InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ As I Am ❯ Piecing It Back Together ( Chapter 5 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha© or any of its characters.

 

 

I'm sorry I never clarified this, but all of the characters are meant to be human. I must have got distracted and forgot to mention it after I got a review asking me whether or not they were yokai (sp?). Sorry.

 

 

This is also the last chapter, so I hope you enjoy it.

 

 

 

As I Am

 

 

Chapter 5

 

 

“INUYASHA!!!”

 

Inuyasha had never wanted to hear Kagome scream like that, to hear her calling out to him in fear that he was going to die and that she was never going to see him again. He did not like the sound of it and how much it reminded him of the nightmares he had used to have of his mother, and he just wanted it to stop -- for Kagome to calm down and to realize that it was better this way. Him dying could buy her some time to escape… and to stop screaming like a fucking lunatic!

 

He would have given anything for her to quiet down… and maybe that was why suddenly he bucked in his chair, knocking the knife out of Naraku's hand and causing Inuyasha and his chair to fall backwards onto the ground. It was concrete -- the ground -- and it was cold and hard and it nearly cracked Inuyasha's skull open. He could feel the blood rushing to his head, and all that he could hear was an intense ringing in his ears… and Kagome.

 

She had stopped screaming -- thank the gods -- but now she was crying, and Inuyasha could hear her hiccupping in between each sob. He was glad that he couldn't see it though, and that at least he had managed to get her to quiet down. He couldn't stand to hear her call out to him like that again, even though she was probably going to do it anyways when Naraku retrieved his knife and finished what had he started.

 

Inuyasha was going to die, he knew that, but that didn't mean Kagome had to. He could still try to persuade Naraku to leave Kagome alone, what with the duct tape binding Inuyasha's wrists and ankles rendering him as helpless as a grasshopper in the nest of a very thirsty spider. There was still a chance that he could reason with his monster -- Kagome didn't have to die… or scream.

 

She didn't have to end up like his mother.

 

“I should have known you would resist,” Naraku muttered angrily in Inuyasha's ear, his breath warm and sour. He had his blade in his right hand; he slid it across Inuyasha's cheek, drawing blood, and then slowly licked it off. “You're just as stubborn as you're mother was.”

 

My leg?

 

Naraku pressed the blade against Inuyasha's throat, the exact spot that he had chosen earlier before Kagome had screamed. More blood drizzled down from the wound, and Inuyasha could feel it -- warm and stick -- sliding down around his neck. It was disgusting and it brought with it so many memories that had haunted Inuyasha all of these years... Memories of his mother…

 

She died protecting me…

 

Just as Naraku was about to slit Inuyasha's throat, Inuyasha, using all of the strength he could muster, yanked his leg free from the duct tape and used it to lash out at Naraku. His foot caught the man in the nose and sent him flailing backwards, blood guzzling uncontrollably down his face. He fell a couple of feet away from Inuyasha. His blade was nowhere to be seen.

 

“Inuyasha,” Kagome exhaled, her eyes wide. “It's the police! I can here them outside!”

 

Kagome was right. There were sirens going off somewhere outside where they were being held, and Inuyasha could hear voices calling out to him and Kagome. They had found them -- Kagome had been right. The cops had actually found them!

 

“Fuck,” Naraku cursed. He was holding his nose in place with both of his hands, unintentionally showing Inuyasha just how bad he had injured it. It wasn't until the voices started to get closer though, that Naraku dropped his arms to his side, told Inuyasha something, and then -- smirking -- dissapeared through the door he had come in. The spider had left the web, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to try and return later to finish sucking his prey dry.

 

“W-why did he say that?” Kagome asked. “What did he mean by--”

 

Inuyasha could not hear the rest of what Kagome had said -- all that he could think about was how he was going to explain this to his betraying bastard of a brother… and how he was ever going to forget what Naraku had told him moments before the police had decided to make an appearance and take them out of the same warehouse Naraku had been found the last time. “His Playhouse.”

 

You can't cheat death, Inu-chan… Neither can the people you care about…

 

 

 

XXXX

 

 

 

There were hundreds of students staring at Kagome from inside of the school, peering out of windows and doors to gawk at her with their wide, curious eyes. They had all found out about what had happened to her and Inuyasha and had waited by the nearest exit to watch them and to see how they were going to react. But all they saw was Kagome trailing behind her two best friends, Sango and Miroku, and smiling forcefully down at her shoes, giving no clue as to how exhausted she really was.

 

They were disappointed, of course -- it could be seen in the expression on their faces. They had expected for Kagome to be in tears and to be clinging to Inuyasha, who would be busy fighting back his own. They had even imagined them screaming when someone got too close or called out to them, showing how the experience of being kidnapped had affected them.

 

But none of it had happened. Inuyasha had not came to school, as usual, and Kagome looked as if she was laughing at a joke Miroku was telling her and Sango. They could not see how much it hurt Kagome to keep smiling, though she knew she was being watched, and they did not know where Inuyasha was, at home debating whether or not he should confront his brother. These were things that they could never understand -- the pain and insecurity behinds the masks.

 

They were blind, just as Kagome used to be.

 

“What did the mollusk say to the cucumber,” Miroku asked, smiling. They were nearing the school, and Kagome picked up her pace so that she could open the door for her two friends. Her shoes were loud and obnoxious against the cement due to her clumsy jog. “We sure would taste good on a hamburger! Hehehehehe… Ow!”

 

“You made that up,” Sango accused, smacking the back of his head again.

 

“So? I thought it was very, very witty!”

 

“Witty?”

 

“Yes, witty, as in clever--”

 

“I know what witty means.”

 

“But then why did you--”

 

Kagome waited patiently for her friends to go through the doors -- they briefly stopped their heated debate to thank her -- and then followed after them. She looked around the hallways and clarified that it was empty and that the students had finally lost interest in her -- she no longer needed to keep up the façade. She could sag behind Miroku and Sango and frown without worrying whether or not someone would see her and rush to her to ask her what was wrong.

 

And that was the last thing she wanted. She did not want to be the center of attention, she never had, and she did not want people to be concerned about her. There was nothing wrong with her -- she was alive and here and open to the world she had never understood before now. That was what mattered, right? Torn away from ignorance? Able to walk the same path of someone she cared for very much?

 

“Inuyasha,” she sighed quietly. She could still remember the look in his eyes when she had refused his offer to walk her home, and she did not like the feel it had left in her stomach. She should not have been so shy and she should have said yes -- her mother would have understood. Inuyasha was worried about her, almost as worried as she was about him, and he had only wanted to make sure that she got home safely… and that they had some time to talk.

 

“We could cover for you.”

 

Kagome looked up, startled. Her two friends had stopped walking and were staring at her, but it was not like it had been with the other students. Sango and Miroku already knew what had happened and they understood that Kagome wasn't acting like herself. She was hiding.

 

“So that you can go see how Inuyasha is doing,” Miroku finished.

 

“Oh.”

 

Sango laughed and leaned in towards Kagome to hug her. Miroku would have done the same thing, but there was always the possibility his hand would brush across an inappropriate area, and Sango would have clobbered him because of it.

 

“Say hi for us, okay?”

 

Kagome nodded, smiling. “Okay.”

 

 

XXXX

 

 

 

U keep skippin skul and ur gonna fail

 

Inuyasha snorted at the text message Koga had sent him, jabbing the reply button and waiting for his phone to comprehend what he wanted. He had found it -- his phone -- near the dumpster where he had been kidnapped, and someone had stepped on it and cracked the screen, making it hard for his phone to cooperate with him. It usually took him five minutes to read Koga's texts because the screen kept flickering on and off, and his battery was low on juice.

 

He knew he could probably go out and buy a new one with the money he had saved up from last summer, but he honestly did not feel like leaving his room. Everything here was so familiar, just the way he liked it, and he didn't want Ayame sneaking in and trying to rearrange everything; it would take him centuries just to find his only pair of underwear that hadn't turned pink in the wash.

 

I no. I'm gonna go tmrw.

 

“As soon as I get a lock for my room,” Inuyasha muttered, leaning back in his computer chair and exhaling noisily. His phone began to vibrate as soon as he was done, but he ignored it and chose to close his eyes, listening to the sound of Ayame trying to fix the washer and Sesshomaru hissing into his cell phone in the hallway.

 

In an hour, Sesshomaru would go to work and would call Inuyasha to confirm if he had at least made it to is “counseling class”. If Inuyasha hadn't, he would drive home and, being careful not to beat him, would give him one of the largest lectures Inuyasha had ever heard. He would tell Inuyasha that he had been through so much and that he needed help, but all Inuyasha would hear was he was ruining Sesshomaru's plan to see whether or not Inuyasha knew more than he should.

 

Inuyasha had never let anything out, though, and enjoyed watching and listening to Sesshomaru badger him about it. He wanted Sesshomaru to be very, very upset so that he would suffer for the hit he had placed on Inuyasha and his mother, for being responsible for the death of the only woman who had ever loved him. He wanted Sesshomaru to know how it felt to have someone else rule his life, like he and Naraku had ruled Inuyasha's.

 

“Inuyasha.” It was Sesshomaru -- Inuyasha could see him standing in his doorway from the reflection on his window. “I am leaving.”

 

“Okay,” Inuyasha said, his voice impassive.

 

Sesshomaru took a step into the room and leaned against the doorframe, crossing his arms against his chest and studying Inuyasha from behind. He looked exhausted and anxious, as he had the moment Inuyasha had refused to ride home with him and had walked instead. He wanted to know what Inuyasha was thinking, and Inuyasha was glad that that could never happen.

 

“It must have been nice,” Inuyasha commented suddenly. He fingered the locket around his neck -- it used to be his mother's, a present from his father.

 

“What must have been nice?” his brother asked.

 

“Back after father died and when you hired Naraku to kill me and my mom.”

 

Sesshomaru's brow furrowed. “Excuse me?”

 

Inuyasha refused to say anything else -- he knew Sesshomaru had heard him. He stopped playing with his locket and spun his chair around to face the man responsible for his mother's death, sneering.

 

“Have a nice day, big brother.”

 

“And to you as well, little brother.” Then Sesshomaru smiled and left, slamming the door shut behind him. He could be heard tramping down the hallway and into the garage in his expensive shoes, where he started his expensive car and left his expensive house, leaving his poor brother behind.

 

 

 

XXXX

 

 

Inuyasha had used to love going to the park to have his mother push him in the swings and help him make mud cakes for her to pretend to eat. She had taken him there every weekend and had stayed there as long as he had wanted, ignoring how cold or hot it had been. She had brought sunscreen when it had been too warm and a jacket for when had been too cold, and if they had left early she had brought a picnic for them to eat for lunch -- or, when Inuyasha had been too hungry to wait, brunch.

 

She had packed the picnics with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, juice boxes, and carrot sticks every time, occasionally adding a cookie or two for dessert if Inuyasha had made his bed after he had finished dressing himself. He had hardly ever made his bed, though -- he had been too busy trying to pick which sweater he had wanted to wear or which boots would make the biggest splashes. Eventually his mother had had to do it for him, but she had never once complained.

 

The park she had taken him to after they had finished dressing and packing the picnic had not been very big -- Inuyasha could only remember it having a set of swings, a sandbox, a big rusty slide, and a port-a-potty Izayoi had refused to let Inuyasha use. It had smelled… funny, and it was only until a couple of years ago that Inuyasha had finally understood why it had started to shake after a man and a woman had entered it. Izayoi had taken him home after that had happened and had made sure to watch who went in and out of it the next time she had brought her son to play at the park.

 

Inuyasha knew that it had been hard on his mother to take him there, what with all the drug dealers and hookers making a living across the street, but it had been the best she could do. The man who had gotten her pregnant had died, and all of the money he had left her she had put away for Inuyasha to use to go to college and to buy a house of his own. She had had nothing left to use to ensure that Inuyasha had a perfectly normal childhood -- she had been too concerned about his future and how he was going to take care of himself after… she was gone.

 

And, besides, it wasn't as if she could have even considered locking him inside the apartment. They had had no television or toys, and Inuyasha had spent the weekdays reading his mother's light romance novels or playing with Shippo, a stray cat Izayoi had found wandering the streets. Shippo had lived about a year before a car had ran over him -- Inuyasha had cried for days and had refused to leave his room until Izayoi had bought him another cat. He had named her Kikyo before she had run away.

 

After that, Izayoi had tried to replace Kikyo by buying him a board game instead. He had not liked it and had thrown it away. An hour later, their next-door neighbor Kaede had came to take Inuyasha to school, and Izayoi had tried to kiss him goodbye, but he had shoved her away. When he had came home from school, ready to apologize for misbehaving, Izayoi had already been attacked.

 

Cause we… it all… Nothing lasts forever… I'm sorry I… be perfect… Now it's just too late… And we can't go back…I'm sorry I can't be…

 

Inuyasha stopped swinging and let his cell phone ring, waiting for it to redirect the caller to his voicemail. He was sick of people pestering him -- Kouga, Ayame, and some kid named Miroku who had gotten his number from Kouga, the thieving little back-stabber -- and having them ask him where he was and then freaking out when he told them. They had all gasped at him and had demanded to know what had possessed him to go to some filthy park that cokeheads and prostitutes hung out at.

 

Which was why Inuyasha had decided to stop answering his phone for as long as possible. He had moved away from the sandbox and had plopped down in one of the swings, ignoring how the bars had creaked from having to hold his weight. His phone had continued to ring for about a half an hour and Kouga had sent him about a gazillion text messages, but he had not answered a single one and had fell prey to the memories of his past. Memories of his mother and the day she had left his world.

 

“Um, Inuyasha? Uh, hi, this is Kagome. I-I stopped by your house… but you weren't there, and Ayame -- your maid -- gave me this number to reach you… Please call me when you can. My-my number is 1-316-254-9718… Goodbye… … …”

 

Inuyasha frowned and reached into his coat pocket to pull his cell phone out. He looked at the 25 Missed Calls dialogue and the voicemail icon on its broken screen -- she had been the only one to leave a message, excluding Kouga's text messages, and for some reason it made Inuyasha feel… strange. He snorted and shook his head, ready to thrust the phone back into his pocket.

 

He peered down at the small rectangular object again and then, instead of putting it away, flipped it open and punched in her number. He put it up to his ear and waited. Holding his breath.

 

 

 

 

XXXX

 

 

 

Kagome had had to shut the lights off and hide in her closet so that her mother wouldn't see her and make her go back to school. She had chosen a spot in the very back and had positioned all of her clothes to cover her, and she had only reached for her cell phone, its light illuminating the entire closet, to answer Miroku's texts and call Inuyasha. He had not answered his phone though, just as Miroku had said he wouldn't, but she could not stop herself from being hopeful that he would get the message she had left and decide to call her back as soon as possible.

 

She stretched her legs, wincing as her knees popped and her cell phone vociferously fell to the floor. The noises they made were not nearly as loud as the groans and moans of other patients from her mother's clinic, but she was still feeling guilty about skipping school, and she had a feeling her mother was going to come stomping in her room, ranting about how disappointed she was. She did not want her mother thinking she was a trouble child, but she also wanted to speak with Inuyasha and, seeing how he was not at school, this seemed to be the only way she could.

 

In other words, she was torn between doing what was right and doing what she wanted to.

 

Take me away… A secret place… A sweet escape… Take me away… Take me a way… To better days… Take me away…

 

Kagome screamed, before then clumsily opening her phone and pressing it up against her ear. She breathed into the speaker heavily and closed her eyes, feverishly praying that her mother had been too busy with the patients to hear her startled, guilt-ridden daughter.

 

“Uh, Kagome? Are you okay…? Kagome?”

 

“Yeah,” the teenage girl exhaled in a whisper. She leaned back against a box of shoes and continued to breathe in and out… in and out… in and out… “I'm okay.”

 

“Oh, good,” the voice said from the other end. It sounded very familiar, and Kagome stopped panting so that she could focus on it and identify who the caller was. “Um, I got your message.”

 

“My message…? Oh, Inuyasha, I-I'm so sorry. I didn't realize it was you at first.”

 

“That's okay,” he answered. “Uh, so, what did you want?”

 

Her breath hitched, and she could feel her cheeks warming. “Well, I-- There's this bookstore downtown, and I've always wanted to go there, but I-- Wouldyouliketomeetmethere?”

 

“What?”

 

Just say it! “Would you -- would you like to meet me there? At the bookstore?”

 

“Y-yeah, sure. What's the address?”

 

Kagome smiled a smile so big it made her face hurt, and she touched it with her free hand. There was something different about this smile -- something about it that portrayed more than just childish glee and cotton candy smudges. It was a smile she had never smiled before.

 

“I might have to look it up in the phone book first…”

 

 

 

XXXX

 

 

 

The bookstore Kagome had been talking about was no larger than an apartment, and Inuyasha hardly had any room to walk around in. There were bookshelves lining the walls and anime posters covering the windows, hovering just above a small section of manga books with wide-eyed girls in skimpy school uniforms and young boys with pointy ears or wings sprouting from their backs. The cashier's desk was in the very middle of the store, and behind it sat an exhausted-looking girl reading a fantasy novel, blushing whenever she turned the page.

 

Inuyasha rolled his eyes and started down one of the aisles. He stopped at the very end, a few feet away from a kneeling Kagome, and sighed as loud as he could to get her attention. They had been looking at books for hours, and he was really starting to get bored. Kagome ignored him, her beautiful smile widening, and continued to pluck book after book out of the bookshelf she was standing infront of. She looked at the covers of each one, being so careful that Inuyasha could have sworn it was glass she was holding in her hands, not an old flimsy book.

 

“What are you looking for?” he asked, kneeling beside her.

 

Kagome shrugged her shoulders. “I'm not sure. Do you need to be home at a certain time?”

 

“No,” Inuyasha replied. He purposely fell on his butt and took the book she was holding -- it had a pair of hands holding an apple on it. “I was actually thinking about staying with Kouga.”

 

He flipped the book and began to read the summary. It was obviously a romance novel, but it wasn't like the ones his mother had used to have. This one talked about vampires, and he looked at it skeptically, laughing inside his head. He had never read a book about vampires, but he could imagine Kouga making fun of him if he had and calling him a Goth… Not that Inuyasha cared.

 

“That's a really good book,” Kagome said. She pulled out another book that had a flower on it and put it on top of the one he was holding. “This one's the sequel…” She paused and then asked, changing the subject, “Wouldn't your brother be worried if you didn't come home?”

 

“Hell no. And besides, he's probably on his way to Mexico right now.”

 

Kagome frowned and said, “Oh. Oh, yeah, I forgot.” She blushed guiltily. “Do you think the police will ever catch him or Naraku?”

 

“Naraku they might, but they don't know anything about what Sesshomaru did.”

 

“You haven't told the police?”

 

“Nope.”

 

“Oh.” She sat down beside him and, blushing as she did so, rested her head against his shoulder, her hair tickling his face. “There are a lot bad men out there, aren't there?”

 

Inuyasha, unsuccessfully trying to hide his own blush, nodded. He put the two books down between his legs, right beside the pile of western novels Kagome had been skimming through, and then hesitantly rested his head against hers. She smelled like strawberries.

 

“Inuyasha?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

Kagome smiled and then, so quickly that Inuyasha hardly felt it, brushed her lips against his. She pulled back quickly and started to play with the hem of her skirt, embarrassed.

 

“If--if you want, I'm sure my mom wouldn't mind if you had dinner with us.”

 

Something pulled up at Inuyasha's lips and he laughed, enjoying the feel and the sound of… it.

 

“Sure. Why not?”

 

 

Fin.