InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Virulence ❯ Chapter Ten ( Chapter 10 )

Chapter Ten

“Chicks Dig Dates”

Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha and company. They belong solely to Rumiko Takahashi.

The next morning, things hadn't gotten much better for Kagome. Although some problems had been resolved between her and Yasha…InuYasha, she knew that new ones were just beginning.

Sitting up on her arm as she stretched on the couch, Kagome silently cursed the springs that punched her back and stiffened her limbs. “ I have to remind him to do something about that,” she muttered, standing up and rolling her neck, grimacing at the crack of her bones. “He's slept on this monster before, I'm sure.”

Scratching her head -she wasn't out to please boys so why should she care about bed-head? -, Kagome shuffled into the kitchen, her eyes trained on the fridge and the promise of peach yogurt and wheat toast lightening her unusually bad mood. Reaching the fridge, she frowned at the mess that she and InuYasha had made as of late. Tempers and exasperation had led them to toss the food about and leave old food rotting inside. Holding her nose, Kagome reached past a particularly bad head of lettuce to grab what appeared to be the last yogurt in the fridge. “Yasha,” she grumbled, forgetting his name in her annoyance, “he'd better not be eating my yogurt.”

Sighing as she grabbed a spoon and sat down at the table, Kagome ripped of the lid of her treat and began eating; slowly looking around the kitchen as she did so. The walls that had once been slightly stained brown against the blue paint and the linoleum floors that were covered in scratches and old gunk had been redone, though some stains and scratches couldn't be removed. The sink, where there had been gunk and rusty bits of whatever when she'd first arrived, was now clean and shining. It being the only thing that could be cleaned completely besides the fridge, Kagome had put as much extra elbow grease into it as she could. The drawers themselves had cigarette burns and key scratches in them, and Kagome didn't have the energy to go out and buy paint or wax.

The thought ran through Kagome like a bolt of lightening. Didn't InuYasha say he'd take her out today?

Kagome ran into the sitting room and checked the clock. It was almost nine o'clock in the morning, he should be up soon. Finishing her yogurt, Kagome hurried into the shower, almost bouncing into the bathroom with enthusiasm.

^.^

InuYasha groaned as the sun's bright rays finally got to him. Groping around and failing to find a pillow to cover his eyes, he conceded defeat and sat up in bed, grumbling. Grabbing his bedside -mattress-side- clock, he sighed. 09:00 a.m. Time to get up.

InuYasha wasn't an early riser. He preferred to stay in bed until eleven or twelve, but since his drinking days ended after meeting Kikyou, and he realized that getting up early really was an asset, it was the only good advice that Kikyou had left with him. Like really? How many assassins bothered to get up before noon?

His ears twitched. In the silence of his bedroom, he could hear the sounds of water pouring down in the bathroom. `Kagome must be taking a shower,' he thought dryly, `I hope she's been in there for a while since it'll probably take her forever.'

He looked across the room. His clothes littered the floor, and after using his nose to try and tell the clean from the dirty, he decided wasting time with that wasn't worth it and he might as well go down to the Laundromat and get the stuff clean. He frowned and looked at his closet, the doors still ajar. He saw a pile of clothes in there that he knew were clean. If that's all that was left, he had about two days of clothes left before he had to start walking around in the old stuff.

His promise last night came back to him. He was supposed to take Kagome out today. Though he doubted that Kagome wanted to spend the day doing errands, the promise to pay for her laundry should appease her a little. Besides, she was all about cleanliness.

Hearing the squeak of the shower knobs that signaled the end of Kagome's morning shower, InuYasha hurried out of his room to get into the bathroom before Kagome started her morning routine.

“Kagome,” he called, knocking lightly on the door, “do you think I can get in there for a minute?”

He heard the sound of Kagome's feet on the floor as she walked the short distance (four feet) from the shower to the door. She opened it a bit, glancing up at InuYasha. She didn't seem to be in a bad mood…

“Yeah sure,” she answered cheerily, “in fact, I wanted to talk to you about what we're doing today.”

“Mhmm,” InuYasha replied vaguely, a feeling of apprehension rising in his stomach, “Yeah sure. Let's talk about that after I take a piss.”

He hurried past her before she could shout at him in indignation. She couldn't take a joke.

^.^

After about five minutes, InuYasha came out of the bathroom, having taken care of his piss and his morning toiletries. “InuYasha,” Kagome called as he walked off back to his room, “I'll be ready in a bit. Do you want some coffee or something?”

He muttered something about tea, slamming the door behind him as he retreated back to his man-cave. Kagome couldn't help but smile just a bit. For some reason, she felt like today was going to be a good one.

Turning to the closet and opening it, she grimaced slightly as her bags from the other day fell out. Rummaging through the chaos, she pulled out a form fitting red shirt and a short plaid skirt with red, black, and dark green colors. She found a pair of plain black flats, a nice pair of black earring matching the entire mess. From another bag that was entirely accessories she pulled out a scrunchy and some eyeliner. The makeup was on a whim, and normally she liked the feeling of being clean, on all fronts. She didn't think she could ever master mascara and blush like her mother did.

Thinking of her mother brought down her spirits just a bit as she pulled up the jeans and closed the clasp at her waist. Guilt also consumed her. Her family had no idea what was going on with her, and she had been too obsessed with her own misfortune to even think about the pain the others were feeling. Jii-chan was an old man; did she really expect someone of his age to get through the disappearance of his granddaughter? Souta, who was still in grade school… what would he feel like when people in school asked him where his sister was? When her mother was doing the laundry, or the dishes, or the vacuuming, what would she feel like when she wouldn't have to fold Kagome's skirts, put her plates in the dishwasher, or push the vacuum cleaner into her room.

Standing in front of the bathroom mirror as she placed the earring in her ears, Kagome sniffed. She was not going to cry. With sudden fury, she picked up the eyeliner and drew a jagged brown line around her left eye, sobs escaping. She rubbed at her eyes, growling in frustration as the eyeliner smudged around her eyes, looking like a bruise. GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“Kagome?”

The sound of InuYasha's voice jolted her awake from her haze.

“Yes,” she answered, her voice shaking uncontrollably, “what?”

“Are you ready?”

For a moment she almost thought about telling him to go away, that she wasn't in the mood. But the sound of his voice, devoid of all that exhaustion and helplessness that had been present in it since they'd met. She felt, without a doubt knew, that those feelings would creep back into his voice if she refused him this one time he asked to be with her. And she didn't want to be without him.

“Yeah,” she called, “I just poked myself in the eye with the eyeliner. I'll be out in a minute and then we can talk about where we're going.”

“Alright,” he said apprehensively, “I'll just be out here until you're ready. Do you have any laundry out here?”

“Just a minute, okay?”

She heard him grumble as he walked away from the door. `He'll get over it, she thought, `I mean, did he expect me to have a conversation with him through the bathroom door?

^.^

InuYasha was watching the telly when she finally came out of the bathroom. Her newly died brown hair was in a loose bun in the back if her head, and she left her bangs and some strands of hair loose in the front. She had earring in her ears, a tight red shirt on, and a short mini-skirt that brushed against her thighs. InuYasha heard the pounding of the blood in his ears as he turned away from the sight of her, nervousness all of a sudden eating at his belly.

“So,” the girl said, sitting down beside him to slip her feet into a pair of black shoes, “tell me where you wanna go and I'll tell you. I have a mental list all made up.”

InuYasha closed his eyes, not wanting to see her probably wrathful expression. “I actually need to go to the Laundromat. Do you mind if we go? I mean, I can probably get some lady there to put my stuff in the dryer for me while we're out so we don't have to go back.”

“Oh,” he heard her say, her voice a bit deflated. “Well,” she said, the chipper returning to her tone, “that doesn't sound like a bad idea. Might as well get some work done today, right? Do you mind if I throw some things in?”

“Nah,” InuYasha answered, relieved, “just don't mix in that outfit I found you in,” he warned, “that needs to get thrown away. In a Dumpster in Aomori, preferably.”

Kagome laughed, “well yeah. After that, maybe we can go into town and buy you some clothes. I mean, I think you deserve something nice to wear, don't you think?”

InuYasha grinned, his eyes finally meeting hers. As he was about to answer, he stopped dead.

She looked just like Kikyou.

But why, he wondered, his mouth hanging open, what the hell changed.

“Kagome,” he asked hesitantly, “what happened to your face…? You look different.”

She closed her eyes, almost as though she was in pain. It was then that InuYasha saw the makeup that lined her eyes, the same color and done almost exactly the way Kikyou did hers. Immediately he saw that he'd caused Kagome hurt, and that she hadn't poked herself in the eye in the bathroom.

“Hey,” he sputtered, “it's just…makeup?” he said stupidly, pointing at her eyes as they opened.

“Yeah,” she sighed, raising her hand to rub at the makeup. “It looks bad doesn't it?”

“No,” InuYasha said, trying to reassure her. He grabbed her hand before it rubbed at the makeup. “It's just different, you know. I just…prefer it when you don't wear anything.”

`What?” she said sharply, staring her friend straight in the eye as the implications of what he just said came crashing down on him.

“No!” He cried, waving his hands about, “I didn't mean when you're naked! I would hate seeing you naked!”

It was almost like her eyes were blazing.

“I.nu.ya.sha,” she ground out, standing over him like an imposing monument “I hope you're planning on apologizing.”

“I was…I meant…you know what I meant, right?”

“No, InuYasha,” she growled, reaching for the remote that sat on the coffee table, “I think you need to explain it to me…”

“Goddamnit!”

A/N: Yay! Another chapter! I'm writing two chapters every other day or so, so don't worry about me disappearing for a month or two for a while. When I have exams I will let you guys know. If you guys want to know when I am posting another chapter, please refrain from putting that in the comments and go on my livejournal.com account (reina_q) and ask. Or send me a message. Comments are for suggestions and recommendations on my stories, not for hassling the writer.