InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Big Trouble Comes in Small Packages ❯ Simple Misunderstanding ( Chapter 6 )

Disclaimer: This time I got my mother the editor to look over this chapter and make changes, so if something is wrong, then…IT'S NOT MY FAULT! :-P Oh yeah, and the characters are not mine.

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Big Trouble Comes in Small Packages

Chapter Six

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"Please follow me, sir."

Sesshoumaru nodded and began to follow the man dressed in black through several long corridors to his intended destination. There were many closed doors leading off to the sides, but the dog demon ignored them all and passed by without giving them any thought. The occupants of those rooms were none of his concern.

It had been almost an hour since his plane had landed and Sesshoumaru was now proceeding with the plans he'd made before leaving. So far everything had gone off without a hitch.

"If you will step inside, please." The man in black paused in front of a set of open double doors, bowing politely as the white-haired lord passed him to enter.

Inside the opulent-looking office, a large man stood up from behind his desk and smiled in welcome. "Ah, Sesshoumaru-sama! Welcome, welcome! We have been expecting you all morning. I trust your trip went well?"

Sesshoumaru inclined his head slightly in answer before taking the proffered seat in front of the great wooden desk. Sniffing slightly in disdain, his sensitive nose noted the smell of stale cigar smoke clinging to the furniture. This slight action made the man behind the desk nervous, since he wasn't exactly used to dealing with many demons in his particular line of work.

Surprisingly, Sesshoumaru was the first to speak once both were seated. "I take it you received payment as arranged?"

The man nodded eagerly. "Of course! With such a generous offer as yours, how could we refuse you? Everything has been prepared just as you wished." Digging through his top desk drawer, he pulled out a small set of keys and laid them on the far side of the desktop. "Is this all you will be requiring from me? I am always ready to be of service."

"No, nothing else."

Sesshoumaru rose and left the room without another word.

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"Would you like some more tea, sir?" A cheerful voice questioned. For a moment there was silence. "Oh, you want some cookies with that? Certainly!"

Inuyasha watched with something akin to morbid fascination as Rin put three computer disks on 'Sessy-poo' the teddy bear's plate and refilled his shot glass with imaginary tea. She did the same for herself and proceeded to act as a proper hostess.

"The weather is so beautiful today, isn't it? We must take a stroll in the garden when we are finished and look at all the flowers. Won't that be nice?"

Inuyasha prayed with all his might that Miroku would wake up soon before Rin got any stranger! He was honestly starting to question the kid's sanity.

A knock sounded on the door.

"Who the heck could that be?" Inuyasha cautiously crept towards the door, unsure if he should actually open it or just pretend no one was home. The last thing he needed was for someone to see him taking care of a little kid!

Another knock sounded, this time along with a voice. "Hello? Open up, Inuyasha, I know you're in there!"

'Oh crap!' Inuyasha exclaimed mentally. 'What's Kagome doing here?!?!' He frantically looked around, as if hoping there was a good place to stash a small child where no one would see her. For a moment he actually considered trying to pass her off as one of Miroku's by-blows, but then figured Rin would probably give him away pretty quickly if given the chance.

Of course, you know Inuyasha. By this point he'd already forgotten that he'd wanted Kagome's help earlier and was now only concerned with hiding his secret. Is there any way he could possibly look guiltier in her eyes?

Seeing no help for it, he opened the door just enough to quickly slip outside and shut it behind him before Kagome had a chance to see anything.

"I-Inuyasha?" Kagome questioned, giving him a funny look. "Is everything okay?"

"Of course everything's okay!" Inuyasha countered gruffly, not looking her in the eyes. Kagome immediately pegged it as a sure sign of guilt.

"Are you sure? I've been hearing all kinds of noises coming from your place since last night! First it's crashes, and then all kinds of high-pitched giggling and squealing!" She crossed her arms and huffed angrily. "I want to know what's going on. NOW!"

"Well…you see…what I mean to say is-" Inuyasha just couldn't seem to bring himself to tell her the truth. What would she say when she found out about Rin staying with him? Would she start asking questions about his family history? He didn't think he wanted to deal with that, even coming from Kagome.

The dark-haired girl watched him through narrowed eyes as he struggled to answer her questions. There was no doubt about it--he was hiding something. "Forget it, Inuyasha, I've got a feeling I already know what's going on." She finally stated in a flat voice.

Cold dread seeped into Inuyasha's veins. "Y-you do?"

Kagome nodded solemnly.

Inuyasha ran a clawed hand nervously through his long hair, trying to think of a way to explain himself that wouldn't sound too bad. "Listen Kagome, I wasn't really planning to hide her from you! It just happened so suddenly, and- well, I didn't know what to do, okay!" He gave her a sheepish look before looking down at the floor. "Actually, I had been planning on asking you for help…"

Kagome's blue eyes widened in outrage. "You jerk! Why would I want to help you with your problems?"

Inuyasha blinked in confusion. "But I thought-"

"Well, you thought wrong!" Kagome tried not to look as miserable as she felt. "Just stick to asking Miroku for all your stupid advice, okay? He probably knows a lot more than I do about stuff like that."

Now poor Inuyasha was really lost. "Miroku? But that lech doesn't know a thing about kids, no matter how many women he's asked to bear them." Suddenly his eyes narrowed in suspicion as his brain took a detour from the subject at hand. "He hasn't asked YOU, has he?"

It was then that he realized Kagome was staring at him as if he'd grown a second head.

"Kids?" Kagome whispered in shock, unable to pull her eyes away from his. "So it's really true?" A suspicious burning was beginning in the corners of her eyes, and she tried to blink it away. "So that explains all the noises last night…"

Inuyasha was started to get the sinking feeling that he'd screwed up big time, but he wasn't sure exactly how. The feeling got even worse when his nose picked up the slight salty scent of the tears she was trying to hold back.

'Dammit, I think she's gonna cry!' His mind frantically yelled at him. 'What the heck went wrong? Think, stupid, think! You can't fix the problem if you can't figure out what it is!' He could have pulled out his hair by this point. 'What was it exactly that Miroku thought? Oh no…'

She couldn't possibly think Rin was his kid too, could she?

"Wait, you've got it all wrong!" He hastened to explain. "I don't have any kids!"

"Liar!"

Inuyasha couldn't hold back a growl of frustration. "Would you just listen to me a second before jumping to conclusions? What I'm trying to tell you is that I have a kid-" Kagome opened her mouth to say something but Inuyasha hurried on before she could speak. "-in the apartment, but she isn't mine!"

Kagome glared at him. "And WHY do you have a kid in your apartment if she isn't yours, huh? I can't believe anyone in their right mind would leave their child with someone like you." It was very obvious that she still didn't believe a word he was saying.

Even though he was feeling a little hurt over her statement, he didn't show it and instead focused on something else. At her words 'in their right mind' Inuyasha's brain had conjured up an image of Sesshoumaru, and Kagome was shocked to suddenly notice him nodding in agreement with her. "You're right. No one in their right mind would have but I didn't say the guy who did it wasn't INSANE."

At this point, unnoticed by both participants in the little hallway drama, Inuyasha's apartment door had cracked open to reveal Rin peering curiously through the small opening. Seeing that the two adults didn't seem to be busy talking (since they were too busy glaring at each other to speak), she finally stepped out of her hiding place and tugged on the hem of Inuyasha's shirt.

Angry at being disturbed since he seemed to be so close, at least in his mind, to convincing Kagome of the truth, Inuyasha glared down at her. "Whaddya want now? Can't you see I'm busy?"

"Rin's getting hungry." She gave him the best puppy dog eyes she could muster. "Can Rin please have something to eat soon?"

Inuyasha waved his hand in a distracted manner. "Yeah, whatever. Just bug Miroku for something when he wakes up."

"Oh my God…"

Rin and Inuyasha both looked at Kagome who had one hand up covering her mouth in shock while the other hung limply at her side.

"I swear, she really isn't mine!" Inuyasha hurried to assure her.

"I can TELL!" Kagome snapped, suddenly over her surprise. "That's what I was so shocked over! From the way Miroku talked, I thought you were having problems with some woman, and when you said kids, I figured you were talking about your own!"

"Huh?" Inuyasha blinked stupidly, trying to process all that information a little bit at a time. "How could you tell she's not mine?"

Kagome spoke slowly as if he were some half-wit. "She's full human, Inuyasha. Who would be stupid enough to think she was your child after actually seeing her?"

'Thank God for smart humans!' His mind nearly shouted at him in relief. 'But I guess that means Miroku is one of those stupid people she's talking about.' He almost smiled in amusement, but stopped when he belatedly remembered the stuff she'd said earlier. "Miroku told you WHAT about me?!?! Damn him, I swear I'm gonna kill him!"

It's probably a good thing he was being ignored at this point.

"Hi there!" Kagome kneeled down and smiled at Rin, much more relieved than she wanted to admit that things weren't as bad as she'd thought. "What's your name? I'm Kagome!"

Rin was in immediate awe of the pretty lady paying attention to her. "My name is Rin. Are you Uncle Inu's girlfriend?" Children are so charmingly blunt sometimes.

Blushing, Kagome shook her head frantically. "No, of course not! I'm just a friend who lives downstairs."

Inuyasha found he didn't have a voice at the moment.

"Oh." Rin was quiet for a moment. "Are you Uncle Miroku's girlfriend?"

"NO!" Inuyasha suddenly found that he did have a voice after all, and a loud one at that. "Would you stop asking embarrassing questions, runt? Go back inside!"

"Inuyasha!" As embarrassed as she was, Kagome still managed to glare at him. "Don't yell at her. She didn't mean any harm."

Inuyasha shuffled like a guilty little boy and didn't respond to her scolding.

"So how old are you, Rin?"

The little girl smiled and held up the correct number of fingers. "Rin just turned six! Since I'm almost all grown up now I get to come stay with Uncle Inu all by myself."

Kagome had to hide a smile at the earnest reply and managed to nod seriously instead. "Wow, you are getting really old."

Inuyasha continued to sulk as he watched both girls talk. The kid was getting all the attention while he was being ignored. It just wasn't fair! Finally getting tired of it, he cleared his throat until they both looked at him. "Oi, didn't you say you were hungry?"

Rin considered his question before widening her eyes. "I forgot. Yes, Rin is still hungry!"

"I guess I'll fix you more ramen." Inuyasha muttered.

Kagome watched as Rin grimaced. "Let me guess, that's all you've got to eat. Am I right?"

Inuyasha nodded.

"Typical man."

Before the hanyou could defend himself, Kagome stood up and dusted off her skirt in a determined fashion. "Didn't you say Miroku was here? I think we should all go eat at his café and he can pay since he OWES me big time for his last little stunt! Then you can tell me the story behind how you came to be a daddy at such a terribly old age." She smiled in amusement.

"It's not funny, and I'm only twenty-four." He grumbled.

"With all that white hair I would have guessed at LEAST sixty." She continued to tease him, which caused Rin to giggle a bit.

Walking past him while he muttered inappropriate things under his breath, Kagome opened his apartment door and stepped inside. "Come on Rin, let's change your clothes and-" She stopped dead when she saw Miroku still lying on the floor, unconcious. "I probably don't want to know what happened, do I?"

Inuyasha sighed and bent over to haul Miroku up. "Oi, why do you have to change the runt's clothes anyway?" She looked fine to him. The orange shirt with pink hearts might not look all that great with the green and blue plaid skirt, but Rin seemed to like it, so why bother?

Kagome just gave him a 'look' and didn't bother to respond.

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Okay, another chapter done! I bet you were all expecting Kagome to be just as dense as Miroku, am I right? Well, unfortunately for us she isn't, but that doesn't mean more interesting things won't happen later on. So just give them some time. Anyway, please review! ^_^