InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Cereal Box Romance ❯ Fox ( Chapter 2 )

A/N: I'm not promising anything with this fic. I usually finish what I start (now don't get on my case about “Primal” - I'm working on it, I swear!) and this happens to amuse me right now. If I loose interest, I might just scrap it. I can't even promise to keep the rating - a lemon might work it's way in here. Sorry. I'll warn you if it does.

 

Fox

 

Xxxx Present… xxxX

 

“Well, hello dear!” Kagome's mother's voice filled the little kitchen with a lilting chime and Kagome startled, smacking the top of her head against the roof of the cupboard. “Glad to see you back so soon!”

 

“Hi, mom,” Kagome mumbled as she rubbed the throbbing knot on her head. She'd really been hoping that she would have found it before her mom came home. No surprise, luck was not with her.

 

“I'm sure you have a very good reason for scattering cereal all over the kitchen. Has Inuyasha changed his taste from ramen to Golden Puffs?”

 

“Um…” Kagome stalled as she tried to come up with a plausible answer. No, he hadn't changed his taste, not for ramen and not for women, the two-timing, golem-kissing jerk. “No, but Shippo really likes this stuff.”

 

“Oh! Well let me help you repackage it, then. I have some gallon zipper bags that should do the trick.”

 

“Thanks, mom.” Kagome straightened and spent the next few minutes helping her mother empty bowls of cereal into zip-lock bags. Her plan had not included what to do with the wasted cereal once she found the ring she wanted, but taking it back to Feudal Japan to Shippo was as good an idea as any. Except for the fact the she would have to carry it, of course, and there was no way that all of those bags would fit into her favorite tote.

 

`It's Souta and Shippo's fault,' she decided, so at the very least, the kit could eat the damn cereal. Shippo didn't know it was his fault, none of them knew anything, but she chose to let that detail go unnoticed. It was much more satisfying to blame this whole mess on someone else. Snagging a couple of giant garbage bags from a drawer, Kagome sighed heavily as she shoved overstuffed gallon bags of cereal into their dark depths.

 

Xxxx Three weeks earlier… xxxX

 

“Hey, sis! How did Shippo like that Decoder ring?” Souta leaned against her bedroom doorjamb and watch his sister throw a tiny string bikini into a hideously striped pink and green bag. There was no accounting for modern fashion.

 

“Oh, I forgot to give it to him…” Kagome paused as she felt a momentary pang of guilt for having forgotten the kit but shrugged it off. It hadn't been a piece of candy, so what would he have done with it?

 

“Well, here's another one. It has `fox' on it. See?” Entering the confines of his sister's abode, ever watchful for embarrassing feminine products that could be scattered on the floor or lurking in the corners, he held out the orange plastic ring for Kagome's inspection.

 

“So it does. Thanks!” Kagome said as she took it from him and stuffed it in the pocket of her shorts. “Hey, Souta, don't step on that! That's my-“

 

“Gah!” Souta yelped and made a mad dash for the safety of the hallway. He'd known that it was a bad idea to go into her room. Why didn't he just trust his instincts? “If you'd just clean this place up once in a while, then I wouldn't have- Gah!”

 

“It's sealed, you big baby!” Kagome huffed at her little brother, who was eyeing her bedroom floor as if it were a pit of venomous snakes. Why were boys so freaked out about that stuff, anyway? It was sanitary, for kami's sake! It said so on the box!

 

Souta scowled at her, getting over his case of heebie-jeebies and determined not to let his sister have the last word. “Is sunbathing all you do over there?” he asked, carefully pitching his tone to be leading and slightly disgusted.

 

Kagome took the bait and glanced up at him. “No, it isn't,” she lied. Well, it wasn't exactly a lie. She ate, too, and read, took walks… “Why do you ask?” she asked mistrustfully, fairly sure that she was walking into a trap.

 

“'Cause those shorts are looking a bit tight-“

 

Kagome released an indignant shriek and threw a sandal at him, smirking when it bounced off of his forehead.

 

“Geez, sis! Do you have to be so violent?” Souta tossed the shoe back at her with noticeably less accurate aim and stomped back to his room, grumbling about erratic women and the trials they inflicted on their families.

 

XxxxxxxX

 

Thwap.

 

The arrow hit her makeshift target, a red tablecloth to the top of which she'd pinned two white napkins folded into triangles, dead on. She refused to contemplate the irony of her actions, namely shooting full of arrows an Inuyasha-like target tacked to a tree, nor the similarities to a certain priestess that she was currently displaying. Instead, she cursed and sputtered, imagining the hanyou's shifty golden eyes widening in surprise as she taught him that a Higurashi woman didn't take crap lying down.

 

“The nerve of him!” she hissed as she drew another arrow out of her quiver and nocked it to her longbow.

 

Really, was it too much to ask? Just one peaceful summer afternoon spent watching the clouds together? For three years, she had stayed by his side, no matter how dangerous things got or how badly his indecision over herself and Kikyou hurt her. She had hoped that they could start to build something out of the deep friendship that they had established through their travels together; that maybe, just maybe, she could allow her crush to blossom into love without the fear of being tossed away at the first sign of soul collectors.

 

Apparently, she was wrong.

 

Salt stung the backs of her eyes as she let the arrow fly, and she scowled at the fletched end of the arrow vibrating squarely between the two jerry-rigged puppy ears.

 

After quite a bit of cajoling, ending in a promised lunch of ramen, Inuyasha had finally agreed to spend the afternoon with her. Never mind the special omelet that she had whipped up at home in the anticipation of a, dare she say it, romantic moment with the incorrigible hanyou. Now, the omelet was passed spoiled and the ramen still dry, her mother's famous punch long since warmed in its thermos.

 

“Stupid jerk!”

 

And why had her efforts been for naught? Because Kikyou had casually strolled into the village not five minutes after she'd gotten his begrudged acquiescence, and he'd promptly dropped her like yesterday's junk mail to take off after her. It was humiliating, degrading, and yet she'd allowed it to continue for three years.

 

Was there even a chance for them? Could she be misreading the signs? If only she could get into his thick, addled brain and figure out, once and for all, if he wanted Kikyou or her or what.

 

Snuffling back tears as her heart wobbled miserably around her hope for his love and her resignation that she would never get more than his friendship; she sighted along the shaft of her arrow to the target. For the briefest of moments, stillness over came her as the world narrowed to that single point her arrow would hit, then she released her breath and with it, the arrow.

 

Thwap.

 

“I don't deserve this shit,” she ground out between clenched teeth. Hojo had given up on her after a year. Kouga had waited two before heading into the mountains to make amends with Ayame. Yet here she was, pining after her best friend who may or may not even see her that way. And that was the problem: she didn't even know.

 

The other day, Sango had tried to broach the delicate subject during one of their now-rare baths. Since the destruction of Naraku, lesser demons had come out of the woodworks, all vying for piece of the evil hanyou's power. They kept Sango quite busy, and she had even recruited an apprentice and was training her at her rebuilt home in the demon slayer's village. She had offered the job to Kagome, but they both knew that she had commitments in her own time, and besides, none of them really knew how much time she had left in Feudal Japan. The well could stop working just as easily as it had started. It's magic was still very much a mystery.

 

So increased business, coupled with her recent marriage to Miroku, meant that Sango's visits to Kaede's village were less and less frequent. Therefore, the two friends made a point to have a ritual bath whenever the opportunity presented itself.

 

“You know, Kagome, you aren't getting any younger,” the older woman had said hesitantly as they had soaked under the stars in the warm spring water.

 

“People usually don't,” Kagome had agreed, giving her dear a friend a pained glance through the steam. Once she had gotten married, the demon slayer had become convinced that all women should do it. As soon as possible.

 

Sango had sighed and shifted her body under the water. “What I'm trying to say is…”

 

“…yes?”

 

“Well, maybe you should, um. Have you had a chance to speak with Jiro lately? He was giving you quite the eye.”

 

Sinking into the water up to her eyeballs, Kagome had played dumb and the subject had been dropped, but she had recognized that if Sango, who had been blind to Miroku's true feelings for years, could see that the relationship wasn't going anywhere, then maybe she needed to try harder to make it work. Or, let it go.

 

She didn't want to let it go.

 

For one thing, she wasn't a quitter, despite overwhelming odds and almost immanent failure. It was in her nature to fight with her last breath and she had never failed. Well, except that algebra class, but that didn't count. She'd passed it on the second try.

 

Unconsciously, she pulled another arrow from her quiver and nocked it.

 

For another thing, no one else interested her! She simply couldn't imagine herself with anyone but Inuyasha. Granted, there were a lot of guys out there who weren't quite so rude, insulting, and who had much better manners, but who could match his exotic good looks, honeyed eyes, toned physique or lustrous hair?

 

“Hn.”

 

Kagome yelped in surprise, releasing the arrow and frowning in dismay when it landed in the soft dirt several feet from her target. With an annoyed scowl, she wheeled on person who had dared interrupt her. “What?” she snapped.

 

The golden eyes of Sesshomaru regarded her coolly, and then flicked toward her pathetic target across the clearing. “I understand that my half-brother is indisposed.”

 

Glancing at her hanyou-esque creation, she winced, suddenly feeling guilty for even the metaphorical violence against her best friend, and in front of his brother, no less. “Um, yeah.”

 

“With the undead priestess, I presume.”

 

`Bastard. Rub it in, why don't you.' Kagome slung the bow over her shoulder and turned her back on him, stomping toward the village in an ill-disguised snit. “If you want him, go find him yourself.”

 

`What is he doing here, anyway?' she had to wonder. She knew that he often wandered the countryside but he had become almost a regular at Kaede's village. Well, not quite. Rarely did he actually step foot in the village; usually, he stayed in the wooded outskirts, making snide comments or giving her messages to deliver. It was strange, to say the least, but none of them had screwed up the courage to question his motives. Maybe he was bored. Kagome snorted, a crude, unladylike sound. `I'd be bored if I were him.'

 

It didn't take her long to realize that he was following silently behind her; the spot between her shoulder blades itches and she had the impression that it was Miroku, not Sesshomaru, who was tailing her. Fighting the urge to smooth the back of her shorts to make sure the garment covered her butt, she quickened her pace. They were very short shorts, worn specifically to impress the flaky hanyou. She was almost ready to tell him to beat it when she heard a little girl's voice raised as if in argument. Soon after, Shippo said something unintelligible in a querulous tone.

 

`What on earth?' Kagome hurried after the voices, not having to look behind her to know that Sesshomaru was following.

 

“Yeah? Well, Tensaiga can bring 100 people back to life with a single stroke!” Rin was standing face-to-face with Shippo at the outskirts of the village, her arms and legs akimbo, when Kagome found them.

 

“That's nothing! Kagome could purify Sesshomaru with a single arrow!” Shippo shouted and brandished a finger in her face.

 

`Oh, she's so pretty when she's angry.'

 

Kagome blinked, glancing around for the phantom speaker and seeing no one but the two bickering children and one apathetic taiyoukai. She was fairly certain it hadn't been Sesshomaru to say that.

 

“Sesshomaru would catch that stupid arrow between two claws!” Rin snipped at Shippo's digit with her fingers, miming scissors.

 

`Almost as pretty as Kagome.'

 

`This is too weird,' Kagome thought with a blush as she stepped between the two children. “Okay, that's enough, you two.”

 

“Kagome, you're back!” Shippo exclaimed as he leapt into her arms. She enfolded his little body with her arms instinctively, giving him a quick cuddle despite her ire and bewilderment.

 

`Candy, candy, candy…'

 

`Really, really weird. And did I mention odd? And totally bizarre?'

 

“Rin. We are leaving,” Sesshomaru intoned, his golden eyes fluttering over Kagome as he turned away from them. In an unconscious gesture, Kagome tugged at the hem of her camisole, just in case it had ridden up.

 

“Yes, Sesshomaru-sama!” the ten-year-old girl smiled brightly up at the stoic demon and pranced after his retreating figure, her argument with Shippo forgotten.

 

`And the way she walks…'

 

Kagome waited until they were out of sight before scolding the fox. “Shippo, what has gotten into you?”

 

“Huh?” he blinked up at her with twinkling green eyes, his jaunty red ponytail bouncing merrily in its yellow ribbon.

 

“You used to be so nice to girls!”

 

Shippo's face puckered into a petulant pout as he crossed his arms over his chest and glared over his shoulder into the woods. “She's an enemy.”

 

`So, so pretty…'

 

`It's Shippo! Why am I hearing what he's thinking?' Kagome tried to keep her inner confusion out of her expression as she gave the kit a kind shake. “Sesshomaru was the enemy, but not anymore. And how could a cute little girl like that be anyone's enemy?”

 

Shippo pouted harder and Kagome decided to try a little experiment. “Don't you think she's pretty?” she said slyly.

 

Blushing harder than she'd ever seen a youkai blush, Shippo choked, then dissolved into a coughing fit. “No!” he finally sputtered indignantly as he wiped at his streaming eyes.

 

Kagome was hard-pressed not to burst into hysterical laughter, the only thing holding her back being the serious glare from her kit. However, she couldn't help just one more push. “Are you sure you don't think she's pretty?”

 

`She can't know, none of them can know!'

 

“No way!”

 

“Okay, okay! I believe you!” Kagome set him on his feet with a small chuckle. “But it wouldn't be so bad if you did, you know.”

 

“Keh. I don't.”

 

“Fine, just don't fight with her anymore. It's ungentlemanly.”

 

“Inuyasha fights with you,” he pointed out with another frown.

 

“Inuyasha isn't a gentleman,” Kagome said with a resigned sigh and reached into the front pocket of her shorts. “Now, close your eyes and hold out your hand: I have something for you!”

 

`Oh! Candy candy candy candy candy'

 

The strange litany stopped the moment the Decoder ring left her hand. She hardly had a moment to contemplate it when Shippo's eyes popped open and he howled happily.

 

“Oh wow, Kagome! Thank you!” He hopped in place clutching his new treasure, then stopped and held it up to an emerald eye. “What is it?”

 

“It's, um, a Demon Decoder ring…” she trailed off as an interesting thought occurred to her. `What if…'

 

“It decodes demons?” he gave the ring a closer inspection, running his tiny claw over the `fox' kanji on the top of the disc.

 

Kagome pursed her lips, and then asked, “Shippo, do you hear anything strange? Anything at all?”

 

“Nope!” he crowed happily as he tried on the ring and admired the how the cheap piece of orange plastic looked on his small hand.

 

`So this one works on fox youkai and the other one worked on cat youkai…why are demon artifacts turning up in modern breakfast cereals?' Shippo shot her a grin as he bounded into the village hollering for Kaede. Distracted, Kagome almost forgot to smile back. `More importantly, do they have one for dog youkai?'