InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Zero-G ❯ The April Shower ( Chapter 13 )

Author's Notes: Did you know that I've practically been dead this past week? I am amazed that I even managed to finish this chapter…

 

 

Zero-G

Chapter Twelve

The April Shower

 

 

 

Kagome wouldn't have recognised him if Inuyasha hadn't stopped dead upon seeing her. He had no idea where she'd come from or why she'd come, but the moment he saw her set expression and the little black book clenched between her fingers, he knew he was in trouble. While the pub crawlers continued to jostle behind him and his phone remained ringing out, Kagome simply stared at him.

“Emergency services, what do you need?” a nasal woman asked through his phone, startling Inuyasha. “Ambulance, Police or Fire Department?”

“Uh… an ambulance.” Inuyasha said slowly, watching Kagome's eyes narrow. “At Hideki's bar, twelfth district. Someone's had a… uh… heart attack or something.”

He snapped the phone shut and pocketed it. His getaway plan had been pushed to the back of his mind, and all he could do was try to predict the words that were about to come out of Kagome's mouth.

She didn't fail to surprise him. “I saw your bike outside,” she told him, flicking her head back abruptly to move the hair covering her eyes. “So I thought I'd find you in here.”

“Ah…” Inuyasha responded intelligently, very aware of how he must have appeared to her. Surely it wouldn't strike her as normal behaviour to be wearing such an obvious disguise? By the way she was looking him up and down, Kagome seemed very perplexed about his appearance.

“What are you doing in here?” she asked bluntly.

“I could say the same for you.” He evaded the question.

“I told you, I saw your bike and came to see what you were doing in here.” Her posture breathed hostility towards him, which was not in the least bit surprising. Inuyasha swallowed hard as she moved her gaze beyond him. “What's happened?” she asked.

“Nothing…” If Inuyasha had believed in a god, he would have been praying right at that moment for the ground to open up and swallow him whole, or perhaps just swallow Kagome. Either scenario would do nicely. “You shouldn't be out this late at night,” he cautioned, trying to press forward and force her back out the door with him. “This is a bad neighbourhood.”

“You live in a bad neighbourhood.” Kagome attempted to step around him. “Why's that man lying on the floor?”

“Drunk.” He shrugged vaguely.

Unfortunately, by then someone had gathered either the courage or brains to check out the fallen businessman a little more closely. “Oh my god - he's dead!”

“They're drunk, too,” Inuyasha told her hastily, taking her arm and steering her back out of the bar before she saw anything else. But the moment he forced her out of the door and onto the street, Kagome's arm wrenched out of his grip with, in Inuyasha's opinion, a reaction far too disproportionate to the offence. Of course, he knew exactly why she was being so sensitive, but that didn't keep him from playing innocent. “What's the matter?”

“I'll tell you what's the matter,” she hissed, slapping the black book against his chest. “That is the matter!”

Inuyasha thumbed through the slim address book with a careful expression. He pursed his lips as if in curiosity. “Ah - where did you find this?” he asked with a wry grin. “I was looking everywhere for it!”

“I found it in your window box,” Kagome ground out, watching him with a tight expression. Inuyasha glanced up at her briefly, contriving to appear perplexed whilst knowing that he was in a lot of trouble - evidently Kagome's snooping had unearthed his careful hiding place. After she'd broken the kitchen window, he hadn't thought that she'd bother prying away the nails just to do a little flower arranging. He'd hidden the book there to stop her from coming across it on one of her cleaning sprees.

Apparently, he needed to stop underestimating the cleanliness of this girl.

“Must have dropped it when I was trying to fix the window you broke.” Inuyasha continued leafing through the pages, wondering how many pieces of the puzzle Kagome had managed to solve. This was a problem. If Kagome had figured out what was going on…

“Like you ever bothered with that!” Kagome snapped.

What a shame…Inuyasha closed his eyes briefly before looking up and past Kagome. With an sharp intake of breath, he suddenly took her arm and began dragging her away. “Come on! Quick!” he whispered curtly.

“What?” Kagome tried looking over her shoulder to see what he was looking at. “What's going on?”

“Shh!” Inuyasha pulled her down the alley beside the bar, out of the glaring streetlight and into the shadows. He pretended to peep around the corner at the imaginary enemy. “I know those guys… they're bad news.”

“Who?” Kagome tried to peer around after him, but Inuyasha quickly drew her further into the alley… away from prying eyes.

“Don't worry,” he told her quietly. “If we wait here for a few minutes, they'll just leave.”

Kagome looked bemused, but Inuyasha had no choice. Kagome's protection had been his most important endeavour recently. He hadn't been able to decide if it was simply a strange new hobby he'd acquired the taste for, or just because he felt sorry for the poor young girl who shared a common enemy with him. But no matter where Kagome's safety came in his list of priorities, Inuyasha's safety came first. If this girl began posing a serious risk to his life and career… well, he wasn't going to wait around and see if those risks took flight.

Depending on what she said next, he would decide whether or not to kill her in that alley.

“So…” he began nonchalantly. “What were you saying?”

Kagome sighed loudly and gestured to the book. “I want an explanation. Now.”

“About what?” He shrugged. “I don't follow you.”

“Why is there a list of dead people in the back?” Her stare was uncomfortably penetrating. “Why was Daisuke Hoshi's name written there before he died, and then crossed out after he died?”

“You mean this list?” Inuyasha flipped to the last page and looked at the two lists of names that were untidily scrawled across the paper. “Well, this is from that crossword I did a few days ago.”

Kagome blinked. “Excuse me?”

“Sure.” Inuyasha smirked at her. “`The name of the most infamous person killed by the Coalescence to date' They were my notes… I couldn't figure out who it was.”

The teenage girl shifted awkwardly. “I don't believe that. All those names are different lengths for a start.”

“I never said I was good at crosswords, Kagome,” he replied, acting stung.

“But then why did you write down Daisuke Hoshi's name when he wasn't even dead yet?” she demanded.

Inuyasha shrugged, his mind moving in a blur to fabricate the perfect lie that slotted in with the tale so far. “I couldn't figure out which Hoshi was the porn star. Daisuke or Miroku? So I wrote both down. I crossed out Miroku's name when I figured out it was him…” He shrugged again. “That was all.”

Kagome still didn't seem convinced. “Then why did you cross Daisuke's name out later?”

“Irony, I guess.” Inuyasha smiled slightly. “It's not often that I foretell a death like that…”

A pregnant pause extended between them. Kagome watched Inuyasha, trying to figure out if it really was as simple as he'd made it out to be, while Inuyasha assessed Kagome, trying to decide if she believed his lie or not.

“Then please explain to me,” said Kagome evenly, “why my name and address is written under H.”

Inuyasha cocked his head, devising a new fib in an instant. “Because when I found you, I wasn't sure who you were or why you'd been attacked. I knew you were probably related to Kikyo, so I did a little searching and found out where you came from, who your family was, and why you'd nearly been murdered. After I gathered all that information, I decided not to turn you in at the risk of having you murdered twice.”

“Uh huh…” Kagome looked away.

The hanyou scoffed at her. “What did you think this was about?” he asked her, amused. “Did you think I was foretelling people's deaths and trying to prevent them? Albeit… failing ninety-nine percent of the time…”

“Actually, no.” Kagome shuffled her feet a little. “I thought… perhaps… you were with the Coalescence.”

“I see.” He tried to act surprised and slightly hurt… but in truth, her confession had confirmed his suspicions.

She had figured it out. This guess of hers had been spot on…

Kagome was a danger to him.

Giving a mock sigh, Inuyasha stepped forward and brought the stiff girl into a gentle embrace. “Kagome, Kagome, Kagome…” he breathed into her hair and inhaled the lingering hint of jasmine shampoo. “Do I look like a killer?” Even as he said it, he was moving his right hand into position at the back of her head. One twist, and he could shatter her spine.

But then Kagome did something that took him by surprise. She relaxed and circled her arms around his torso with a relieved sigh. “No.” she told him, laughing slightly. “Sorry… I probably sound so stupid.”

Inuyasha squinted at the wall behind her. His face was a taught mask of wariness even while his voice continued the façade of an understanding guardian. “Not at all. You have every right to be paranoid considering the circumstances.”

“I know… I just kinda freaked out when I saw my name there.” She buried her hot face against his shoulder. “Oh god, I'm so embarrassed. I hope you're not offended…?”

“Don't worry about it.” His hand seemed reluctant to do much more than rest against her nape. “It's ok.”

He tried to pull himself together, telling himself that he needed to kill her in order to save himself. She would be the death of him otherwise. But the useful thoughts such as `kill her now and bury the body in the park' were being replaced with more stupid ones like `her hair is so soft'. How was it possible to make hair feel so silky and smooth to the touch? What did she do that made it shine in the dim moonlight? And why did it feel so right to hold her smaller, softer body against his own?

Why did protecting her seem so appealing?

The girl suddenly pulled out of his arms to look up at him, and Inuyasha lost his chance to secure his safety. “That was totally out of order,” she said firmly. “I shouldn't have made that kind of accusation. I mean - you saved my life! Why would you do that if you were Coalescence?”

Inuyasha quirked a smile and shoved his hands into his pockets, feeling very disorientated all of a sudden. He wasn't quite sure what to say now that Kagome had regained her trust so quickly… too quickly for Inuyasha to find comfortable. He'd never met anyone quite so eager to see the good side in a person.

It's infectious, Inuyasha smiled to himself as the girl babbled on to give herself more grief over `unfounded' suspicions. I don't know how she does it, but she always manages to make me see the better possibilities too…

Kagome had escaped with her life yet again. She may not have been aware of how close she came to losing it, but Inuyasha just didn't have the heart to betray such a trusting girl.

………………………&# 8230;…………………………

Staring up at the ceiling of Inuyasha's bedroom that night, Kagome wondered how her little brother was doing. She knew it wouldn't be easy to convince her mother that she was alive without any solid proof, but Kagome knew how close their family was, and surely Mrs Higurashi would listen to Souta.

Hopefully, he would manage to convince their mother to keep it a secret from Kikyo… at least until the time was right.

Heaving a weary sigh, the girl rolled onto her side and pulled the threadbare blanket more tightly around her shoulders. She had no pyjamas so she had to sleep in her vest and underwear. Fortunately, Inuyasha had been sleeping on the sofa downstairs since she'd arrived and therefore wasn't benefiting from her lack of decency.

Not for the first time that night, Kagome wondered why Inuyasha had been dressed up in such an unusual style when she'd found him at the bar. On the way home she had asked him, but the only answer she got was that certain employers preferred their staff to be as human as possible.

“So you work in a bar?” she'd asked, a little puzzled. He'd already told her that he was a courier of sorts.

He had given her an elusive wink. “Yes and no. I'm a jack of all trades.”

Kagome hadn't been impressed by that answer. “A rolling stone gathers no moss, Inuyasha.”

“A setting hen never lays eggs, Kagome.”

Proverbs. They always contradicted each other so it was hardly worth living life according to their advice. If many hands made light work, then why did too many cooks spoil the broth? And if great minds thought alike, then why did fools seldom differ?

She remembered the proverb that her father had often spouted over the dinner table. To thine own self be true. It was odd that she couldn't recall his face or really remember what family life was like before he had died, but she remembered his words. Probably because they were so ironic.

He'd lived his entire life to the code of `Be true to yourself'. Yet when he'd died, it had been in a protest. Hundreds of people had marched alongside him through the streets, demanding more rights for the underpaid and unappreciated under classes who worked the menial jobs that kept Japan running. Then one of the nearby chemical factories caught alight, creating an explosion that had killed a minority of protestors and poisoned the rest with toxic fumes.

After which, another proverb had stuck in Kagome's head ever since his death. The nail that stands out gets hammered down.

Bad things happened to those who tried to be different - those who tried to make a difference. So Kagome had always turned the other cheek when she was bullied in school. She'd always closed her eyes and refused to take notice of the terrorist attacks that were getting more frequent and more deadly with every passing year. Keep your head down. That was the key to survival.

But even that code had failed, hadn't it? Here she was, as good as dead, and she'd never even tried to stand out.

What upset Kagome the most was that she couldn't think of a single thing that she'd done or said that would make her worth remembering.

Which is why I have to get back my life, she thought determinedly as sleep began to cloud her mind. I have a second chance to make someone proud of me…

However, her dreams did not help Kagome to escape from troubled thoughts.

She was walking along the pavement towards the salon where she worked. It was dark, but without even looking down at herself, she knew that she was wearing her familiar school uniform. The ambient streetlights emitted a strangely pink glow that lit up the pavement ahead of her, but no matter how steady her footsteps were, the Salon doorway never seemed to get any closer.

This was quite an unfortunate turn of events, because Kagome knew she was being followed by a killer. She looked over her shoulder, but he always seemed to be in the shadows between the red streetlights.

Kagome broke out into a run, and judging from the footfalls of the killer, so did he. The salon stopped fooling with her at last, and soon the door was within reach. She barged through without a second thought and slid the top and bottom bolts into place to keep the killer from reaching her, but when she looked through the window, there was no one to be seen.

Not even the slightest bit perplexed, Kagome turned and faced the interior of the salon which had now transformed into a street. It was an odd street with pavements covered in grey snow and black soot. Looking up at the sky, Kagome knew that it was the middle of the day, but such a thick blanket of clouds blotted out the sun that very little light reached her.

Idly, Kagome reached up with clumsy, childish hands to where her gasmask dangled around her throat and pulled it over her face. But the moment the plastic lenses covered her eyes, the street had changed. It was as if the mask had suddenly enabled her to see the countless corpses that littered the road and pavements. Some were horribly scarred with blistered burns while others seemed to have turned sickly shades of white and blue with strange, infected looking sores broken out across their skin.

Kagome screamed. She may have had the body of a five year old, but her voice echoed out with the force of a young woman.

Someone tore her mask off and pulled her up by the shoulders. “Kagome - snap out of it!”

It was Inuyasha.

The body laden street melted away, replaced by the more comfortably familiar bedroom of Inuyasha's flat. The only thing that didn't change was Inuyasha. He was still there, holding her upright with his hands grasping her shoulders, a concerned look spread across his face. “I think you were having a bad dream.”

Kagome relaxed and pressed the back of her hand to her sweaty forehead. “Not that bad… I've had it before.”

Inuyasha released her shoulders slowly, but didn't dare take his eyes off her. “What was it about?”

“Something I thought I'd forgotten about…” she smiled caustically. Seeing his troubled expression, she quickly elaborated. “The April Shower.”

Inuyasha's head tilted up. “But you could only have been about five when that happened.”

“Exactly. I thought it was about time I'd forgotten that…” Kagome shook her head as if to clear it. “Uh… do you mind if I get some warm milk?”

Inuyasha stood up and offered her his hand. “Come on. I'll make you some.”

Kagome smiled gratefully. “Thanks.”

It was only when she was sat down at the kitchen table with Inuyasha heating a mug of milk in the microwave that she realised her state of dress wasn't entirely appropriate. Well… hopefully Inuyasha hadn't noticed that she was braless and dressed only in her knickers and vest. Not that he was any better off. Inuyasha, it seemed, slept in the same shirt and underpants that he'd worn the day before. Kagome tried to steer her attention away from the hanyou to concentrate on the sounds coming through the kitchen window.

How did he manage to sleep with that cold draft?

“Here you go.” Inuyasha clapped the mug down on the table before her and eased himself into a second chair.

Kagome smiled her thanks and drew her knees up to her chest - mostly to protect herself from the cold draft of the window and Inuyasha's eyes as a result thereof. She clasped her fingers around the mug and let the warmth seep into her chilled fingers. “Thank you,” she said again, taking a small sip of the soothing drink.

“No problem.” He chewed thoughtfully on a nail.

“I hope I didn't wake you,” she looked across at him anxiously.

Inuyasha pulled a face to show he didn't care. “I was already awake.”

Probably because of that draft, she thought knowingly. “Maybe you should call someone to fix the window?” she suggested.

“Maybe you shouldn't have broken it?” he suggested right back.

Kagome wrinkled her nose. “You were holding me against my will,” she pointed out. “What kind of girl would I be if I didn't try to escape?”

“An easygoing one.”

“Perhaps.” Kagome took another sip and went back to mulling over her dream. She was no stranger to nightmares, but more often than not, they failed to frighten her. They merely left a mild feeling of unease - like that first dream in which she'd been stalked outside `Curl Up and Dye'. It was rare that a nightmare could make her scream out loud.

“So who was it?”

Kagome blinked as she was pulled out of her thoughts to glance at Inuyasha. “Pardon?”

“Who did you lose in the April Shower?” he asked squarely, tracing a claw over an old coffee stain on the table surface. “Everyone at least knows someone who died back then.”

Kagome gave a small shrug. “My dad.”

“Sorry.” But he said it merely as a formality than with any actual feelings of sympathy. Kagome didn't mind, as she felt no deep loss.

“It was ten years ago,” she pointed out. “I don't really remember him that well. I don't even remember losing him. He was a protestor, you see. It was stupid, really… he wasn't a factory worker - he was a lawyer. He didn't even have any obligation to go on that protest, but he did it anyway because he kept saying that `One man can make a difference'. As if that ever works in real life.”

“That's a shame.” Inuyasha leant his chin into his palm, looking bored.

“Am I boring you?” she asked incisively.

“Nah…” He sighed as he scratched his stomach absently with his other hand. “It just seems odd that you don't remember it all that clearly. I was about your age when it happened so I remember every detail.”

So old, thought Kagome, but she kept her opinions to herself. She was sure that he would take offence if she said such things out loud.

“I lost my family as well.” He scratched another itch on his neck. “So yeah, I remember every detail.”

“Oh… I'm so sorry,” Kagome whispered, mortified. To lose a father at a young age was one thing… but to lose an entire family and be able to remember it all? That was something beyond Kagome's comprehension. “Were they protestors?”

Inuyasha shook his head. “No. They just lived in the wrong place at the wrong time. My mother and I lived in the factory district, so when the factory blew, it took a lot of houses with it. My brother didn't live with us, but he was visiting at the time of the explosion to demand the money and heirlooms that my mother had inherited off our father. I guess he was unlucky.”

Kagome chewed her lip anxiously. “What about you? Where were you?”

“At the end of the road, sitting on a fence with a few of my human cousins watching the protestors go by. We were cheering them on… well, because most of our parents were factory workers.” Inuyasha sighed and pushed a hand through his hair. “When the factory exploded, we were too far away to be caught in the blast… but it was windy that day, and it was only a matter of minutes before the fumes reached us. My cousins died… as did a lot of the protestors around me.”

“Oh… so you survived because you're a hanyou.” Kagome's curiosity got the better of her. “Did you go to an orphanage?”

“For a while.” He grinned at her. “But after a few months I left and joined… the work scene.”

“I see,” Kagome whispered, nodding slowly as she gazed at her knees. “That must have been hard on you. I doubt many sixteen year olds have to make such a tough living.”

Inuyasha gave a careless shrug. To be honest, he didn't think it was such a big deal. “I wasn't actually sixteen, though,” he told her. “I was younger.”

Kagome snapped curious eyes on him. “Wait… if you weren't sixteen… then how come you're twenty-six now?”

“Believe it or not, I lied about my age.” He looked awfully proud about that fact.

“I knew it!” crowed Kagome, slamming her hands onto the table gleefully. “Spill it, buster! How old are you really? Seventeen? Eighteen? You can't be older than twenty, right?”

Inuyasha tilted his head to regard her drolly. “Twenty-five actually.”

Kagome deflated. “Oh…”

“Five years ago, I got a fake ID and citizen number courtesy of a few friends.” His grin widened as Kagome's mood sank lower. “But at the time I was twenty, and that just wasn't good enough. Everyone knows that the world is only an oyster to the over-twenty-one's.”

“Makes sense.” The girl took another sip of her milk and raised an eyebrow at him. “But what on earth did you do that warranted a new identity?”

Inuyasha just shrugged with a milder smile than before.

“Your cousin didn't try to kill you, did he?” she joked half-heartedly. She was honestly curious to find out the answer, but seeing as how Inuyasha wasn't going to give it to her straight, she needn't bother asking.

Draining the last of her cooling milk, Kagome started to get up. “Well, I'm going to bed now.”

“Don't have any more nightmares,” he warned as she tottered back up to the bedroom with a backwards wave.

Once she was gone, Inuyasha stood and slouched over to the window to survey the damage. It only took one decisive glance before he knew that the price would be too much to mend. He'd just have to cover it up with a bin liner or something…

The faint wail of police sirens in the distance made his ears flinch instinctively, even though he had heard that sound every night of his life. Smirking to himself, Inuyasha backed away from the window to resume his earlier sprawl on the sofa.

“What were you thinking…?” he breathed into the quiet apartment.

………………………&# 8230;……..

 

It was hard being ten years old. No one ever thought you were capable of walking down the road without an adult to hold your hand, or could fully understand the topic of conversation, or be strong enough to help move a sister's belongings into the attic. But the worst part came when nobody believed you about the most important matters in the world.

Apparently, claiming that a resoundingly dead girl was, in fact, alive, was seen as `troublemaking'.

“But I'm telling the truth!” Souta cried, following his mother around the kitchen table that evening. “She's alive! I talked to her today!”

Mrs Higurashi whirled to raise a furious finger to her son. “Souta - I won't say it again!” she snapped. “Go to bed, and stop trying to cause trouble!”

In desperation, the boy looked to his grandfather who sat at the table playing Solitaire. “Grandpa - you believe me, don't you?”

“No,” the old man responded dryly. “Listen to your mother.”

Frustrated, the youngest Higurashi stomped his foot and balled his fists. “I'm not lying!” he shouted as loud as he could. “Kagome's alive! She's living in a grotty little flat with this demon dude called Inuyasha and she even came to her own funeral pretending to be a Kangaroo and she won't come home because she doesn't like Kikyo!”

For a moment, it seemed as if Mrs Higurashi's firm hold on her temper was about to lose its grip. But she managed to control herself with one deep, shuddering breath before turning to her father. “Dad, do you think it's possible that he's seeing ghosts?”

“Possibly.” Grandpa Higurashi carefully laid the Ace of Hearts down on the table. “But no one in our family has had that gift since… well, not since the eighteenth century at least.”

“She's not a ghost!” Souta ground out. “She's alive. She hugged me and told me everything!”

“Of course.” Mrs Higurashi narrowed her eyes. “About how Kikyo tried to kill her, but unfortunately got the wrong girl who happens to have exactly the same DNA and dental records as Kagome.”

Souta gave a big sigh of relief. “Exactly!” Finally, she understood!

But Mrs Higurashi was having no more of it. “Souta, I don't know what's going on here. I really don't. Are you doing this just to upset me? Or have you actually gone completely insane?”

“I'm telling you the truth!” The boy threw up his hands defiantly. “She's living in a flat with a demon! She's fine - but kinda scruffy looking!”

Mrs Higurashi sighed. “Alright then. If she's alive, then show me where she's staying.”

Here, the boy faltered slightly. “Um… I can't.”

“Why not?” His mother cast a narrow glare on him.

“Because… because Kikyo might have us followed back to where she's hiding out, and then she'll die for sure.” From the look on his mother's face, he would probably have better luck convincing Buyo to go on a diet than getting Mrs Higurashi to believe that her daughter was alive. There wasn't anything he could say to convince her.

“Souta…” Mrs Higurashi began slowly. “I want you to go to your room and catch up on your homework. I don't want another peep out of you about Kagome, do I make myself clear?”

“Perfectly.” Souta ground his teeth.

“Kagome is dead. Do you understand that?” she persisted.

“Yes,” he muttered, turning his eyes to the floor.

“Good. Now go to bed.”

Souta turned and started moving towards the door. Behind him, he could hear his mother going back to the pile of washing up she'd been attacking since that morning. With a wince, Souta turned around to face her again. “Mama…?”

“What?” Her voice seemed devoid of all feeling.

“Please don't tell Kikyo about what I said…” At least not until I get you some proof…

Mrs Higurashi glanced at him over her shoulder, a small wan smile touching her lips. “Don't worry. I won't,” she told him. “She'd only hold it against you.”

Souta puffed out his cheeks in thought before continuing on his way out of the kitchen. It was all well and good that Kagome was alive, but she could at least come up with a good plan before she started telling people.

Souta rolled his eyes as he walked past his sister's bedroom - which was now very Kikyo-dominated. Honestly…

………………………&# 8230;…..

 

It was a bright morning when Kagome woke up, the kind of morning that made the room glow an eerie white. Raising a hand to shield her eyes from the intense light, Kagome manoeuvred out of bed and dragged herself towards the chair she'd been using to stack her clothes. It was too early in the morning for proper co-ordination, so she simply grabbed the first articles of clothing her hands landed on.

After pulling on the black and grey weekend uniform and donning a pair of toasty black socks, Kagome lifted a hand to her hair and winced. The wiry stiffness that she encountered could only mean one thing: she needed a shower. Desperately. Well, living in this squalid apartment did have its assets - and the main one was that it was positioned directly opposite the bath house. A shower wasn't too hard to come-by these days.

“Inuyasha?” Kagome called as she trotted down the stairs. “Inuyasha, I'm just going out to the bath house, is that… alright…?”

She trailed off as she found herself in an empty flat. A scruffy note had been left on the fridge, pinned there by a frog-shaped magnet, and Kagome quickly plucked it off to read.

Dear sweetheart,

“Sweetheart…?” Kagome echoed, pulling a face.

Running an errand, won't be back for an hour, love, your gallant rescuer.

“And when did you write this message?” Kagome glanced at her watch in bewilderment. He might have left two hours ago for all she knew. Inuyasha obviously wasn't used to writing notes of explanation, was he?

Grabbing a pen from the pot stationed beside the phone, Kagome scribbled her own response.

Dear gnat-brained-ego-monkey, I'm going to the bath house. Left at half-ten, probably won't be back till one. Depends on the lathering. Love, your damsel with much stress.

Out of force of habit, she drew several cutesy hearts around her signature before adding -

Ps. Just who are you running an errand for anyway?

Satisfied that she'd penned a decent note, Kagome pinned it back against the fridge and began scouring the flat to find her jacket and purse. When she was finally suitably attired for a trip across the road, despite being half-asleep still, the girl headed out of the flat. She was yawning almost continuously as she stepped onto the street. In fact, she was too busy rubbing her eyes as she began crossing the road to notice the silently speeding car that was bearing down at her.

The blaring of the horn startled her out of her wits, and Kagome only just managed to jump aside in time to avoid a very narrow miss indeed. The car streaked past, the horn still sounding furiously at her stupidity, but Kagome couldn't summon the energy to mutter much more than an unintelligent “Whoops…”

That nightmare had really thrown her sleeping pattern off.

Ignoring the slightly bewildered looks from bystanders, Kagome quickly scrambled out of the road and began jogging towards the bath house entrance. She didn't notice the old woman sitting on the bench, cursing the stupidity of youths who thought they were invincible. She didn't even notice the man she stepped around on her way past the laundrette - the man who watched her too closely to be simple casual interest.

She didn't even notice her cousin's car parked against the curb outside Inuyasha's apartment, nor the shell-shocked young woman who sat in the driver's seat, staring at the place on the road where Kagome had just stood.

………………………&# 8230;………….

Fackyews

 

a) How do you get the ideas for these stories? b) How do you go about writing them?

a) I steal them from people much smarter and eloquent than myself. b) I have several trained monkeys living in my closet that write them for me while I sip lemonade with strawberries and cream on the veranda. Basically that's a very difficult set of questions to answer, and in short, my answer would be `I don't know, I just do'. Take inspiration from everyone and everything around you. See a mother smacking her child in public and then write a story about child abuse. Look at someone struggling to open the door of his telephone booth and then write a story about a man being held hostage inside one (except don't, because that's already been made into a movie). You can listen to the most moving song you own and try to think of a story that would go with the lyrics and mood perfectly. It's pretty much as simple as that. Take whatever inspiration you want and then write however you want. As long as you think of a story that interests YOU, it should interest other people as well.

What did Kagome go to a bar for?

She was on the pull.

What does ETD stand for?

ETA stands for Estimated Time of Arrival - usually read or heard in airports. ETD stands for Estimated Time of Death - usually heard in CSI or some other grisly drama.

Do you get sadistic pleasure in stringing readers along with cliffies at the end of each chapter?

Yes, but that isn't the sole reason why I write cliffhangers. To quote Jean Saunders, “Every chapter worth its salt ends on a cliffhanger.” It keeps continuity flowing, it sets the scene for the next chapter, it encourages readers to keep reading and find out what happens next. Without a cliffhanger, would anyone really be that motivated to read on?

So are your fackyews coming back, or was that just a sarcastic remark?

What are you talking about? Me, sarcastic? Never!

Heck, why am I bothering reviewing? It's highly unlikely that you're reading this…

On the contrary, I STILL read all my reviews.

As much as I love the story… where the heck is it going? I can't see the plot!

Oh good. Just the kind of thing I wanted to hear. *gets out bread knife*

You suck, your story sucks, why don't you just piss off and die?

What's not to like about a review that starts with `You suck'? *deletes*

Do you ever get flames for this fic?

No… well, yes… *points upwards* But when that's about as intelligent as they get, it stops bothering you after a while.

Your characters are idiots.

Another kind of thing that I wanted to hear.

Are Kouga and Kagome ever going to meet in this story...

Maybe, maybe not. Maybe they already have? (Ooh! Suspense!)

Isn't it sad that it takes so long to write a chapter and then have someone come along a few minutes later to ask for another one so soon?

Sort of, but it isn't unreasonable to request an update politely. It's more sad that I spend a whole week writing a chapter to give someone a mere ten minutes of enjoyment and write six thousand plus words to receive one sentence of feedback. But then again, if you add up everyone's ten minutes of entertainment and add up everyone's reviews, it doesn't seem so disproportionate. As long as people are enjoying the story and WANT an update, I'm glad. There are worse things… like… say… guilt trips?

Hey, you said that you would get back on with Autumn Bane once you finished Dead Famous, but no, you started on this instead! Spare a thought for us poor readers! Doesn't it mean anything to you that you have fans? Don't we deserve SOMETHING? I'd read Zero-G but how do I know that you won't quit that one as well?

Help! I'm being smothered in guilt! Oh how could I be so cruel?! Yes, that's all good and dandy, but please spare a thought to the person who has to write the damn story. While the author slogs away through bouts of `writers block' to try and finish a chapter, the readers can skip around in fields of daisies beside friendly moo cows without a care in the world. Stop trying to guilt trip authors into writing stories. It's useless, unproductive, rude and ungracious. There's simply no need for it. It's not the end of a world when an author fails to update a story - you can always find another to read instead. Just remember that an author is entitled to his or her own life and it can be excruciatingly difficult and frustrating to finish a story you have no interest in or don't know what to write next.