InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Zero-G ❯ The Local Laundrette ( Chapter 10 )

Author's Notes: No more fackyews after this chapter, I'm afraid - unless a really valid question comes up that won't be answered in later chapters.

 

Zero-G

Chapter Nine

The Local Laundrette…

 

 

 

 

“What makes you think I have a girlfriend?” Inuyasha quietly shut the door and leant against it as he observed the young businesswoman moving around his living space.

“Firstly, I've never seen your flat as clean as this. Either you're trying to impress someone or someone's trying to impress you with their cleaning skills.” She sat down on a sofa that was normally taken up by old clothes, magazines and empty snack wrappers. “Secondly,” she said, giving him a docile smile, “I can smell jasmine in here. Not your usual choice of aftershave, is it, Inuyasha?”

“For all you know, I may have just discovered my feminine side,” Inuyasha responded with a light shrug as he moved back towards the kitchen table to resume his crossword. He hoped that if he gave her the cold shoulder, she would leave sooner.

But Kikyo wasn't used to this treatment. Standing up, she marched towards him and snatched the newspaper out of his hands. “And thirdly,” she began with a harsh edge to her voice, “you were stopped by the police last night and reported to have been travelling with a girl.”

“Was that before or after you heard I got into a chase?” He linked his hands behind his head and gave her a carefree smile, perfectly masking his inner trepidation. “Are you jealous, Kikyo-kun?”

Kikyo scoffed and pulled herself up to sit on the table. “Hardly. From what I heard, the girl you were travelling with was a woman with the face of a brat. Who was she? A prostitute?”

“Ooh - you are jealous!” Inuyasha sat up, looking more attentively at her. He saw the way her eyes darkened with annoyance beneath her multiple layers of mascara and knew that the best way to avoid answering her questions was to get her feathers ruffled. “I bet you came all the way over to win me back.”

He'd set himself up for a fall, and just as he'd guessed, Kikyo took the bait. “You really think you're worth that?” She sneered at him. “Honest to God, Inuyasha, I'm stumped how you even managed to pick anyone up. She's either blind or so poor and deprived that even you look like a decent partner. I wouldn't get too attached, Inuyasha. She might see a tramp scrounging around in a dumpster and decide to upgrade her lover.”

Inuyasha ignored the jab. “Then why are you here, if not to make sure I'm still faithful to Kikyo?” He leant back in his chair, balancing it on two legs.

“Just making sure you're keeping out of trouble with the police,” she said, crossing her legs primly. “I don't want your spotless record to be smeared now…”

Inuyasha flicked the briefest of glances towards the staircase, wondering if Kagome could hear what was being said. Just in case she was eavesdropping, Inuyasha attempted to steer the conversation along less incriminating lines. “So when do you want to meet my new girl?” he asked. “I'm sure she'd love to meet you, Kikyo Higurashi of Reggie's cosmetics.”

Kikyo cringed at his mistake, but evidently realised it was deliberate for she didn't try to correct him. “Is that so?” she said evenly.

“She's a lovely little thing. Baby faced, is the term I think you were looking for. She's twenty, but every time we try and get a drink in a bar she's always asked for ID, the poor thing.” He held up the index finger of each hand as if about to make an important point. “And she is hhhhot! If you know what I mean…?”

For all of Kikyo's denial and cruel barbs, she wasn't a good enough actress to disguise her jealousy… unless she was deliberately playing the part of a jealous ex to keep him keen. “I'm sure I do.”

Inuyasha gazed at her for a moment, then said bluntly, “She has a nicer face than you.”

There was no other insult that could cut Kikyo to the marrow as surely as that, and what had made it twice as delicious was that it was true. For a moment she said nothing, looking at him as if his words hadn't affected her. Then the sole of her boot hit the seat of his chair, mere millimetres from his groin, and slammed the chair back down on four feet. Her hand fisted in the lapels of his cotton shirt, and she jerked him forward until they were practically nose to nose.

Inuyasha regarded her calmly, but inside he was cheering for his blazing victory. It wasn't often that Kikyo lost her cool.

“You're an asshole,” Kikyo whispered with venom.

Before he was given a chance to respond, she was in his lap and searing a passionate kiss across his mouth. Inuyasha's hands splayed unresponsively against her back, and his lips were almost reluctant to indulge her. As Kikyo's hands pawed at his cheeks and scored welts across his throat, Inuyasha kept glancing at the staircase with distraction. But she's only in the next room…

“What are you thinking?” Kikyo whispered across his moist, sensitive lips. He was about to tell her that he was wondering when the next garbage pick-up was, but then Kikyo began squeezing his ears with those talented fingers of hers… and his eyes crossed. She looked down at his enraptured expression as the corner of her lips curled upwards. “Who are you thinking of?”

“You…” he gasped.

“And who do you love and desire above anyone else?” she inquired, pressing her lips against his in short, sweet bursts.

“You… always you…”

This time, when she kissed him, he responded with equal ardency. His hands tugged her carefully pinned hair into disarray to sink his fingers into the unbound silk while her fingernails bit into his shoulders with deliberation. He quickly forgot about the girl upstairs and just how much he hated the one he was kissing, but that always seemed to be the case whenever Kikyo finished wrapping him around her little finger.

Inuyasha didn't know where it would have ended if Kikyo hadn't bit him.

“Fuck!” He threw himself away from her, sending his chair backwards and onto the floor. The coppery taste of blood leeched into his mouth, and he scowled at the businesswoman as he pressed a hand to the cut. She'd bitten his lip so hard that he'd bled… and one needed to bite a hanyou very hard before that ever happened. “What the fuck was that for?!”

Kikyo delicately dabbed her mouth with the back of her hand. “Just leaving a little something to remember me by.” She hopped down from the table and gave him a conspiratorial little whisper. “You, uh… may want to avoid letting your little girlfriend find out how you got that.”

She flashed him a brief, cruel smile before crossing towards the door and exiting the flat without so much as a word of goodbye. All the better to let him dwell on what had just happened.

………….

Kagome stared sombrely up at the wooden bed struts above her nose. She could hear Inuyasha climbing the stairs, having grown curious as to why she hadn't bothered coming down after Kikyo had left. She remained where she was, counting the steps as Inuyasha climbed them until he was in the room.

It wasn't long before he was down on his belly, peering under the bed. “Comfy?” he asked.

Kagome let her head loll towards him and took in the sight of his bloodied lip without a flicker of expression. However, inside she was roiling with disgust. “I know about you two,” she told him candidly.

“Yeah, I know.” He blew away a dust bunny that he'd narrowly avoided inhaling.

Kagome narrowed her eyes. “How am I supposed to trust you when you have that kind of relationship with her?”

“Our kind relationship isn't exactly romantic or loving,” Inuyasha told her lightly, as if talking about the weather. “We hate each other… and this is just our twisted way of hurting one another.”

Kagome sighed deeply and turned her head away from him again. “You shouldn't let her treat you like that,” she complained. “No one deserves to be treated like that.”

“Oh, come on…” Inuyasha cajoled. “It's not like I've done anything to deserve better.”

“Why would you say that?” The girl turned a quick, puzzled frown on him. “You saved my life. How many other people would have done that? No one cares about anyone else these days… no one's brave enough to step up to the plate and be different or risk standing out from anyone else. Anyone else would have just watched me drown… but you… you saved me. And if that doesn't automatically make you a better person than the rest of us sheep, then I'm not sure what does.”

Inuyasha made an awkward kind of shrug with a vague roll of the eyes.

“Except… your choice in lovers needs a little re-evaluation,” said Kagome, “and your personal hygiene is questionable. I'm not even going to talk about the furry things you're keeping in the fridge…”

“They can be quite testy when you don't feed them,” Inuyasha nodded seriously.

“But…” Kagome wrinkled her nose as if what she was about to say was particularly difficult. “You're… fundamentally… a good person. I think that's all that matters.”

“Mm,” Inuyasha hummed noncommittally. He didn't seem too pleased with their thread of conversation, and when his phone began beeping in his pocket, it came as a much-needed diversion. With a small sigh, he fished the phone from his jeans and brought it to his ear. “What is it?” he answered.

“What's the magic word?” a glib voice asked.

“Obedience.” Inuyasha glanced up to see Kagome's puzzled frown and quickly put his hand over the speaker. “Friend… can't do the crossword.”

“Are you with someone?” His caller seemed amused. “Not a girl, is it?”

“It is.” Inuyasha diverted his eyes from Kagome so she wouldn't think he was talking about her. “Is there something I can help you with?”

“Why, yes.” The voice got down to business. “The boss wants you to take care of a little problem for him.”

“Oh…?”

“We already gave you the problem's name and address… in fact, the boss is a little impatient that you haven't solved the problem already.”

“I was getting round to it.” Inuyasha retorted.

“Not getting cold feet, are you? There's nothing worse than an employee who can't do his work…”

Kagome had grown bored by now and had gone back to counting the wooden slats under the bed. Reassured that she could only hear his half of the conversation, Inuyasha answered carefully. “My feet are fine, thank you for asking.”

“Good. Do the job today… we need this problem sorted.” The caller hung up rather promptly after that.

Inuyasha lowered the phone and stared thoughtfully at the ceiling for a few moments before looking to Kagome. “I have to go to work,” he told her, somewhat reluctantly.

She gave a shrug. “You know, regarding this whole Kikyo thing…” she started, having dwelt on the Kikyo thing for the entirety of the phone call. “You should grow a back bone.”

Inuyasha stared at her. “The all-knowing wisdom of a fifteen year old… how precious.”

She glared at him. “Think about it, ok? Don't let her treat you like some kind of… I don't know… some kind of slave.”

Inuyasha smiled slightly and shook his head. “I'm not a slave to Kikyo.”

“Then you like the way she treats you?” Kagome was finding it difficult to grasp the relationship between them. Hate? Love? Which was it? “Are you some kind of masochist?”

He gave another indistinct smile. “Perhaps. But not in any physical sense. I hate Kikyo from the bottom of my heart, and my soul would sing with joy if she was ever thrown from her high horse into ruin like she honestly deserves. True evil didn't mean anything until Kikyo came along and epitomised it. So trust me when I say that my relationship with Kikyo never stood in the way of my plan to help you.”

Kagome wrinkled her forehead as her confusion only increased. “If you hate her so much… then why are you in love with her…?”

“Love…?” Inuyasha echoed incredulously.

“If what you say is true, and you've been broken up for ages - then why do you still have her clothes around the flat? Why are her shoes in the closet? Why do you let her waltz into your home like she owns it and let her have you b-begging at her feet? I mean, why? I've seen the way you look at her… but I don't understand it. This isn't what you do when you hate someone.”

“Isn't it?” he asked. “Hate and love are two very similar emotions, Kagome.”

The girl scoffed. “They're entirely opposite!”

“Really? When you hate someone, you're obsessed with them. When they walk into a room, your eyes follow every move they make. When you see them, your heart starts beating faster, and you spend an unhealthy amount of time thinking about them. Doesn't that sound familiar? Isn't this exactly the same as love?”

Kagome said nothing.

“It's a very thin line that runs between the two emotions,” Inuyasha told her. “Why is it hard for you to believe that someone can stand on the line? To be both and neither at once. Besides, I'm a hanyou. It's what I do best.”

Kagome was sure that wasn't how love and hate worked. “I don't understand you… you aren't making any sense.”

He sighed. “Maybe you'll understand when you're older.”

“Why, you patronising little - ack!” Kagome broke off her tirade with a yelp as Inuyasha deftly goosed her in the ribs. Instinctively, she rolled out of his reach and gave him a furious glare. The blush, she told herself, was a result of embarrassment… and not some other strange emotion.

“I have to go to work,” he repeated, beginning to stand. “Do whatever you like while I'm gone, just don't do anything you know I wouldn't approve of.”

Kagome glowered after him. “Where is it that you work?” she demanded, shimmying out from under the bed to see him. “What do you do?”

He shrugged. “I just… solve problems.”

………………………&# 8230;……………

The knock was brisk and professional, giving the exact impression that Inuyasha had wanted. It only took a few moments for the occupant to open the door a crack and peer out at him. “What is it?” The man wore a napkin tucked into his shirt, and Inuyasha realised that he'd probably interrupted dinner.

“Meter man,” Inuyasha responded, flashing an official looking ID that he'd mugged from the janitor downstairs, along with his reflective white jacket. “I'm here to read your meter.”

The man didn't even bother looking at the ID before he opened the door wider and stepped back to let him inside. “You people can't call at any sane time, can you?”

“Never, sir.” Inuyasha remarked cheerfully and stepped into the neatly arranged apartment. The man was obviously well off, and Inuyasha let his eyes skim across the wide plasma TV with a certain degree of envy. He would have been able to buy one of those if he hadn't blown half of Kikyo's money on those plane tickets for Kagome…

He had to make an effort not to think about that. The thought of all that wasted money made him want to strangle someone - namely the girl.

“This way,” The man led him from the main living area into the bedroom. He walked up to a panel of built-in wardrobes and slid back one of the mirror covers. “In there. And be quick about it.”

“Of course, sir.” Inuyasha acknowledged humbly and moved forward to peer into the closet. As Inuyasha began jotting down the number on the meter, he heard footsteps behind him as his victim left him to it. Inuyasha glanced behind him suspiciously… normally people were very anal about watching strangers in their homes.

Nevertheless, it gave Inuyasha the opportunity to prepare himself for his ugly task.

He quickly transferred the knife he'd been hiding in his boot to the jacket pocket - mere seconds before he heard the man returning. Now it was only a matter of putting the notepad into his pocket and swapping it for the knife. The guy wouldn't even see it coming…

Well, only briefly…

Inuyasha heard the man stop behind him and smiled blandly as he began closing the mirrored door, returning the notebook to his pocket as he did so. “All done,” he said, looking through the mirror to see the man behind him…

…and the knife that was being raised behind his back.

Inuyasha's smile died instantly. He turned to try and counter the attack, but he proved too slow as the cold edge of the blade bit into his neck…

…………………

Kagome sighed as she picked up the kitchen chair and set it back in its place beside the table. From the upturned chair and the sounds she'd heard while Kikyo had been here, Kagome could easily guess what had taken place and where. Shaking her head, she tried to put her cousin's visit out of her mind and concentrate on more productive tasks.

However, she was at a loss with what to do with herself. The flat was quite clean and organised, save for the few dents in the wall that she'd made - along with the broken window - but they were beyond Kagome's capability to fix. So instead, she simply started exploring.

It began with the cupboards in the kitchen as she went through each one, learning their contents and memorising it all for later use. She found cupboards full of tinned food that dated back from five years ago, and even a few that had passed their use-by-date ten years ago. Kagome did Inuyasha a favour and threw most of these away. It wasn't like he could eat these without killing himself anyway…

The fridge was in no better condition. The little light didn't work when she opened the door, and Kagome had strange suspicions about what was growing at the back of those darkened shelves. Fearing for her safety, Kagome closed the door quickly and made a mental note to remind Inuyasha to buy fresh groceries… and perhaps clean out his fridge more often.

Continuing her exploration of the finer details of Inuyasha's flat, Kagome poked and prodded her way towards the broken window above the sink. She attempted to open it, but failed miserably. Inuyasha hadn't been joking when he'd said they're been nailed shut for years, although there were a fair few layers of paint gluing the frame to the sill. Ever the intrepid handy-girl, Kagome selected one of more solid looking kitchen knives and began the arduous task of bending the nails back from the frame, then slid the blade under the window itself to start prying it open millimetre by millimetre.

After a lot of wiggling and growling, the window finally sprung outwards and bounced against the wall - sending a few extra shards of glass raining down on the scraggy little yard below. Kagome glanced down, unimpressed by the flat's so-called garden; it was little more than tufts of yellow grass and a lot of cracked paving stones.

Looking around, Kagome saw signs of normal daily life. Cars passed along the road to her right, and two little boys were playing in one of the fenced off gardens to her left - both shooting each other with water pistols. Kagome was momentarily taken by surprise when she saw one of them was wearing a rather wet red shirt with a large green stripe across the middle… but then she had to remind herself that there were a lot of families who still wore whatever the hell they wanted in their own homes. You just didn't see it that often.

For a moment, Kagome's depression caught up with her again. Just these little signs of everyday life were enough to have her longing for what she'd once had. She spotted a small group of schoolgirls walking down the pavement to her right, laughing at some story that one of them was telling. None of them were concerned about anything beyond their own lives.

Kagome Higurashi had died… but the world hadn't stopped for her. Life obviously went on no matter who died.

She wondered what would eventually happen if she did what Inuyasha said and went into hiding. Would her family eventually recover from their grief and get on with their lives? They had all done as much when Kagome's father had passed away… but somehow, Kagome would feel cheated… like they'd forgotten her or something…

Feeling more confused and conflicted than ever, Kagome looked miserably at the dead plants under the windowsill, as if her grieving for her own death was what had withered them. Judging from the tags that were still poking out of the soil, the flowers had once been petunias… but they'd been dead for years.

I'll throw them out and buy new ones if Inuyasha ever lets me go shopping…

Kagome picked up two of the plant pots and carted them off to dump them in the bin. When she went back to collect the final one, she noticed something lying in the bottom of the window box.

A little black book.

Setting down the dead flowers, Kagome picked up the book and began leafing through the moisture warped pages. Names and addresses marked several pages, but they didn't seem to be arranged in any particular order.

An address book, perhaps? But what was it doing hiding under a plant pot?

Kagome moved to sit down on the sofa as she continued to rifle through the book. Eventually she flipped straight to the last page to be confronted with two lists of names. Most were slashed through, but only one - the last name on the right list - was still bold and stroke-free… and written in fresh ink.

Scanning the lists, Kagome was surprised to realise that she recognised some of the names.

Was that Miroku Hoshi, the porn star who'd hung himself? Why was his name crossed out? What about Fukurou Mizutani? Wasn't that Yuka's asshole of an uncle who had died of a heart attack recently? Why was his name crossed out as well? And General Yasunaga? Hadn't he been shot dead by a stray bullet from a squad of training cadets five months ago? And that was Ambassador Ivanov, wasn't it? The Russian peace delegate who had been killed when he'd mysteriously driven his own car into a canal?

The last name on the list, the one which hadn't been crossed out, belonged to Daisuke Hoshi… a relation of Miroku Hoshi, perhaps?

Closing the book, Kagome worried her lower lip with growing anxiety. As far as she could tell, this was a list of dead people.

Either Inuyasha has a lot of friends that wind up dead, or… or…

The other option was too horrifying to even imagine, but Kagome couldn't see any other explanation…

………………….

Inuyasha dropped against the bedroom wall with an agonised gasp. Blood was seeping steadily between the fingers he held clamped to his neck, pooling into a heavy stain on his shirt and leaking down his back. Looking in the few remaining shards of the mirror, Inuyasha could see that he hadn't done a very clean job. Little bloody fingerprints marked the walls and carpet, and even the corpse on the floor, like some macabre little child had gone on a finger-painting frenzy.

Somehow, the prick he'd been sent to kill had realised that he wasn't actually a Meter Reader and had tried to assassinate the assassin before Inuyasha could act. This little blunder had cost Inuyasha very dearly, but not enough to stop him from turning the tables on the old man by stealing his knife and ramming it through his heart.

But now Inuyasha's blood was everywhere, and he hadn't a chance in hell of cleaning it up in time. He was just lucky that the police didn't have his DNA on file. Yet.

It would have been wise to make a quick getaway, but Inuyasha just didn't have the energy to move. His heart pumped slowly, pushing blood from the wound on his neck with each beat and throbbing throughout every fibre of his body. His cold hand wasn't doing a good job of stemming the blood flow, so he eventually reached out to snag an abandoned sweater that had fallen on the floor at some point during the scuffle. Inuyasha pressed it to his neck and closed his eyes for a brief moment.

When he opened them again, twenty minutes had passed.

“This is fucking ridiculous…” he gasped out, carefully pushing himself to his feet despite his unsteady legs and stumbled over the dead man on his way to the ensuite bathroom. Once there, he leant over the sink, turned the taps onto full blast, and attempted to wash away most of the blood from his hands and face. A quick glance in the mirror as he peeled away the blood-soaked sweater told him that the wound was already beginning to knit together at last as the reliable youkai blood within him began the healing process. And since his blood and fingerprints were everywhere anyway, Inuyasha dumped the sweater in the bath tub and didn't bother wiping the tap handles clean as he turned them off.

He still looked a pale, awful sight when he exited the bathroom, but he didn't look nearly so bad as the dead guy. As he leant against a nearby wall, he brought out his mobile and dialled the number of the police station. While he waited for someone to pick up, he closed his eyes wearily and pressed a hand against his stinging throat.

“Hello, police headquarters, how may I help you?” a rather nasal woman answered.

“I need you to relay a message to the chief of police,” he said, his voice a little raw and rough edged.

“Who is this?” the woman demanded, growing uncertain.

“Just tell him… that as of right now, Daisuke Hoshi is a dead man.”

“This is a private line - how did you get hold of this number?”

“Yours sincerely, the Coalescence.” Inuyasha finished the message and hung up. The woman would no doubt be scrambling to get a caller ID on him, but it was useless.

Inuyasha slipped the phone back into his pocket and straightened away from the wall. With one last glance at the dead man on the floor, he turned, stripped off his borrowed jacket and ID and left to meet back up with headquarters.

He had some catching up to do with Sango Hara.

………………………&# 8230;

“You look like shit.” The female officer sneered as Inuyasha sat down in the chair opposite her.

“You look a hundred times worse than shit,” he reminded her. “So, how's the diet going?”

She made a face. “As planned. I'm starving. Does that make you happy?”

Inuyasha gave a mild shrug, feeling lethargic and exhausted. “Sort of.”

Sango waited for the interrogation to begin, but after a few minutes and only a few yawns from Inuyasha, she was beginning to grow frustrated. “Aren't you going to ask me for information?” she spat.

“Why bother if you're not going to give it to me today?” he retorted. “We haven't broken you yet… and until we do, you're not going to give us a lick of information.”

That was true. It was beginning to unnerve Sango that he'd planned things out so well. Her training had only equipped her to deal with a few days, maybe even weeks of terrorist interrogation. The idea was that she would be rescued before she ran out of resistance… but when her father didn't even know where to begin searching, how was she supposed to be rescued?

“I killed Daisuke Hoshi today.” Inuyasha said suddenly.

Sango stiffened and stared at him with wide eyes. “You're lying.”

“Who do you think did this to me?” he gestured to his neck. “He damn near took my head off. I nearly died of blood loss beside him.”

“Then you left DNA all over the crime scene!” Sango said in triumph. “Your days are numbered-”

“Doubt that. They don't have my DNA on file. And even if they did, the hanyou they're looking for died five years ago.” He shrugged with a vague smile. “They don't even have my fingerprints.”

Sango frowned tentatively. “But you're still lying. Daisuke Hoshi is the father of my friend! He's survived countless assassinations!”

“Do you mean your friend Miroku Hoshi?” Inuyasha cocked his head. “Yeah, I killed him too.”

This, Sango could believe. “It figures,” she said bitterly. “I never bought the excuse of suicide.”

“So… your friend and his father are gone. Who's next?” Inuyasha folded his arms and gave another yawn. “Your mother? Your little brother? What about your father? Heck, I'll even kill your little kitty cat if you don't tell me something soon.”

Sango's head dropped.

“We'll withhold the food as well until you-”

“This isn't how it's supposed to happen!” Sango suddenly shouted, cutting off Inuyasha's lecture. “Terrorists don't interrogate like this! The things you're doing - they're police tactics!”

Inuyasha just looked at her blandly.

“How do you know about Freedom, Faith and Family?!” she demanded angrily. “We call it humane interrogation - only we threaten the family of the person we're interrogating - we never actually kill them!”

“I told you,” said Inuyasha, “I've done this before.”

“How could you have-”

“Last time, I was sitting in that chair.” Inuyasha nodded towards Sango.

The police officer shut up and gaped at him softly. “You… oh, I see. So you think you know all the tricks, do you?”

Inuyasha got to his feet and moved to the window. “I do know all the tricks. Except I only lasted six months…” Inuyasha pulled the catch on the window and opened it up to peer out. “Hey, there's a drain pipe right outside this window, you know…”

Sango blinked at him stupidly.

“Wow, that's even strong enough to hold a human,” he said, giving the pipe a shake.

Sango frowned. “What are you…?”

“Nothing,” Inuyasha said, closing the window, but conveniently forgetting to lock the catch again. He paused for a moment before slanting his gaze back to Sango. “I'm surprised you haven't escaped by now.”

Sango just continued to stare.

Walking up nice and close, Inuyasha bent down to rest a hand against her shoulder and put his mouth to her rounded, fleshy human ear. “I'm going to put you in total isolation. No one will be allowed to see or talk or… interrupt you until tomorrow when I return.”

Sango swallowed.

“If I find you here when I come back into this room, same time tomorrow, I will not be a happy puppy.” He straightened a little to look her in the eye. “And if I hear that the chief of police's kidnapped daughter returns to her father's side, then I'll be sent to kill you and I won't even argue.”

“Are you serious?” Sango breathed. “Or is this just some sort of psyche out tactic to throw me?”

Inuyasha shrugged. “I may be bluffing… but I honestly don't see how your situation could get any worse.”

Sango continued to watch him with a vast sense of trepidation. She certainly didn't trust him, but if what he said was true… and he'd been through exactly the same ordeal as herself, then perhaps she'd somehow won this killer's sympathy without realising…

Inuyasha headed towards the door. “If I ever hear the name Sango Hara again, I'll kill you. Got that?”

She didn't answer, but after he'd left she tested her bonds… and was amazed when they fell away with the snap of a thread.

Had he done that…?

………………………&# 8230;….

Two o'clock came around and Kagome, fearing that Inuyasha might return and find her snooping through his private business, speedily returned the black book to its position in the window box and covered it with the dead petunias again. She then watched some more black and white television to pass the time till Inuyasha came home.

Three o'clock arrived, but Inuyasha still hadn't returned. Kagome switched the TV off and began hunting for another task to pass the time with. Sock arranging came to mind.

By four o'clock, all the socks had been paired and sorted into two piles - the clean pile and the oh-dear-god-what-is-that-unholy-smell pile. Kagome stuffed the latter pile into a black bin liner, along with the ODGWITUS pile of underpants. Of course, she used one of the cooking spatulas to transport some of the more frightening pairs as she was almost certain that some of them had been left in the laundry bin for so long that they'd bred their own civilisations of germs.

When five o'clock came, Kagome had a full bin bag of laundry and no washing machine. She remembered seeing one next to the public baths… but she decided to wait for Inuyasha to return before she took liberties with his washing. Besides, it probably wouldn't be long before he returned from that mysterious job of his. For what could have been the hundredth time, Kagome wondered what it was exactly that Inuyasha did as a day job. A problem solver… maybe he worked in IT? Data Recovery?

But six o'clock rotated into view, and still there was no sign of Inuyasha. The sun was beginning to dim outside as the evening approached, and Kagome finally decided that she was sick of waiting for an unpunctual asshole. Picking up her bag of laundry and the half dozen coins she'd found down the back of the sofa (during one of her more daring explorations), Kagome marched out of the front door and made a beeline for the laundrette.

Going out alone was strangely daunting, Kagome discovered. Why was it that when she crossed the road, she felt as if someone was watching her? She turned to look behind her, even though she knew it was her own paranoia acting up. Ever since someone had made that attempt on her life, she hadn't realised how mistrustful she'd become…

The laundrette was crammed when Kagome entered. All the washing machines were chunnering happily along the walls, and there must have been fifty odd people sitting along the row of benches that ran down the middle of the room.

The whole neighbourhood must have been doing all its washing in that one little laundrette. Kagome timidly walked past the mothers, husbands, bachelors and grandparents that made up the patrons sitting along the benches. A few people were holding conversations, but most were just watching their washing spinning in the drums in front of them - the rest were busy reading romance novels. Kagome moved along, looking for an unoccupied seat or an unused washing machine.

But the only vacant seats happened to be beside the young, white-haired hanyou who was sitting in his underwear and reading one of those steamy romance novels.

Kagome stopped dead. Oh no…

Inuyasha seemed to hear her thoughts, because at that very moment he lifted his head and fixed his eyes on her. Recognition lit up his face like a light, and he casually raised a hand to greet her. “Hey,” he said cheerfully.

Distractedly, Kagome wondered why the people around him were giving him such a wide berth. Was it because he was a hanyou? Or was it because he was half naked? Maybe it was both…

“What are you doing?” She stared at him impassively, although she made sure that her gaze stayed above his waist.

“My washing,” he replied, jerking a thumb towards the vibrating washing machine in front of him.

Kagome leant down curiously to peer inside. “You're not supposed to put your whites in with your blacks,” she told him slowly. “They'll turn grey.” The only good thing that had come about from banning coloured clothes was that washing suddenly became much simpler, but trust Inuyasha to screw that up.

“Ah…” He looked thoughtfully at the washing machine for a moment before going back to his book. “Never mind.”

“Ninety-five degrees?” Kagome's eyes widened as she read the settings. “God - your blacks will go grey! What are you trying to do - remove the dye?!”

Inuyasha shrugged, chewing on a nail as his eyes darted across the page he was reading. “They got really dirty at work. I had to wash them.”

“Well, couldn't you have waited?” Kagome held up the bin bag with a small sigh of exasperation. “I was about to do your washing anyway. In fact, why didn't you just come home first? You could have… at least… gotten a change of clothes…”

Kagome let her guard slip as her eyes strayed down to ogle the boxers he was wearing. She quickly caught herself and looked away, but in her head she was laughing. Why am I not surprised? she thought, trying to get the image of white boxers with red hearts out of her mind.

“Yeah… but they were real dirty…” he said idly. “You wouldn't have appreciated me walking into the flat with all that… mud dripping off me.”

Kagome frowned. “What is it that you do, again?”

“Uh… I run errands for people. I'm a courier actually.”

How boring. She'd thought it was bound to have been infinitely more interesting than that. Kagome stood stupidly for a moment before realising that everyone was staring at her - but when she stared back, they quickly returned to watching the machines and their magazines. Again, was it because she was talking to a hanyou? Or was it because she was talking to a half naked nutter?

Despite her life long effort of trying to blend in with the crowd and stick to the rules, Kagome found she was too tired to bother keeping it up. Inuyasha may have stuck out like a sore thumb, but she had very little choice other than to stick out with him. She sat down next to him in the vacant seat and put the bin bag between her knees. With no machine available, she was trapped into watching Inuyasha's clothes going round in the washing machine…

…and round… and round… and round…

Kagome shook herself and glanced over at the book Inuyasha was reading.

…and when she looked up, he was there. “Adrian,” she murmured heatedly. With eager hands, she reached out and grabbed hold of his-

Whoa! Kagome diverted her gaze hastily, feeling her face heat up. “Good book?” she questioned in a slightly strained voice.

“It's alright…” he said with a lack of enthusiasm. “Characterisation's a bit dry…”

“I see…” But all she was seeing were white boxers with red hearts dancing before her eyes.

“You alright?” he suddenly asked. “You look a little flushed.”

“Um… it's a little hot in here.” She tugged at the collar of Kikyo's grey jacket for emphasis and tried to smile reassuringly at him, but her eyes darted back to his lap helplessly.

Suddenly a coy smile tilted Inuyasha's lips. “I bet I can guess what you're thinking…” he teased.

Kagome passed a hand over her eyes as she sank further down in her seat with sheer embarrassment. Oh, god, I hope not…

“Rest assured,” he said, patting himself. “These ain't no socks.”

Kagome bolted to her feet with the force of a volcanic eruption. “You're impossible!” she hissed between her teeth and stomped off to find a seat as far away from the hanyou as possible - bur not before she did a quick u-turn to wave a lecturing finger in his face. “And so wrong!”

Inuyasha watched as the steaming girl promptly stalked away down the line of benches, dragging the bin bag in her wake. “Sign of a guilty conscience,” he muttered righteously to himself.

Needless to say, he knew all about guilty consciences.

………………………