the man in the moon as to dream of marrying Koga Sukanami.