InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Two Princes ❯ Every Now and Then ( Chapter 3 )

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

"WHAT... Did you do... to that drink...." Mita slurred drunkenly, trying not to sway in the absent wind of the blissfully wasted.
I think she's catching on...
Kagome sat perfectly upright with two empty shot glasses before her, looking as though she could really handle her liquor while exchanging unsteady glances with the tender. Not necessarily was Kagome able to hold liquor, but according to the pills in her purse, they weren't to be taken with alchohol. So, when Mita had excused herself to the bathroom before starting in on the drinks, she'd shown her pills and made a deal with the bartender: For every shot or beverage ordered for Kagome, he would dump into Mita's drink and she would drive them home. He would make sure to colour some water up for her and make it look pretty so Mita wouldn't suspect anything. But of course, by round fifteen, Mia was almost unable to speak coherently and Kagome was still relatively sane.
The wonderful young men that escorted them back to their car on night one of the drinking had stayed with them for the week. Touring Canada with them had been wonderfully fun, seeing as they were natives of the land and knew every good bar from Whitehorse to Ottawa.

It was Monday morning in Tokyo, Japan. And it was raining. Surprise surprise. Kagome hauled her bag, filled with new clothing that had to be bought when Mia realized she hadn't packed anything for her. Or at least thats what she'd claimed. (Problably just another reason to spend her money on something completely unecessary.) So now, she had a rather adorable couple sets of new designer jeans, complete with squiggly lines of pattern on the back pockets, a green sweater/shirt, a tie-back halter top in bright red that covered her belly-button, but flashed the skin of her hips, stomach, and back (slipped into her purchases by Mia), then and short-sleeved white shirt with a mocha stain (thanks to Jim, one of their Canadian escorts), at least four different thin strapped tanks to go beneath an assortment of different club shirts, and even a couple new pairs of shoes that Mita insisted she buy.
"Uuuughhh....." Kagome moaned, dropping the wheeled suitcase at her door and heading for the nearest chair. "Mia, you idiot...."
Thanks to her, Kagome had been dragged onto another club scene, avoiding the gropings of clueless jocks, hate-stares from the primps, and flashing ID to the tenders everytime she went to order a drink. They'd stayed out all night and all morning until the flight was ready to leave. She now thanked heaven she was back home and could easily ignore the vibrating of her phone when Mia called for another club hopping day.
The red blip on her answering machine blared angrily at her, accusing her of being gone for far too long. Pushing the play button, Kagome shut her eyes and listened to the feminine automated voice.
"Message One: Tuesday, 6:30 P.M.:." It started. "Hey Kagome, its Rumiko. Listen, I had a couple of ideas for the manga I wanted to pass by you before I just go for it. If you get this any later than wednesday, don't worry about it. Thanks! Talk to you later."
Crap.. Missed that deadline by five days..
"Message Two: Tuesday, 9:00 P.M.:" "Kagome, its your mother! I heard from your landlord about it! Are you alright honey? I'll try your cell phone, but please get back to me! Alright, be careful sweetheart."
Kagome smiled at her mother's concern. Just after she'd landed she'd called her mother and made sure everything was alright. This conversation had taken up about twenty minutes of the cab drive to the hotel she and Mita was sharing, so it got her out of clubbing for a bit.
"Message Three: Wednesday, 4:00 A.M.:." "Kagome, its Rumiko again. Sorry! I was just wondering if you'd gotten my message yet. Call me!"
No, Takahashi-sama. I haven't gotten your message. Improvise.
"Message Four: Wednesday, 7:00 A.M.:." "This message is for Higurashi Kagome, from the Feudal Times magazine. We just wanted to schedule an interview with you to confirm or deny a few things we heard about, and possible schedule a photoshoot. Call me back, my name is Nina Hitaka, head editor of the gossip column."
Oh great. So what lies did they print while I was away?
Usually, the papers would just go ahead and print stupid information whether or not she approved it for the magazines, which usually meant there would be a surprise in some random magazine about the implants she'd apparently gotten while high on some drug she didn't know how to say.
"Message Five: Wednesday, 7:09 A.M.:." "Hi there, this is James Hyung from the International Inquirer. We just wanted to confirm or deny the information that was handed to us this morning from one of our columnists, so if you could give us a call back that would be fantastic. Have a great day."
Kagome's brow furrowed. Message six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, and of course fourteen, sixteen, and seventeen, all inquired about information she had yet to see. Something was going on. As she listened on, her twentieth message was from Cidney.
"Hey, Kagome. I just wanted to give you a call regarding those negatives for your X-Rays. We'll have you come in again when you get back from your vacation. Until then, I hope you had fun! See you then."
Ah. Maybe the press caught wind of her doctor's appointment. Suing would be in order for whoever it was that blabbed, but unless Kagome willingly downed coffee to bring about intelligence, she would not be doing anything but revisiting nightmares in bed. And although there were at least another ten messages waiting for her approval before an intensive study of the back of her lids, she made it to where the angry little blip of a light was cleared of messages. Both it and she were now happy. Kagome plodded towards her bed, untying one of the ropes that held back her thick curtain and fell onto the bed. Her shoes flipped off her feet, her jeans were unbuttoned, and her hair was in a mess on the pillow and she was out.
For only five minutes.
The phone rang.
The obscenities that flowed through her brain the moment the blaring of the phone didn't quite make it to her mouth, but a very irritated, "Yes?!" made it clear that whoever it was was interupting something very special.
"I didn't interrupt you and your new boyfriend, did I?!" came Mia's very startled voice. Kagome paused for a full five seconds before blinking and carefully replying.
"Huh?"
"According to The National, the Inquirer, Yumi Magazine, and about five other magazines that support your work, you have a very sexy boyfriend with white hair. According to two of the more detailed magazines, a guy came into Banana Republic to buy a pair of jeans, a white spaghetti strapped shirt, underwear, and bra to match for a Kagome Higurashi, and when asked whether or not it was you, he got irritated."
"Please tell me you aren't quoting the magazine, Mia. Please." She groaned.
"Not until 'into'.." Mia snapped. "You've been holding out!"
"Mia..."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Mia... I didn't even know until today. And he isn't my boyfriend." She protested softly, taking the phone with her back to the bed. "You've got to be kidding me..."
"Well first of all, who is he. And if you want to do damage control, let me know." Mia said, suddenly serious. "Its time to schedule a meeting."
"Tomorrow, or so help me Mia, I will shoot you." Kagome threatened. The bite was taken out, thanks to the yawn in the background of it.
"Fine fine, but we have to resolve this before you're unofficially getting married to this guy."
"Right. Sure. Tomorrow."
Kagome hung up the phone, a bit guilty for her grouchiness. But hey, such is the price for hauling her out all night and not letting her sleep on the plane. She fell back into bed, this time without her jeans constricting her, and giggled at the prospect.

This Sesshoumare, however, was not giggling at such prospects. The moment he read the first magazine on the racks as he passed by the Bein' Coffee Cafe, his newly restored temper flared. And it wasn't just splashed all over the pages of the International, it was in magazines he'd never even knew exhisted! His 'farce' with a human girl Higurashi were all based on nothing more than the clothing he'd purchased in an American Brand store, and here they were making it seem as though she and he were having a scandolous afair! Absolutely ridiculous! There was a silent chuckling in the back of his subconscious.
This is far from funny, father! Its not a laughing matter for the Lord of the West to be courting a HUMAN for kami's sake!
The chuckle remained, only louder this time. Certainly, Sesshoumaru'd lost his mind this time. There would be serious consequences to the filth that had begun this ridiculous story, starting with the young woman that began the rumor. First things first though: Whoever the photographer was that had gotten the shots of him in the park was going to answer to him first, even if Sesshoumaru had to resort to the olden days of torture. If he'd not what he wanted by the end of the week, there would be bloodshed.
Now just because there weren't as many demons as there once had been, they were still out there. And many of them knew of his exhistence. He'd already received two of three expected phone calls, the Demon Masters of Japan. The Northern and Southern were both outraged, but after no explanation and equal outrage, he'd convinced them that his affairs would be his, and that they should scrap their human concubines if they wanted to really sink their fangs into his business. It shut the first Master up, and recieved an irritated sigh from the other. The Eastern Demon Master would problably forgo calling. With such a peace treaty with his lands being held as long as they had been, the eagle would just brush it off and tease him about it during the next coffee break.
The appartment was a mess by the time he'd finished answering calls, his pacing thoroughly ruining the thread of his white designer carpet. Perhaps he should've extended his vacation. A knock at his door twisted his silver head towards the door, eyes glaring. He lowered the glasses to the tip of his nose and dared the visitor to knock again. The person was either very brave, or incredibly stupid, for the tapping sounded again. He sped unnaturally to the door, running his teeth over lengthening fangs as he swallowed heavily.
"Well now, I've never seen you look so angry, Sesshoumaru-sama." Old lady Suzuki said, pushing past him into the hall, then turning right, into his kitchen. The scent of something sweet, salty, and delicious wafted from the big wicker basket she was carrying, soothing his frenzied nerves and calming his frantic temper.
"I saw the headlines and knew; You must need something to relax. So here you are!" The old woman placed the new, improved basket on the table and went for the white cabinets on the opposite walls next to the sink to dig out a tea pot.
"You have brought green tea as well for this Sesshoumaru."
"China Green Tips, fresh from the source. Only the best, Sesshoumaru-sama. Now, come sit down and forget about those silly headlines." The old woman shook her head. "Why, back in my day it would've been an embarassment to have your love life broadcasted all over Japan, but it seems you've found yourself quite a looker. A real rich one at that!"
Her words rubbed him wrong and he could feel his temper going back up. He saw her eye him before shaking her well kept bun.
"Come now, I'll finish up the tea and we'll watch a movie. Let the storm pass. Come eat some of this kettle corn, before it gets cold."
Sesshoumaru felt a tug of his brow, but let out a long sigh through his nostrils before resigning himself to his self-appointed house maid.

Kagome entered Dr. Chen's office nearly crawling the next morning. Perhaps she'd overdone the whole sleep thing, and she'd gotten a tad too much sleep. Of course, she'd just about dumped the Valium down the drain to avoid taking it, but then remembered the last time that Mita was here. She'd had Jack, the repair guy for the suites here, come in and check the drain. All Kagome could say about the slowly dissolving pills that hadn't made it all the way down: Whoops. Her mother had found a treasure in Mita. Mita had to have been a world-class spy in a past life.
The fresh white waiting room had the curtains drawn to keep in the fresh white colour, lest the dreariness of the gray day leak in.
"Miss Kagome, please come right this way." Yusada-sama said quietly, guiding her towards the examining room. She was handed the green hospital gown upon arrival and instructed to change as before. "Dr. Chen will be right in to see you."
And Cidney was indeed in within ten minutes.
"So how was your vacation."
Kagome knew it'd been coming..
"It was great until I got home and found out I had a boyfriend here."
Cidney chuckled.
"I haven't any idea what his name is, but I guess we had a one night stand, where he completely ruined my bra and panties, only to go to the Banana Republic to replace them. Thats what I've heard anyway."
"Yes, that would be according to the National. It was complete with one of your old pictures and a new one of your buea. I must say, Kagome. I never took you for a grave robber, but according to the descriptions, he's supposed to be pretty cute for a white-haired man."
Kagome paused before looking up.
"White haired?"
Cidney blinked. "You haven't seen your boyfriend yet either? They have a photo in there of the appartment complex you came out of."
"No, white haired. Please tell me he isn't about six four with a really grouchy face."
Cidney went to the small rack sitting beside the examining table where they kept the magazines for the longer waiting patients before motioning Kagome to follow her and handing her the paper.
"The photos are on page 73, and the detailed account is on page 75."
"Two? Two pages of pictures?!" Kagome wailed miserably. And upon flipping to the scene of the crime she stopped in the middle of the hallway.
"Shit."
Cidney stopped with her. "Whats wrong? Who is it?"
Kagome stared at the face shot of Sesshoumaru, trying to keep her mouth closed as his golden eyes flashed in the photo. He seemed unawares that his photo was being taken, and appeared to be in a park. But of all people they had paired her up with... It was something out of the stories that they wrote online on different fan sights. Kagome had noticed that they'd had tendencies to take her characters and pair them with completely random people. Two of the most popular pairings were herself and Inuyasha, by far the most painful of all, and the oddest one being her and Sesshoumaru. What they ever saw in her and Sesshoumaru's backgrounds that would make them such candidates for such a ridiculous pairing.
But here it was.
There were printing it in the National magazine, and every Kagome/Sesshoumaru fan was problably going completely wild over her assumed choice of men. Kagome wanted to face palm and just wish this all away.
"Its nothing. Just a coincidence is all. I ran into this guy a while ago, we're.... old... um..." Kagome struggled for wording. "Mutual aqcuantainces..?"
That didn't sound convincing even to her. Cidney raised a brow.
"Well then I can see how you two could be mistaken as lovers."
"No, you... You wouldn't understand this relationship. I haven't seen this guy in years." Like, five hundred years.
"Well, who knows. There are bigger mouths out there than just your manager's." Cidney said with a shrug. They entered the X-Ray room and Kagome was carefully placed before the machine. It took about twenty minutes before they were finished, and Kagome quietly waited for Cidney to come in with a frown furrowing her brows. She was sitting quietly on the table, wondering how in the world she was going to slog through this disaster of a publicity nightmare when Cidney walked in with the negatives.
There was no frown on her face.
Kagome's heart began to pound in voluntarily as Cidney did the customary, "O-kay," and continued walking forward with the negatives in hand. "Well all of your scans looked clean, nothing of any interest."
Kagome shot off the table and looked at the negative carefully.
"It isn't there!" She cried out. The large round white spot that was on her usual checkup was gone. Gone. It wasn't supposed to be gone! How did it get out? Kagome's breathing came just a little unsteadily, and her mind went foggy. Dizziness swept through her and she was having trouble standing.
"What's gone? Kagome..? Kagome, you need to sit down before you fall down."
She felt Cidney's hands grasp her forearms with bruising strength but the hysterics wouldn't stop.
"He has it! It stole it! Inuyasha has it, he has the jewel! He has it! How did he get it?! He has it!" Kagome crumbled into a sobbing heap. "No no no no, he has it, he has it! I don't want him to be a demon, I don't want it..."
The sound of the door slamming open didn't even register to Kagome.
"Intrevenous Ativan, STAT!"
"He's going to come back and kill me, I'm going to die. He'll kill me now that he has it, he has it..."
Things were going black, and Kagome felt the wave of dizziness knock her off her proverbial feet, dragging her into a hell of pounding hearts and screaming demons. They were all laughing at her, all crying out for her blood to be shed for her trespass, her betrayal of Inuyasha. Something pricked her wrist, and the crazed crowd of demons soon quieted in their jeering. Her body slumped over the rest of the way, and she felt no more pain.

It wasn't until she came to in the hospital about a day and a half later that she felt even remotely close to stupid. According to Dr. Chen, she'd had a panic attack of epic proportions, which lead to a mental breakdown due to untreated Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. There was a thing of chocolate and balloons from the lady sitting in one of the waiting room chairs. Her mother, Yumi, jumped up from her seat to check on her the moment she noticed her daughter's eyes opening.
"Sweetheart, are you alright?!"
Oh, good job Kagome. You made your mother cry. You wanna try for grandpa now?
"I'm fine, mom." Her parched mouth made her voice sound hoarse. She cleared it and repeated in a smoother, steadier, all around normal sounding voice. "I'm fine."
Yumi stroked her cheek with tenderness.
"Sweetie, you had a mental breakdown. You weren't fine a few hours ago."
"Mom, how long have I been here?"
"Almost two days. Honey, what happened? They told me you were talking about demons and Inuyasha?" Her mother's big brown eyes were filled with sympathy. "Is this about the well closing? What happened sweetheart? You can tell me, you know that right?"
Kagome put her hand on her mother's as she began to slide her feet from under the sterile covers of the hospital bed.
"Mom, I am fine. I will be fine. And you don't have to worry about anything."
I'm the Guardian of the Shikon-no-Tama. Its my problem, and I'll figure out what happened.
"Has Mita come in here?" Kagome asked, taking the needles out of her arm carefully.
"Kagome, don't do that!" Yumi Higurashi protested. "Mita went to get us coffee while we waited for you to wake up."
Kagome nodded and went to the nightstand beside the bed. Inside were her clothes.
Finally! A stroke of luck... That wouldn't last. As fate would have it, a shrill female voice protested the moment she began to pull one of her pantlegs on for an escape.
"Kagome Higurashi, you put those pants down!"
Now Mom she knew she could persuade into letting her leave. The Trio of Miscreants she heard heading towards the bland hospital doorway.
"I'm not staying here, Yuka."
"Seriously Kagome, drop the pants." Eri said quietly.
"Yeah. You need some R and R time."
Kagome glared all around.
"You're all traitors. No, I'm not staying. I hate hospital rooms and I've already taken a vacation. I don't need another one. Mom, I need to talk to you."
The three girls exchanged glances. It was very unusual to see her take such forceful authority with a situation like this. Normally, Kagome would have loved to laze around the room and do nothing after having an emotional break down, but desperate times called for desperate measures. She slid her legs into her pants and her shirt on over the gown before taking it off and slipping her jacket over her shoulders.
"Thanks you guys, but really: I'm fine. I don't need constant looking after. There is just something I really have to take care of right now." With that, she left three disgruntled friends standing in the sterile hospital room, awkward at such a blatant defeat at the hands of what was once a very sweet, compromising girl. Kagome looped her arm through her mother's and began to drag her out the door, speaking in hushed tones so that if Mia were coming down the hall, she wouldn't be stopped and might have a chance at escape.
"Mom, did you drive?"
"Yes I did, why Kagome?" She asked, her face paling. "Are you in some kind of trouble, honey?"
"No, no it isn't like that mom. Just.." Kagome paused. Her mother knew about the surgery she'd had to hid the jewel, and was one of the people that had signed off on it as a beneficiary in case something were to go wrong on the table. "That surgery I had a couple years ago. You remember that?"
"Yes, what about it?" Her mother asked cautiously, quietly as the turned down another corridor of hospital rooms bustling with activity.
"The jewel is gone. I had a chest X-Ray to check on it, and its missing." Kagome finished quietly. Her mother became dead weight, stopping as more blood drained from her face.
"..What?" The response was almost breathy.
"Come on, mom, I've gotta get out of here before Mia catches me. I need to figure out what happened to it." Kagome tugged on her mother's arm.
"Right, right... But I thought that the jewel would need a surgery, or a fatal injury to remove?" Yumi said softly, disbelievingly. Kagome nodded her head, black hair spilling over her shoulder.
"I know. I don't know..."
"Well now I know why you had the breakdown." Her mother commented off handedly as they stepped onto the elevator that would take them to the lobby, and out to freedom. As Kagome's mother helped her check out, they ran into no apparent problems. Mia didn't pop out of the shrubs and scream "GOTCHA!", the Miscreants hadn't chained her to the hospital floor, and Sesshoumaru hadn't stepped through the doors with chocolates, roses, and a get well card either. All was well thusfar, and sanity was still achievable.
Yumi opened the door to a 98 Honda Accord and helped Kagome inside. There was still damage control to do on the mysterious boyfriend, press releases to get ready for, another meeting to prepare for in another two days, and the ancient Shikon Jewel to find. All that other stuff would have taken the backburner if this had been the Feudal Era. Inuyasha would've been peeved because she'd let it slip out of her hands again and demanded they get in gear and slaughter the demon that had taken it.
Streaks of rain appeared on the gray tinted window as the car pulled out onto the busy streets. But they weren't. Death wasn't a constant companion here, and the worst thing that could happen is a stalker take advantage of her unless a huge disaster happened. Disaster.... What about those nightmares she'd started having this week? The one where she was in a train, watching some woman... The woman's eyes always caught her. They gleamed and changed into an unnatural dark amber colour, like a well brewed beer. She grew fangs, and hissed at Kagome, seeming to leap forward. But she wouldn't move, and it was her own body being propelled toward the ethreal creature in front of her.
Now that she thought about it, she'd woken up in Sesshoumaru's room with not much more than a stained dress shirt, which caused the whole Bra, Panty, Higurashi-Likes-It-Rough headlines. She'd also been absent for about three days The train wreck had happened the day she 'disappeared'. Two parts of a whole came crashing together and understanding dawned on Kagome.

"Mom..."
"Yes?"
"I think I died sometime last week."
Her mother's fingers turned white on the steering wheel as Kagome watched a clouding of expressions rush over her face.
Yeah... I can't really believe it either.. She thought as her fingers subconsciously grasped at the flesh of her collar bone.