InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Big Trouble Comes in Small Packages ❯ Too Many Cooks Spoil the Broth ( Chapter 24 )

Before I forget again (meant to say something in the last chapter), I wanted to tell you guys that I got some really wonderful fanart from LSR_7. It is of the scene early on in the story where Rin and Kagome are playing with Inuyasha's hair, and it is SO cute! If you want to see it, all you have to do is go to my website. It will be under the fanart section.

.

.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha in any way, shape, or form, but I DO own...um...wait a second, should I really be proud of owning those old ladies? That sounds kind of twisted, doesn't it? Just forget I said anything...

.

.

.

Big Trouble Comes in Small Packages

Chapter Twenty-Four

.

.

.

.

"He did WHAT?!?" Kagome shrieked.

Not bothering to turn around and look at the shocked girl trailing behind her, Sango gave a terse nod and continued to plow forward towards her destination. "You heard me right! He made such a huge deal yesterday about wanting to do things 'properly, like a real date'-" She stopped to snort in annoyance after quoting the line Miroku must have used at least twenty times the day before "-but when he called a few minutes ago, he asked me if I could WALK to the restaurant instead of him picking me up!"

"But why in the world would Miroku change his mind like that?" Kagome cried, obviously baffled. She had to push herself harder to keep up with Sango's angry stride, and barely managed to get within arm's reach of the ticked-off girl in front of her despite the fact that Sango was wearing a formal black dress and high heels, while she was only wearing a basic pair of jeans and a sweater.

Obviously, she was fully expecting to make her escape since she hadn't dressed up like Sango, and the other girl was too distracted to notice her best friend's casual attire.

"As if I know why that pervert's twisted mind works the way it does!" Sango came to an abrupt halt as she reached a crosswalk, almost causing Kagome to run into her back. "When I get my hands on that idiot-"

Gasping for breath, Kagome sent a silent prayer of thanks for the existence of crosswalks and ignored her friend's grumbled threats. Though she was in fairly good shape, she was still nothing compared to the fitness-minded Sango. The girl loved competitive sports, so it gave her an extreme edge when it came to anything physical. And that was when she was in a GOOD mood! An angry Sango could be ten times worse.

After regaining her breath, Kagome furrowed her brow, confused at the latest development of which Sango had just informed her. She just couldn't understand it! From what the other girl had told her, Miroku had been nearly obsessed with the idea of the two going out on a classic style date. The attire would be formal, he would pick her up at the apartment (he refused to let Sango talk him into meeting at a restaurant), and they would have a romantic dinner for two at his chosen location, which he refused to reveal. Probably because he himself didn't know where at the time...

Of course, Sango had made her own attempt at ruining his plans by inviting Kagome, but then Miroku himself called and changed their plans at the last minute. THAT was clearly unforgivable in Sango's mind. Her deed paled in comparison to his because HE was the one who had tortured HER endlessly the morning before by making plans that scared her to no end, not the other way around, and then he had the nerve to change his mind barely a half hour before the scheduled time?!

Talk about rude!

She felt more justified than ever that she had invited Kagome to go with her. At least then she'd have a witness to lie for her should Miroku turn up dead the next morning!

Both girls were so lost in their thoughts that they almost missed the fact that traffic was finally at a standstill, and the group of fellow pedestrians that had been waiting with them was already about halfway across the road. Kagome couldn't help but groan as Sango struck out at a pace even faster than before to make up for the lost time.

After all, she couldn't be late. Not when she was so looking forward to strangling Miroku with her bare hands...

She smiled at the thought.

And then pedestrians started giving Sango a wide berth after noticing the disturbing expression on her face.

.

.

~*~*~*~*~*~

.

.

He was SO dead.

So very dead.

Miroku groaned, burying his face in his arms as he waited for his inevitable doom that was drawing closer and closer. He was even starting to believe that he could see his life flashing before his eyes, but attributed that to the stories that his 'fan club' had been telling all evening about his childhood. It was hard to ignore them because every time someone would bring up something embarrassing about things he'd done as a child, one of the women would come by and giggle while patting or pinching one of his cheeks.

Miroku had never been the violent type, but at that moment he was seriously wishing he owned a gun. Whether he wanted to use it on his fan club or on himself he didn't know, but it still seemed like a wonderfully attractive idea at the moment.

"Either Sango will never speak to me again, or else she'll kill me for calling her and changing plans like I did. But no matter what happens, shooting myself with a gun would be far less painless than what I'm sure this night will bring." He muttered under his breath.

"Did you say something, dear?" One of the women stopped on her way towards the front of the café.

He faked a smile, though it was looking far more forced than his usual fabricated expressions. It was obvious that the stress was really beginning to take its toll on him as it was even ruining his acting abilities. "No, no, Sakura-san, I'm perfectly fine. Just a little nervous!"

Nodding her head in understanding, she patted his arm before continuing on towards the front door of the café. A moment later, Miroku realized her intent.

"What are you DOING?" He cried anxiously as he watched what he once thought to be a sweet, innocent old lady post a closed sign on the café door. "You can't just close this place without asking me first! What about all my customers?!?" He hadn't really taken note of what they were doing before because the knowledge that his hard-won date with Sango was being unwittingly sabotaged was traumatic enough. Now he realized that they were planning on taking over the WHOLE place for his date, and not just a table like he'd thought.

"Oh, stuff it, would you?" She rolled her eyes at him like a teenager might roll their eyes at their parents. "Practically all your regular customers are already here anyway, so it won't hurt to close down for the rest of the night."

"But-"

"Stop whining!" With a gentle shove, one of the ladies managed to push the now-standing Miroku back into the chair he'd been banished to earlier. "You should just relax and leave everything to us, dear. Why, I don't think I've ever seen you so nervous! With the shape you're in, I don't know what you would have done if we hadn't come to help you."

With a groan of defeat, Miroku slumped over so far that his forehead almost hit the table's surface.

"Poor guy."

A snort followed the pitying whisper. "I don't see what you mean. I personally think he had this coming."

Shippo turned to Kagura with an annoyed glare. "Can't you at least be nice for ONCE in your life? Miroku's been really looking forward to this date! He may be a pervert and an idiot, but even you have to admit that he really loves Sango. He's been after her for years-"

"He might not have had to chase her for so many years if he had just stopped groping her like the lecher he is." Kagura smirked and leaned on the counter as she watched the women scurry back and fourth. "If he had just done things right from the beginning, he wouldn't be in this mess."

The kitsune teen hated to admit it, but Kagura did have a point. Miroku might have had Sango a long time ago, had he only been able to let go of his vices and treat her with more respect. After all, as much as Sango had always tried to hide it, she was attracted to the lecherous café owner and had come close to blowing the cover on her feelings more than once. But Miroku's perverted ways had always managed to get in the way at the worst possible time, and the whole nasty routine would start all over again.

"Well, as much as he deserves it, I still think it was pretty harsh of them to restrict him from leaving the building to pick up Sango just because he's so nervous that they were afraid he'd run off and not come back." Shippo remarked, giving the still slumped-over Miroku another pitying gaze. "Although they don't realize that it's THEM making him so nervous! I bet if he'd gotten the chance, he wouldn't have come back and just taken Sango somewhere else."

"Yes, but then it wouldn't have been nearly as fun for us."

Shippo's tail bristled angrily as he glared at the tall woman next to him. "You know, I don't see WHY Miroku keeps you around! You can be such a mean, nasty little-"

"I advise you to stop getting so worked up about everything and just sit back and watch the show." Kagura suddenly spoke again in a bland voice, interrupting Shippo before he could say anything to dig himself in too deep. "In the end it will come down to what is more important to him, Sango or those women. If he is really serious about that girl, he'll send those women packing."

"Wow, you actually said something intelligent about relationships!" Shippo gasped in mock horror. "Could it be that you know more about interacting with others than you let on?"

Kagura scowled. "Don't push your luck, or I'll show you my favorite way of 'interacting with others', as you put it."

Shippo gulped and decided he'd better remain quiet. Kagura was known to be rather violent when the occasion called for it, and he didn't really relish the idea of finding out what being on the receiving end of her youkai power was like.

Taking her advice, he sat back and prepared to watch the show.

.

.

~*~*~*~*~*~

.

.

"Dammit Sango, wait up!" Kagome gasped out as her friend approached the door to the café before cringing at the realization of what she'd said. 'Man, I've been hanging around Inuyasha WAY too much lately...'

Fortunately for Kagome, Sango didn't notice her slip in language as she nearly ripped the poor little café door off its hinges and stormed inside, fully prepared to do battle with the man who had so thoroughly ticked her off.

But what she wasn't prepared for was the sight that greeted her upon entering the little restaurant.

"Welcome!" A merry voice cried. Kagome came in just in time to recognize her as the little old lady that enjoyed hitting Inuyasha with her purse. His favorite nickname for her was the 'sadistic, brick-toting old biddy'. "If you'll step right this way, Sango-san, Miroku is waiting for you at a cozy table for two!" She reached out and coaxed a shocked Sango towards a small table in the center of the room where Miroku was waiting with a pained look on his face.

Kagome could only stare at the place in amazement from the doorway.

Everywhere she looked there were candles. So many, in fact, that the room felt like an inferno from the heat of all the flames. They were perched on every available space, including all the tables that had been pushed back around the walls, leaving the one lone table in the middle of the room for Miroku and Sango to sit at. Ironically enough, that was the only table in the entire room that didn't have a single candle on it.

What really made the room look strange, though, was the fact that no two candles were alike. It looked as if the woman had taken every spare candle they'd had at home and brought them to the café. There were tall ones, short ones, fat ones, skinny ones, and even rather tacky looking ones with Christmas designs on them. Some were also scented, and the blend of all the scents was making the room even more overwhelming than it might have been otherwise.

Kagome almost felt faint at the combination of heat and strong smells.

"What are you doing here?" One of the women suddenly came up to her and hissed, glaring at her with disapproval for doing something as rude as showing up uninvited on a date between two other people. Not that any of them were doing such a thing, oh no...

"Um..." Kagome twiddled her thumbs sheepishly as if she'd been caught doing something wrong. "Sango asked me to walk with her because she was so nervous..." She lied, unable to bring herself to admit the truth. Maybe with Sango distracted, she could make her escape.

The little woman suddenly smiled. "Aww, that is so sweet of you!" She grasped Kagome by her forearm. "Why don't you stay with us in the back and have a little something to eat? We can't send such a nice young lady home without a little of our home cooking to keep her warm."

Before the younger girl could reply, she was almost dragged to the back of the café. For such a small old lady, she sure was strong!

"Kagome!" Shippo cried anxiously when he saw her enter the kitchen where he and Kagura had also been banished, much to the female youkai's annoyance. "I'm so glad you're here!"

Kagome eyed the distraught kitsune with worry as she vaguely noted an odd smell very different from the candles in the front room. She shrugged off whatever it was, more concerned at the moment with Shippo who seemed really upset about something, although she wasn't sure what she'd be able to do about it. But she listened to him anyway as he relayed the problem to her.

Leaning over, he whispered in her ear. "This is really bad! I finally found out why all these women always come here to eat!"

When she gave him a confused look, wondering what that had to do with anything, Shippo pulled her over to one of the stoves where he lifted the lid off one of the pots sitting on it.

The odd smell from before assaulted Kagome's senses again, but much more strongly this time.

"Oh my goodness...what is that stuff?" Kagome muttered, leaning over to peer in the murky depths of the pot.

"Homemade miso soup." Shippo muttered.

Kagome reared back as if the soup had tried to bite her. "Please tell me you're kidding! It doesn't smell or look anything like miso soup!"

"You're telling me." He then proceeded to pull off the lids of all the other pots on the stove to reveal other dishes that didn't exactly look or smell like they were supposed to. Most of it actually made her stomach churn, the smells were so bad. Not to mention several of the items were starting to burn rather badly.

"What are we gonna do?" Kagome whispered. She couldn't let her friends eat that stuff. She actually wanted them both alive at the end of the night!

Shippo seemed to consider the situation as he stared at the floor. He'd originally planned on staying out of everything and just watching like Kagura had said, but letting his boss be poisoned wasn't something he could just sit back and watch. He might lose his job if Miroku died!

"Well, I could run out and pick something up if you can buy me some time." He finally suggested.

"Me?" Kagome squeaked. "But I don't think-"

"C'mon, Kagome, please?" He gave her his best puppy dog face, knowing that would make her agree to nearly anything because she was such a sucker for cute expressions. "Don't you want Sango and Miroku's date to go well?"

Just then, they heard one of the women cry something about the CD player not working. The woman continued to panic until another one of the more technically savvy women (she has a teenaged grandson, after all!) came along and told her she'd put the CD in upside down.

Kagome and Shippo both cringed.

"As I was saying, don't you want Sango and Miroku to have one ray of light amongst all the darkness?" He'd quickly given up the idea that Sango and Miroku's date might have a snowball's chance in hell of actually going 'well'.

"Fine." Kagome sighed in defeat. "But how do you suggest I go about buying you enough time to get back here with the food?"

Shippo suddenly smiled. "Don't worry, I have an idea..."

.

.

.

.

I am so happy! I was having SUCH a hard time getting this chapter written for some reason, but suddenly out of the blue tonight I managed to get the entire thing written in one sitting! That is pretty amazing for me, considering I tend to have the attention span of a hyperactive two year old. But anyway, hopefully you guys really enjoyed this chapter! Next chapter, Sango and Miroku's date will really get started, and you'll get to see exactly what everyone has in store for the poor couple. Please review!