InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Big Trouble Comes in Small Packages ❯ Skeletons in the Closet ( Chapter 20 )

Disclaimer: I own none of the Inuyasha characters in this story, but I do own Kirara! (I really do! My brother gave her to me as a late birthday present! Given, she IS stuffed…but that is just a minor detail)

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Big Trouble Comes in Small Packages

Chapter Twenty

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"But Rin doesn't want to sleep in the bedroom! Rin wants to stay in here with Uncle Inu where it's safe." The stubborn little girl crossed her arms over her chest in an unconscious mirror of her Uncle Inuyasha.

It was later that night, and just as Kagome had promised she would, she'd shown up ready to spend the night with Rin and help her get over her fears of monsters in the closet. Not that her presence seemed to be helping anything, of course. Rin still adamantly refused to set foot inside the bedroom no matter what Inuyasha or Kagome tried, much to the pair's dismay.

At the moment, though, Kagome was much more amused than dismayed over Rin's statement of faith in her precious Uncle Inu, and had to resist the urge to laugh out loud. Instead, she leaned over to whisper to Inuyasha. "Safe? Personally, I think I'd rather take my chances with the monsters."

Inuyasha just rolled his eyes in response, clearly not amused by Kagome's comment or the situation in general. After all, would he ever be able to recall what a sound night's sleep in his own bed felt like?

At this rate, probably not.

'That little brat! She's been sleeping in there for weeks, and NOW she decides to give me a hard time about it? If she'd done this sooner, at least I wouldn't have had to sleep on the couch for so long!' Inuyasha thought sourly to himself. 'As it is, I think my back will have permanent indentions from all the damn lumps.'

His mood seemed to be getting worse by the minute thanks to Rin's sudden display of stubbornness. It was already well past her bedtime, but she'd parked herself on the couch, which was HIS bed, with a pillow and blanket and refuted any attempts to get her to move.

'If she keeps it up, she's gonna find out I really am a lot more scary than any stupid monsters!' He gave her his fiercest glare, which was completely ignored.

"Come on, Rin!" Kagome pleaded for what had to be the hundredth time that night while Inuyasha continued to pointlessly glare. "Don't you trust us at all? Your Uncle Inu and I wouldn't try to make you sleep in there if it wasn't perfectly safe. You know that."

For one hopeful moment Rin's mulish expression wavered, only to reappear again, stronger than ever. If Kagome hadn't witnessed it for herself, she would have never believed Rin capable of being so stubborn.

Since pleading wasn't working, it was obviously time to try another tactic.

"Rin," Kagome kneeled down in front of the little girl with a pleasant smile on her face. "You know there isn't any such thing as monsters that live under the bed or in the closet. You've never seen any, have you?"

A small, wary shake of the head was Rin's response to Kagome's question.

"Well, neither have I and I'm a lot older than you are. So if they really existed, I probably would have seen one by now. Don't you think so?" She gazed hopefully at the little girl seated in front of her.

"Yeah, you're SOOO old." A sarcastic Inuyasha muttered under his breath.

"Shut up!" Kagome hissed at the hanyou beside her before standing back up. "You aren't helping things any!"

Inuyasha leaned towards the older girl in his usual temperamental stance, causing her to take a wary step back from him and nearly trip over the coffee table behind her. The look on his face told her quite clearly that he was nearly at his wits' end and that perhaps she shouldn't goad him any if she could possibly help it. The last thing she needed was for Rin to learn every curse word in existence.

"Well what else are we supposed to do, huh?" He hissed, just low enough that Rin couldn't make out what was being said. Kagome couldn't help but thank God for small miracles. "As if you're doing any better! Maybe we should just go throw her in the closet and shut the door for a few minutes. If she lives, then obviously there isn't anything to be scared of!"

"INUYASHA!" Kagome gasped, horrified. She quickly grabbed his arm and tugged him a little farther away from Rin. Maybe the small girl couldn't hear anything, but she wasn't about to take any chances. "We can't do that! It might scar her for life!"

He shrugged. "Why not? After this month is over, I'll probably be scarred for life, so it's only fair."

"You big baby!" She gave his shoulder a small shove, not that it caused him to move an inch. It was more of a way to vent her frustration than anything. "You aren't the one doing all the work, so you have no right to say that!"

"Oi, do you know what sleeping on a lumpy, too-short couch does to a person?"

Kagome gave him a flat look. "I would say that it makes them rude and selfish, but you were that way LONG before you started sleeping on the couch."

"Oi!"

While the two adults bickered pointlessly with each other, Rin was observing the pair with sleepy interest. She wasn't worried, because the fight wasn't anything like their more serious ones. The two adults looked more like two children having a petty squabble than anything else.

Though Rin obviously wanted to stay awake and watch the little show in front of her, she was fast losing the battle with sleep.

The arguing pair eventually remembered Rin, noticing just in time how close she was to being unconscious.

"Don't go to sleep yet!" Inuyasha growled before leaning down and shaking Rin's shoulders. "You're supposed to sleep in the bedroom, remember? I get the couch!"

"Rin doesn't want to move…" She slurred in a sleepy voice.

Before Inuyasha could roughly shake Rin again to wake her back up, Kagome stepped in and grabbed his arm warningly. He grudgingly moved back and let her take over again, quietly mumbling a few choice words that the older girl didn't hear…lucky for him.

Kagome leaned down and shook Rin herself (though much more gently than Inuyasha) until the small girl blinked sleepily at her. "Tell you what, Rin. If I go in there and check both the closet and bed and I don't find monsters or anything else to be scared of, then you have to go sleep in there with me, okay? So don't fall asleep yet!"

Without waiting for a response, Kagome slipped off into the bedroom with Inuyasha quickly following behind her and looking like he desperately wanted to protest. The last thing he wanted was for Kagome to go digging through his room and finding out what a horrible slob he really is!

Much to his horror, Kagome started with the closet.

"Oh my God!" She gasped, quickly sliding the door closed and turning to stare at him. "What WAS that stuff in there? Some sort of science experiment from your school days?" She made a disgusted face. "Or judging from the looks of it, from as far back as the feudal era? It sure LOOKS like it's been in there that long."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes in response, but he couldn't seem to help being curious himself as to what his closet looked like inside and moved to open the door. It had been a long time since he'd bothered to check inside since all his clothes never made it far enough to actually get hung up after being washed.

Looking a bit wary, he slid the door aside to take a peek. It only took a moment for him to quickly snap it shut as well. Believe it or not, even he looked downright ill. "Actually, I think those are some clothes I never washed…"

Kagome turned a bit green. "That was…clothing?"

"Maybe. It might have been food."

Making another face, Kagome turned away from the closet and made a mental note to come back later with some heavy-duty disinfectant and a storage container for biohazardous materials. She then moved her attention to the bed. "After seeing the shape of your closet, I don't think I want to even dare look under the bed!"

Inuyasha grimaced. "Then you probably shouldn't. I don't know what's under there, but I can promise that there probably isn't any room for monsters."

"Why is that thought not comforting?" Kagome sighed in defeat. "Well anyway, I told Rin I'd look so I guess I will. But if I lose my dinner, you'll be cleaning it up."

Inuyasha grinned, suddenly amused. "No way! If you puke, just throw up in the closet, it'll feel right at home."

"Uggghhh! You are so disgusting!"

Tuning out Inuyasha's laughter, Kagome got down on her hands and knees before peering under the bed cautiously. "Well, there aren't any bad smells…and nothing is moving." She let out a sudden sneeze. "But there sure is a lot of dust!" She stood up and dusted her hands off, looking relieved to have her unpleasant task over with.

Inuyasha suddenly snapped his fingers. "Damn, that's right! I think I actually cleaned under there sometime last year when I couldn't find a sock."

"Oh, so NOW you tell me!" Kagome glared at him before giving up and sighing. "Well anyway, after looking around I can see why Rin is too scared to sleep in here! I would be if I were her! So showing her probably wouldn't be the best way to calm her fears."

"Well then what are we supposed to do?!?!" Inuyasha suddenly exploded, frustrated with the whole mess and back to his earlier bad mood. "I don't wanna sleep on the floor AGAIN-"

"Shhh!" Kagome turned around to glare at him from where she had been peeking around the doorframe and into the living room. When she was satisfied that he was going to stay quiet, she turned back. "At this point, I don't think you have a choice. She's already asleep."

Inuyasha frowned, not seeing why that meant he had to sleep on the floor anyway. "You're here, so you can sleep on the floor. This whole mess IS your fault anyway!"

That earned him a dirty glare, something he'd been getting quite often all evening. "Me? I hope for your sake that you're joking. I'm the guest AND a woman, you should be a gentleman and let me have the bed. Either that, or I'll just go home and leave you to deal with Rin when she wakes up in the morning."

"Keh! Go home then." Inuyasha shrugged carelessly and turned to hide his amusement as she moved to do just that. "But I wouldn't if I were you."

Kagome paused, halfway to the door. "What do you mean by that?"

Before Inuyasha could answer her, a loud yell that sounded suspiciously like 'pervert' could be heard coming from the apartment below along with a resounding crash. Kagome listened to the commotion with wide eyes.

"That's why." Inuyasha muttered dryly. "Miroku found out that Sango was going to be alone tonight, so he decided he was gonna keep her company. If I were you, I wouldn't go anywhere near that apartment tonight." Inuyasha suddenly grinned in a purely evil manner. "So is the floor looking any more attractive now?"

Kagome huffed in irritation but didn't respond. Instead, she tried to decide what she should do. 'As much as I'd hate to admit it, the stupid jerk is right. Going home wouldn't be a good idea because Sango is sure to be in a really scary mood right now.' Kagome shuddered at the thought. 'But if I stay, I do NOT want to sleep on the floor!' She knew she was being unreasonably stubborn about the whole thing, but to her it was all a matter of principle. Why should she, a lady and a guest, have to sleep on a hard floor while he got the bed?

'Not that sleeping in here sounds all that appealing either.' She admitted to herself. 'No telling what that thing in his closet is…'

Still lost in thought as she again contemplated the horrors of Inuyasha's bedroom closet, Kagome completely missed the fact that Inuyasha had become impatient and was currently stripping down to nothing but his boxers in preparation for going to bed.

First his shirt went.

Then of course his pants followed, with Inuyasha glancing out of the corner of his eye to see what kind of reaction he would get out of Kagome.

Once he had finished and was wearing nothing but a pair of dark blue boxers, Kagome still hadn't given him any notice, which caused Inuyasha to sulk a bit.

'I practically give the stupid girl a show, and what do I get? Ignored!'

With a huff, he picked up his T-shirt and threw it in her face.

"Wha…" Kagome snapped back into reality and pulled the shirt away from her face. "What was that for? You are such a jerk, you know that?" She opened her mouth, probably to yell at him again, when realization suddenly dawned. "Y-You're practically naked!" She shrieked.

Inuyasha smirked. "Better not be so loud, you might wake the runt."

She ignored him. "W-What the hell do you think you're doing, undressing like that in front of me?!?!" Kagome spluttered, looking as red as a tomato.

Raising an eyebrow at her unusually rough language, Inuyasha responded. "I always sleep like this. And since this is MY room, I'm getting ready to go to sleep. So if you don't mind-" He gestured towards the living room, looking amused.

"Why you…" Kagome practically growled. "You're still expecting me to sleep on the floor? What kind of man are you, anyway?"

"A tired one." He moved over to the bed and sat down. "I don't know about you, but I'm going to bed. G'night." He clicked off the bedside lamp and left Kagome staring at his form through the darkness.

Moments later a shuffling sound could be heard, followed by the sound of squeaking bedsprings. Inuyasha turned over to stare at her sitting on the other side of the bed, looking as if she was ready to run should he make any sudden moves.

"Don't get any perverted ideas!" She stopped him before he could question her actions. "I absolutely refuse to be the one to sleep on the floor! So, as long as we don't do anything funny, then I can sleep here if I want, right? It's not like we'd be doing anything like-like THAT."

He stared at her a moment or two longer before turning his back with a loud "Keh!"

"Whatever. Do what you want."

He stayed still until he felt that Kagome had finally decided it was safe and moved to lie down. She scooted as close as she could to the edge of the bed and covered herself with a small corner of the blanket before finally drifting off to sleep. It had been a very tiring day for all of them, so it really wasn't surprising that it didn't take very long.

Once her breathing evened out, Inuyasha sat up and looked down at the girl sleeping beside him. He watched her for long minutes with a much softer expression than he'd had earlier. "Stupid girl." He muttered affectionately. Taking the blanket they were sharing, he covered her more completely, making sure to tuck it in. Once he was happy with it, he laid back down, his face sporting an unusually satisfied smile.

His Kagome just couldn't resist a challenge.

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LOL! Who knew that Inuyasha could be so sneaky? He really is smarter than he lets on (sometimes). Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that chapter! It is one of my favorites. And though things may seem pointless at the moment, this IS going somewhere! *laughs* Just wait until you find out what happens in the next chapter!