InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Movie House Hanyou ❯ Repercussions ( Chapter 22 )

Rubbing her hands together gingerly, careful of the black and blue splint that kept her right wrist rigid, Kagome smiled and breathed in deeply. One more week, and another set of new movies would be replacing nearly a third of the junk that was currently being projected upon the screens of their fifteen auditoria.

Okay, so she wasn't really being fair, she told herself. Not all of what they were showing was junk. But hopefully the titles they would lose would be the ones she thought they should… like how Gigli had been yanked from the system after only one week, what she felt was one week too long. She'd seen it and had been appalled.

But yes, Kagome was happy because while only one new movie was gotten today, the 8th of August, what the theater had received was a film featuring one kick ass actress, in her opinion. She had been a fan of Girlfight back when it first came out, and now she was eager to watch anything starring the same lead female.

Kagome typed in her user number and password, signing in to the touch screen computer system for the box office.

It was a lovely afternoon; she would get to work with Denise and Mandy for the opening shift and be off by 6pm, the weather outside was nice as far as she could tell by looking out the window to her far left beyond the stairs and escalator, though her view was blocked by the Target Center right across the street, and right before going upstairs to clock in for her shift she had scored a free cup of homemade ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery right across from the box office - one of the servers had goofed on a customer's order and asked Kagome if she wanted the mix-up piece, or else it would be thrown away.

As Kagome and her two box office coworkers readied the cash drawers and the junior manager helped them set out fresh stacks of Movie Facts pamphlets and all the signage needed for the box office, she ran the previous two weeks' events through her head, grateful for the smoothness of the passage of time.

The burn mark on her left forearm had healed well enough that she did not have to wear anything to cover the area anymore. It was now a mostly healed, light colored scar. Now there was no longer any painfully obvious bandage, and first aid tape up the wazoo, to wave a red flag at customers in announcement and proclamation of 'hey, look, I've got a big honking burn mark right here!' and thus single her out. It was nice for customers to finally stop asking just what in the name of whatever deity one might worship what had happened to her.

She was quite thankful. It had started to become very, very annoying.

Strangely, Kagome found that people were less likely to ask about her wrist. Granted, most of the time her entire right arm was hidden behind the counter and the computer screen, as the ticket printing machine's counter cut-out spot was directly to the left of the monitor, but she still had to use her right arm nonetheless. Thank goodness she could get by with reserving her right hand for the touch screen business and her left for nearly everything else, so long as it didn't require handwriting of her own.

With the command over the two way radio walkie talkie from the senior manager of the shift, Kagome happily waved over the first of many customers.

"Hi, welcome to Pierce Theaters!"

The day was open.

In between rushes for all of the titles playing, occasionally turning her head to glare at the light-up board behind her on the wall for being a jackass and having one incorrect showtime for American Wedding that did not correspond with what the computer or newspaper or her usher handout said, which the senior manager still had not fixed, much to everyone's annoyance, Kagome let her thoughts return to the strangeness that was working without Inuyasha around most of the time.

She knew it wouldn't always be that way, that it was nothing to stress over. He was occasionally, or at least had been so in the less than two weeks since she'd been officially and permanently inaugurated as a box office employee, assigned by the managerial powers that be to the box office area, even if only for simple tasks like money handling and drops, and she could see him before and after work, sometimes when on her break. This helped with her self-reasoning that it was nothing to waste much time glooming herself over. She was a big girl, she told herself, and she could stand to not work with him nearly every single workday for a change.

And, she thought with a girlish reminiscence, her new status with Inuyasha was a very nice improvement. The events revolving around that party at that Kouga guy's house and the morning after weren't exactly something she had really enjoyed living through --except for certain things, of course, like finally getting to kiss Inuyasha, again-- but had been for the best.

It may have been hell, but she was back with more than something like a lousy t-shirt. Way more.

Now the only hell remaining was the fact that she and Inuyasha were still stuck with being mindlessly passive about booting the General Manager, Naraku. Quite frankly, Kagome was sick, tired, and bored out of her mind over the situation. She felt like they were doing nothing, could do nothing, and would do nothing.

It was worse than being assigned to find Carmen Sandiego. At least those after Carmen Sandiego got clues. She and Inuyasha were stuck waiting for "things" to happen.

They might as well be waiting for the antichrist to surface. No, wait, Naraku probably was the antichrist, in disguise.

Today Pierce Theaters, tomorrow the world.

She snorted in wrongful amusement at the thought of Naraku trying to overthrow all the world governments, causing her coworkers to look at her funny, thinking she had been randomly daydreaming. Kagome simply shrugged her shoulders and left it at that.

Kagome got through her shift quickly, easily, and cheerily. Inuyasha had to work for another two hours. Bummer, she grumbled to herself. He'd promised to teach her to drive.

As she was clocking out she made sure to make a mental note to say a quick something to him before leaving for home.

"Why can't I learn box office?" Tanaya whined to her supervisor as he adjusted his Akira cap yet again and prepared to take her 6 o'clock cash drop.

"Because you think the world revolves around you and you only, you're whiny, immature, annoying, and just an hour ago you wouldn't stop bouncing around like an Energizer bunny on crack and repeating the words 'lemon meringue pie.' That's why," he promptly answered, yet again about two inches away from strangling the teenager.

"I told you, I can't help it!" she retorted childishly.

Inuyasha sighed and wondered why people so frequently used their mental disorders and illnesses as such blatant crutches for their shortcomings. He knew he'd probably get diagnosed with something were he to see a professional, but hell, he was still functional, so whatever he might possibly have, it didn't matter, nor did he give two fifths of a shit. Tanaya blamed all of her problems on her condition, even her immaturity and self-centeredness.

"Then take your damn meds for once," he countered, knowing she frequently went dry. "Anyway, you act like that in front of customers again, and I'll make sure the managers find out. You wanna be in box, you gotta earn it." He narrowed his eyes.

"Like she did?" Tanaya's tone held a hint of contempt and jealousy.

Kagome had just walked up to find the two arguing and Tanaya pointing behind Inuyasha at her. He glanced behind to see the pointed at person before leveling his gaze upon the laughably short stature of Tanaya and forcing out, as pleasantly as he could, "Yes, like she did. Now make yourself busy."

He added a creepy smile after that, showing off his fangs, knowing she wasn't fond of seeing them.

Kagome simply stared bewildered at the ongoing exchange. "Er, is this a bad time?"

Inuyasha turned again, leaning on the counter with the blue fabric pencil case-like bag that held the cash drop for Tanaya's drawer. "A little." He smirked. "You're off?"

"Yeah. She giving you trouble?" she asked, already knowing the answer. If only he'd try to ignore her a bit, like I do… then he'd be able to work with her. She's not that bad to work with. Just… too hyper sometimes.

"Inuyasha's being mean to me again."

"Can it," he ordered before Kagome could respond. "Go fill the ice bins or something." Tanaya grumpily went off to go about her newly assigned task. "And no more back talk, understand?" She pretended not to hear him.

"Tanaya, I'll have your book back to you tomorrow," Kagome called after her. Her coworker turned around while still walking and gave her a thumbs-up.

Inuyasha shook his head. "I'm not going to ask. Anyway," he continued, turning his attention fully back to Kagome, "Kuji?"

She nodded and replied, "Un, kuji wa ii," letting him know 9 o'clock was good for him to stop by for her private driving lesson. They had fully resorted to speaking in Japanese around their coworkers when the topic related to… well, to themselves, as a semi-couple. It had been useful in the past, and now it was one hell of an advantage.

That evening around 9pm Kagome sat waiting in the kitchen near the window overlooking the street while watching for his winterberry Saturn to pull up in front of the townhouse. Her mother was behind her by the counter next to the stovetop, preparing the ingredients for homemade sorbet she planned to make in the ice cream maker the next day.

As she waited, Kagome reminded herself to be thankful of how easygoing her mother had been over the whole ordeal concerning the party and spending the night at Inuyasha's house. Granted, she had felt bad about lying to her mother and going along with what Inuyasha had told the woman to ease her mind, but it wasn't enough to say anything about. It was for the better.

Chiho Higurashi, her mother, had been anxious for her well being, as any sensible person would expect one's mother to be. But, Inuyasha must have been one hell of a smooth talker to have charmed her in such a believable manner with his string of half-truths. For that, she was grateful.

She was even more grateful that her mother, upon meeting Inuyasha herself, had approved of his driving lessons offer. Well, that, and she seemed to have approved of Inuyasha himself.

Kagome hadn't told her mother anything about the two of them aside from the incident from way back in May, and she didn't intend to until certain situations were no longer a problem. However, she knew her mother could tell there was something between the two, and so far she'd not made a single gesture or statement of disapproval. Inuyasha had even received a small thank you gift from her for looking after Kagome as he had. He'd been surprised a bit but had accepted it as graciously as any Japanese person would.

She sighed dreamily. Her mom was fine with the idea of the two of them together, and he was fine with it as well, finally. The only obstacles left were the damn law and her floor staff status at work.

She jumped up from her seat by the window at the sight of his car outside her townhouse and ran to the front door, yelling goodbye to her mother. Life was good.

Outside she ran to his car at the curbside and yanked the passenger side open. Within moments a smiling Inuyasha was opening his car door and ushering her into the driver's side before making his way around the back of the car into the passenger seat himself. She cranked up Fungus, being extra gentle on her wrist, and drove off, coursing along Hennepin Avenue across the bridge. The CD player blared a Gackt CD she'd brought with.

An hour and a half later Kagome and Inuyasha pulled into his garage and went into his house. They sat down on the couch in the main living room together talking, Inuyasha's arm around her shoulders and her arm behind his back to wrap around his waist.

Her fingers rested upon that spot just above the waistband of his pants. Sighing deeply and leaning against him with her eyes closed, their conversation long exhausted of topics, she applied pressure with two of those fingertips.

Once, twice.

"Yes?" he asked suggestively while squeezing her shoulder and relaxing into the back cushion of the couch, a dreamy smirk on his face. He anxiously awaited her response; she'd signaled being in the mood, and he wasn't about ready to flake her off. Her mother was fine with her spending much time at his place so long as she was home by midnight.

"May I take your hat off?" she asked with suppressed enthusiasm, very softly, enunciating each word with more propriety than a drunk person trying to sound sober.

Before answering, he slid his clawed hand from her shoulder all the way down along her side, feeling her shape in the process, until his palm settled upon the swell of her hip, almost mimicking her own grip upon his waist. "Sure. Go for it."

Her eyes still closed, Kagome brought her right hand up and over to grab at the bill of his hat, gently lifting it up and off of his head, freeing his ears. She flung it backwards over the edge of the couch, bending at the elbow rather than flicking her wrist like she would have preferred.

As soon as his ears were exposed and his hat had landed upon the floor behind the couch, Inuyasha completely grabbed her by the waist and pulled her onto his lap, her legs draping over his thighs. When they'd come in, he had left the indoor lights off, leaving the room mostly dark as they had talked. The only light in the room came from through the windows; by now Kagome's eyes had adjusted to the dark enough that she could see him fairly well. She smiled mischievously, anticipating what she knew he'd give her. Just thinking about it made her pulse race; it was all he'd let her have until… later, much later.

"So, how'd I do on the road?" she asked, bringing her arms up to his shoulders, locking her fingers together behind his neck.

"Damn good for only your second time behind the wheel," Inuyasha replied, sliding his arms around her waist tightly, bringing her intensely close against him. "You sure you never snuck your mom's car out for joyrides before you got your permit two weeks ago?"

She giggled and grinned before answering to his little tease by closing her eyes and pressing her lips to his, then murmuring her response the moment he parted his lips to undoubtedly deepen the kiss. "Mmm, never. Don't be a dick and a tease."

Inuyasha had no intelligent or verbal response to her accusations. He simply silenced all of her further attempts at speech, leaving her breathless and heavily drawn in by their mouths' ministrations and his teasing tongue work.

Kagome unlaced her fingers to massage the muscles in his shoulders in rhythm with her kisses as she kept them more shallow, opting to lightly teethe his lips and tug playfully at the metal rings in the lower one before returning to more deep, tongue delving and sucking motions in between open mouthed licks, enough to drive him halfway to insanity.

Inuyasha's hands untucked her shirt hem from the waistband of her skirt in the back.

Kagome pulled away slightly and laughingly asked, "What are you doing?"

He went for her neck with a faint trail of kisses, his fingertips massaging the skin to either side of the small of her back. "What's it look like? I'm getting my payment for those driving lessons," he answered softly, his lips still upon her neck.

"Some payment," she managed to utter after much difficulty with producing coherent speech.

Inuyasha mouthed a particularly sensitive spot upon her throat, sending a chill through her whole body as he held her tightly in place. "Yeah, well, that's all I need or really want right now. Besides, you're the one who'll be gettin' it high and dry unless you go finger happy with those photos I let you have."

"Hey!" She stared at him in shock, a light blush just barely warming her cheeks.

"Why do you think I gave them to you in the first place?" Inuyasha smirkingly murmured against her skin, another delicate pressing of lips evoking a sweet, strangled breath from out of her.

Kagome, even in her half-sane state, refused to answer, unwilling to admit that she had used those photos, and the ones he didn't know about, for the very thing he had just insinuated. To do it was one thing, while to openly admit to it was another, she felt.

"So, don't mind me. Tell me how you like the box office."

The attention he gave to her neck was utterly distracting. It took her a moment to settle from the last few licks before she could pull together a string of comprehensible words and speak them. "Aside from this… one customer, some crazy little lady who told me she has a mouse in her heart--"

"Oh, her," Inuyasha interrupted, pulling away from her neck to run the tip of his tongue across her bottom lip, making Kagome squeal and return the same gesture. They stopped kissing to fix their gaze upon each other. "It's one of her many delusions. Usually I just see her trying to pick up imaginary pennies she finds on the floor." He smirked in remembrance. "But she's a good, friendly customer. Been coming for about six years now."

"I think it's kinda weird. Almost creepy."

"Yeah, but she's not hurting anyone. Anyway, you were saying?" Inuyasha asked seriously. He squeezed his left hand lightly.

"Well, aside from her, everything's pretty good. It's really easy. Can get boring at times, and there's not much to do during downtimes in between rushes," she continued on with honesty, "but I like it better than working with food. But," she pouted, "my stupid, gimpy wrist is slowing me down during the rushes. I can barely keep half the pace that the others do. Makes me feel slow," she complained grumpily.

Inuyasha shrugged his shoulders. "It'll get easier later. Man, concessions is irritating without you up there. FatGirl just quit two days ago, so that's another good cashier we've lost."

"Hey, you still have me," she retorted, her brow set.

"Not in the stand, we don't. It's boring, and Tanaya's in her manic phase and off her meds, as you could tell earlier tonight," he grumbled. She brought her hands to her chest and crossed them. "I got nothing to work with but some so-so cashiers and a bunch of new employees who probably will quit within two months."

"How come you almost never work box office?" she asked, curious.

He shrugged, removing his hands from their clamping grips upon her waist before leaning back and stretching his arms out behind him with a groan. She poked him in the belly.

"Don't do that!"

She went off with another question. "Why is that hat the only one you ever wear to work?"

He raised his eyebrow. "Cuz."

"You like that anime that much?"

"Naw," he replied. "I wear it to remind me of my old friend Iwasaki-san. The guy who formed that cine-club I told you about. Remember?"

Kagome racked her brain a bit, her eyes glancing off into some upward corner. "Kinda, but not really."

"His first name was Akira. I was really good friends with him, and the other, more famous Akira, Kurosawa-san."

Inuyasha brought his arms back around Kagome, turning her so her back was to his chest. Kagome settled comfortably into his hold, resting her head alongside his with her eyes closed. She brought her hands back up to her chest, clasping them together; Inuyasha's arms locked around her upper arms firmly.

He began to tell her, again, about the many connections he had once had in Tokyo back in the first half of the twentieth century, and before even then. He lightly pecked her cheek from time to time in between anecdotes, chuckling with well hidden sadness as he recalled his old friends in the film industry.

"I never really worked on films myself, but I was known in a few circles, so sometimes I got to watch them being made. One I remember," he rambled on with a strange bout of excessive nostalgia, "was the very first taiyozoku film, Taiyo no Kisetsu in 1956. Director was a guy I knew named Furukawa. Takumi Furukawa."

Kagome's eyes fluttered open, and she froze. She felt goosebumps all over her arms. "T-Takumi?"

Sensing her unease, Inuyasha set his ears back. "What's wrong?"

Kagome refused to answer for a good while, feeling ever increasingly numb. She swallowed painfully.

"Kagome?" His voice went up an octave while still retaining a forceful quality.

"Huh?" She turned her head and made to look him in the eyes, slightly shifting within his arms. He frowned, feeling anxious.

"What's got you all shook up like this?" he asked cautiously.

Kagome took forever to answer, constantly dropping her gaze and chewing her lip as she tried to level her breathing a bit. When she finally found her voice, she answered, "My father's name… was Takumi," so softly that one with human hearing would think she had merely let out a somber sigh.

Inuyasha did not answer, waiting for her to continue, if she was going to. She went on with her eyes shut, obviously having a difficult time finding the words she wanted to say and a strong enough voice that would not crack. "He, he died when I was five. Committed suicide, actually. My mom woke up one morning to find him not in bed with her. She found him in the garage, in the car. The engine was running. Carbon monoxide poisoning, the police said."

She paused to calm herself a bit more, biting down on her lip to keep the tears from forming. It still hurt. Usually she was able to stave off the pain of its occurrence and the sting of reality and memories, but sometimes it broke through her defenses.

Inuyasha hugged her tighter. "Take as long as you need," he said softly in a low voice, his eyes hooded. "You don't need to talk about it if you don't want to." My father was dead when I was even younger than that.

"Dad… was a math professor at Yale. This was when I used to live in Connecticut. Mom and I lived there for two more years before moving to Denver, and then to New York, and some other places before Chicago, and then Tokyo again," Kagome explained, sniffling, her eyes still shut. Inuyasha listened intently, paying deep attention, feeling miserable at having triggered such unpleasant memories of hers.

Her voice broke. "I miss him, a lot. I try not to think about him too often. It just gets worse each year. I get moved everywhere for Mom's frequent job transfers. I hate change. I want to just stay in one place, live in one city for the rest of my life, and never move again."

She sank deeper into the crevice that was his arms, folding herself up as tightly as she could. After a racked sigh, she continued to murmur gibberish, willing herself to succumb to the tire she'd been fighting off much of the day without even noticing. His nose to the back of her head, Inuyasha breathed in deeply and sat there staring into her hair and not letting go.

Crickets began chirping outside.

When quarter to midnight came, he whispered, "Time to take you home."

---

The remainder of the weekend was of a more cheerful and uplifting nature. That, and damn busy. Kagome finally had some days off during the week, and she spent them lounging around at home, relaxing though feeling increasingly like a hermit. She blamed it, however, on the sickeningly hot and sticky weather.

Tuesday evening she was busy watching the late afternoon news with her mother when the phone rang. She ran to answer it. Inuyasha was on the line.

"Kagome, do you have plans before work on Thursday?" he asked.

"No. I haven't even left the house since I got back from work on Sunday," she replied. His trademark smirk of a chuckle came through the receiver at her before he went on to request an outing that afternoon.

"It's important, but it's a surprise," he teased.

"So, where and when?" she asked, smiling, glancing over at her mother who was still watching the news reports.

---

"It's almost two and they're not here yet, Ban," Jakotsu complained with extreme anxiety as he checked his watch for the umpteenth time in the last fifteen minutes. He had been watching traffic zip by from the upper balcony of Pandora's Cup since he, Bankotsu, and Kouga had arrived around one in the afternoon, but he had yet to see Inuyasha's unmistakable, sleek Saturn pass by, or seen either him or the "safeword girl" walk up to the building.

"You idiots," Kouga muttered from his stool at the other end of the balcony overlooking the street, a cigarette in his right hand for the time being. "I still can't believe you guys openly talked about that shit."

Bankotsu crossed his arms and glared at Kouga without saying anything before turning back to Jakotsu. "Jakotsu, just calm down. Inuyasha only lives a matter of blocks away. Unless he's had to pick up the girl who overheard us, Kagome, and is running late, there's no reason to get all upset when it's still not even the time they're supposed to be here," he tried to reason with Jakotsu.

"Besides," Kouga added in, "he does have a cell phone. Hell, he doesn't even have a land line."

"But we don't," Jakotsu commented.

Kouga smirked and pulled aside his light jacket to show off the cell phone clipped to his belt, much to their surprise. "I got it about a month ago," he explained. "Need it for my new second job. Easier to get a hold of me, and all," he clarified.

"Well then," Bankotsu began as he picked up his crumb-covered plate from the small, high table in his and Jakotsu's corner of the balcony. He exited the balcony into the main room of the second floor to place the dirty plate in a designated bin by the stairwell, then returned to the balcony and leaned against the doorframe. "If they're not here by quarter after, we call."

"I still don't get why I have to be here," Kouga grumbled from his stool.

"Because Jakotsu told both you and me," Bankotsu answered him. "That's why."

Kouga raised an eyebrow before taking a long drag from his cigarette. "I've nothing to apologize for. I kept my mouth shut."

Bankotsu sighed. "I'm sure he's very thankful of you for that," he replied in as calm a manner as he could.

Kouga was about to respond and voice his boredom once again when Jakotsu, who had been thoroughly distracted away from the sidewalk and street out front and below until now, looked down to see the two expectant figures just walking up to the building, quickly escaping his line of vision.

"Guys, they're here," he announced without turning around, strangely giddy.

Downstairs at the food counter, Inuyasha ordered some coffee for himself and a Rat Bastard Root Beer for Kagome. After the cashier handed him back his change and the two had their beverages, Kagome and Inuyasha went upstairs to the second level.

"So we're just going to hang out at this coffee shop… place?" she asked, eyeing her surroundings. She was slightly put off by the collection of mismatched tables and chairs scattered in the room that the stairs had opened up into.

Inuyasha firmly clamped his left hand onto her right shoulder, urging her forward toward the doorway that led out to the upper porch. "Not exactly," he replied, not wanting her to get any ideas.

"Here they are!"

Kagome stared in disbelief and slight apprehension at the figures who were now visible through the doorway only ten to fifteen feet ahead.

It was… the men she'd overheard at Kouga's party. And Kouga? Had he known what Inuyasha had been doing as well?

A fresh batch of dread hatched within her stomach like the eggs of alien parasites.

She tried to quickly turn and head back for the stairs, eager to escape the confrontation she now knew he'd planned. "Umm, I don't think this is such a--"

"I don't think so, Kagome," he softly muttered, stilling her by the shoulder from fleeing. Kagome cursed under her breath, suddenly feeling trapped.

The men watching Inuyasha and Kagome from the balcony found themselves strangely intrigued by the current exchange going on between their friend and the reason why they were there in the first place.

Jakotsu, feeling responsible for the girl's reaction, spoke up. "Hey, no need to get all worked up, Kagome. Inuyasha just asked us to talk to you. That's all," he explained, hoping she would listen. It was, after all, his fault that she had found out what Inuyasha had been trying to keep from her, and had she never overheard his conversation with Bankotsu, she never would have gotten drunk and everything else that Inuyasha had told him had happened, would not have happened.

Kagome did not answer right away. She simply tugged at her shoulder and glanced up at Inuyasha pleadingly with an almost scared look, silently willing him to let her get the living hell out of there.

Inuyasha snorted and ushered her forward even more, one hand still firmly clamped to her shoulder and the other holding his coffee cup and desperately trying not to spill the hot liquid on himself. "Talk time, Kagome, and no, you're not getting out of it."

NO, not them! Please, anything but talking to them! Kagome silently screamed. "But--"

"No buts," he interjected, almost wanting to laugh at her subsequent pout. Finally he got her to willingly walk the rest of the way with him to the balcony and through the doorway. "Sit," he ordered. She sat on a stool, silent but warily eyeing Jakotsu as she apprehensively sipped her root beer.

No one spoke right away, not until Kouga put out his now useless cigarette and commented, "So, Inuyasha, this is the underage girl Jakotsu told me you were going to him about," as he smooshed the butt into the crud in the ashtray without looking at anyone, watching the traffic.

Kagome stiffened, her eyes going wide. She opened her mouth to speak, but Inuyasha held up a hand to her to signal that she should remain silent, his expression clearly showing him to be not in the best of moods.

"Kagome, while what I had Jakotsu… do… to me was my choice," he began, his voice a bit constricted and forced, "Jakotsu and Bankotsu are at fault for allowing you to find out. It appears Jakotsu here," he paused to glare at the man in question, who was currently trying to make his expression as blank and unreadable as possible, and failing miserably, "was a little blabbermouth.

"Jakotsu is a professional dom at a club not too far from your house," he went on. "He offered me free sessions. I wouldn't have taken him up on the offer had he insisted on charging me. However," he stressed the last word in a long, drawn out manner, eyeing Jakotsu and then Kagome, "as part of the deal, he had agreed to keep all details surrounding our agreement completely confidential. As it turns out, Jakotsu here happened to tell both his boyfriend Bankotsu as well as Kouga over there."

"And I didn't say a single thing about it, now, did I, Inuyasha?" Kouga rhetorically asked as he hardened his eyes and crossed his arms. "As soon as you clarified who she was at the party, I instantly knew not to touch her," he continued on, slight annoyance growing. "Can I fucking leave now?"

"Yes," Inuyasha replied with a smirk. While he and Kouga didn't always get along, he was still a friend. Kouga had proven himself trustworthy and sensible, and so while Kouga seemed to be in a particularly terrible mood at the moment, Inuyasha found it easy to shrug off the unfriendly overtones of his comments.

"Oh, and Kagome," Kouga went on, his tone a bit more polite and pleasant sounding. Upon receiving her undivided attention, he said, "My little sister hopes you didn't get too sick from drinking all that shit. Turns out she knows you from school." At her odd look of confusion, he added, "Rin. Rin Crenshaw. Short girl about your age. She'll be 18 in October."

She nodded wordlessly, finally able to place the face and name in connection with him. Did he tell Rin about my drunken behavior at the party? Oh crap, I wonder who else knows. She laughed nervously, somehow feeling deeply embarrassed at the thought that stories of her drunkenness might spread to circles of which she had no knowledge. Okay, time to flee the country or something. Somehow I think I'll never live this down.

"Anyway, Inuyasha, I guess I'll see you later, all right, man?" he quipped with a knowing glance. "I got the night off from work, strangely, so I'll be at Ground Zero."

Inuyasha nodded, his expression still a bit hardened.

Through all this, Kagome sat, silent but for her momentary burst of nervous laughter, with a confounded look upon her face. All assortments of disconcerting and uneasy thoughts raced through her mind. Dread crawled down her neck. Why in the heck had Inuyasha brought all of this stuff up, rehashed it, with… with them?! What good would it do to anyone? She just wanted to never have to think about the situation ever, ever again.

As Kouga stood up to exit the balcony and then further remove himself from the coffee shop, Jakotsu spoke up. "Kagome," he began, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable.

She turned to fully look him in the face, swallowing with trepidation at the confrontation. "Yes?" she asked nervously, a slight tremble in her voice, finally speaking for the first time since Inuyasha's "friends" had spotted her trying to escape.

"I…" Jakotsu trailed off, feeling increasingly guilty. He sighed and closed his eyes, not able to look at her. "I'm sorry about being actively involved in the situation that got you drunk. I don't know how much you overheard--"

Kagome interrupted him, the words spilling out of her mouth before she knew she had even spoken them. "Everything starting from when you and… and…" she trailed off at already having forgotten the remaining guy's name, then chastised mentally herself for having blurted things out without thinking them through thoroughly beforehand.

"Bankotsu," he supplied, his eyes open now.

"When you and… Bankotsu were talking about something that Inuyasha had destroyed," she finished.

Inuyasha grumbled, his lip twitching. "You told Bankotsu about that fucking dog bone gag you used on me?!" Jakotsu is more than dead. He's a fucking corpse. His glare was soon fully set on the idiot in question.

"Well, I'd been pissed. Those things aren't cheap, you know," Jakotsu argued in defense. "At least you offered to pay for the repairs when you broke into our house through the window the Monday after the party!"

"You broke into their house?!" Kagome exclaimed in shock, unsure what to think.

Bankotsu interrupted before Inuyasha could respond. "Jakotsu, I thought I told you to stop being so superficial. And get back to the point."

"Fine, fine!" He sighed, desperately trying to ignore Inuyasha's current glare. He looked back at Kagome, who was simply wide-eyed in what seemed to him to be obvious discomfort at being involved in the conversation, whether actively or passively. "Anyway, Kagome, as Inuyasha said, I didn't keep things confidential, and for that, I am sorry. Especially sorry for being so careless as to allow you and anyone else around to overhear what Ban and I had been arguing about. When Inuyasha told me what had happened to you as a result of overhearing us, I just couldn't stop berating myself for having gotten involved. He'd come to me one night toward the end of May and had--"

"I know why he came to you," Kagome said softly, her gaze lowering to the plain tabletop, which suddenly seemed very, very interesting.

Jakotsu grimaced slightly at her reaction. "Well, I did try to talk him out of it, told him to see a therapist--"

"Hey! Jakotsu, that's enough!" Inuyasha snapped, ready to break part of his skeleton if he didn't shut the hell up immediately. The hell is he telling her that for?!

"--but being the stubborn ass that he is--"

"I remember," she interrupted, meeting his eyes. "He told you that this was the only therapy he needed. Jakotsu, I'm not upset at you… I was just… horrified to f-find out what he'd been doing to himself over me. That's all. I'm actually a bit glad I found out. I'm glad, because he's stopped," Kagome admitted, her voice faltering slightly but remaining predominantly stable. She gave a quick glance over at a wide-eyed, stunned Inuyasha.

Their unspoken exchange said things for which there were no words sufficient enough to properly describe and do justice.

Kagome broke off the gaze to see that Bankotsu and Jakotsu were somewhat staring at them… in a fairly obvious manner.

"Er," she began, feeling a bit put on the spot, "Jakotsu, if anything, I should thank you. And um, can we never, ever talk about this situation ever again?" She forced a smile that was almost as creepy as that of Wednesday Addams after having been forced to watch cute Disney movies. A smile… that reeked of an oxymoronic combination of embarrassment and confidence. And, strangely, accomplishment.

Inuyasha silently fumed, a glare set upon Jakotsu, as Kagome offered a handshake to Jakotsu.

"Oh, and Inuyasha?"

"What?" he muttered at her, feeling peeved that she had thanked Jakotsu. He flared his nostrils indignantly, almost sulking.

"Don't ever do anything like this again, please?" she gritted through her teeth, then smiled fakely, her eyes slits. She added in a light chuckle to soften the blow to him.

"Fine," he replied, catching the hidden meaning within her words.

Bankotsu, but a listener during most of the exchange, bent down for his bag and pulled it upward into his lap. He fished around inside, pulled something out with one hand, and then placed it on the tabletop. "Kagome, since I found out who you were at the party, I can finally give this to you."

She turned her attention to the man barely two inches taller than she herself was, glancing at the item on the table as well. "A video tape? What's on it?"

He smiled. "It's a copy of the show you helped me film. Thought you'd like to see it, just for shits and giggles. And if you ever want to help out in the future, Inuyasha has our home number."

She smiled, genuinely this time. "I'd love to. Anytime. Maybe I could be on the air one of these times, too?"

---

That evening during the very beginning of her shift, Kagome vastly tried to ignore the aftermath of thoughts and feelings that were still rushing through her mind even hours after Inuyasha's little stunt. It kept her distracted enough that she was slower than usual with her lines of customers. Her thoughts were consistently elsewhere from where they should be, off in La-La Land.

The phone shrilled, knocking her out of her current train of thought. She had no customers, as it was a downtime and they had three registers open. Since she was closest to the phone, she had been designated as the call-taker.

Her hand closed around the black handle of the receiver, and she brought it up to her ear. The servers at Cold Stone Creamery began to sing out for having just received a tip, and Kagome, with much difficulty, blocked out the din just twenty feet from her as she answered, "Thank you for calling Pierce Theaters Megaplex 15. This is Kagome speaking. How may I help you?"

"Naraku Vault, please," the voice on the other end promptly replied, a male's voice.

"May I ask who is calling?" Kagome made sure to ask. The last time she'd paged him for a phone call without telling him who was on the line for him, he had cussed her out, in front of her coworkers no less, for her "stupidity," as he had referred to it.

"The tour manager for Cher," said the voice.

His answer, as succinct as it was, caught her somewhat off-guard. Why would Cher's tour manager be calling to speak with the General Manager of a movie theater? She furrowed her eyebrows in wonder and confusion.

"Um, sure, just a moment, sir," she managed to reply coherently before her brain turned to mush from bewilderment. Placing him on hold promptly, she did a Line 1 intercom page and spoke into the receiver, "Phone call for Naraku on line one, phone call for Naraku on line one. It's the tour manager for Cher."

As she replaced the receiver back onto the cradle she looked up to see a customer patiently waiting. "Ah, hi, welcome to Pierce Theaters. How may I help you?" she asked without missing a beat.

The evening continued, Kagome becoming a bit surprised when later on the tour manager called back about three more times. She discussed the possibilities of what it was about with Denise and Cory in between customer-packed pulse rushes, but they all just shrugged her shoulders.

"Probably another rental or something?"

"Rental?" Kagome's eyes shifted from Denise, who had spoken, to Cory, silently hoping for clarification.

"Yeah, the managers rent out the auditoriums to people sometimes. Usually they do it when the theater's not open. Sometimes businesses, like the hotel in this building, like to hold meetings in there," she supplied without a care. "Maybe Cher wants to see a movie? Some other celebs have rented our screens to see stuff before."

Denise was about to say something when all three heard a knock against the counter surface near the red half-gate that allowed one entrance behind the counter. They turned to see Allen Schultz with keys in hand.

"Denise, Cory, both of you are on break. Oh, and Kagome?"

Great, I'm being singled out yet again, Kagome grumbled to herself silently, hiding behind a smile. "Yes?"

"Not one of you is to sell tickets for the 8:10 and 10:50 shows of 28 Days Later, not to anyone," he replied, holding out his keys to Cory. "Cory, lock up your guys' drawers, okay?"

Kagome thought. "Er, what if people ask about it? What do I tell them?"

Cory grasped the keys and yanked them away fiercely, then made her way to lock both registers, explaining in a haughty tone, "KAgome, just say the film broke or something. It doesn't matter what the real reason is. Naraku always has us say the same shit--"

"No cussing, Cory," Allen warned, although not too effectively.

She rolled her eyes as Denise remained silent and already left through the gate toward the stairs. "Please, Allen, you're such a pansy you'd never enforce anything. Besides, no customers around right now. We don't even need three registers open down here," she continued, talking down to Allen like she often did. Allen, however, simply sighed and snatched the keys from her now outstretched hand.

He leaned on the counter by the half-gate and covered the upper half of his face with his hand as Cory followed along where Denise had already made her way, the short, rail thin blonde calling out in a snarky manner, "How in the hell did you ever get put into management, Allen?"

Groaning with exasperation, he made to turn and order her not to back-talk to him, but as he formed the words, he just couldn't say them. He merely closed his mouth and looked back at Kagome, who had remained a silent observer during the entire exchange. An observer, but a keen observer nonetheless.

"You know, you really shouldn't let them get to you like that, or they'll keep treating you like a doormat," Kagome offered concernedly, wondering how he could put up with the constant belittlement he received from not just the management but also the floor staff as well. He said nothing, but something in his expression lightened. She gave him a commiserating glance before confirming, "So, is the film really broke, or is that just what I should tell the customers?"

"What you tell the customers," he replied, his words exuding caution.

She teasingly asked, "And is Cher seeing a movie or something?" A warming smile crept onto her face.

He winked with a nod. "But don't tell anyone. She's staying in the hotel and wants to see Open Range."

"That comes out tomorrow, though," Kagome commented, her eyebrow raised.

"But," Allen replied back, "we already have the print."

Kagome was about to comment back about the whole scenario when both of them heard yelling and shouts from upstairs. Allen quickly recognized one of the voices and cursed under his breath. Wiping his face with his hand again as he made a silent plea for things not to be what he thought they were, he told Kagome to concentrate on watching the box office. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, he glanced up; the shouts had gotten louder.

"Get deeze fucking tings da fuck offa me, yeh fucking piggies!" Two more voices and the sounds of struggling floated downstairs, almost with an echo.

Kagome stiffened and glanced back to see Allen run up the stairs, all the while wondering what was going on. That was no local's accent. She immediately knew just who was growling out those obscenities and police slurs.

Customers and random people on the second floor of the building began to draw into crowds around the stairs and escalator, attracted to the shouts like drivers' eyes to a blazing crash. Kagome groaned. She did not want her night to be further ruined.

Another familiar voice shouted out, "Get this no good ass locked up, and make it so he's trespassing if he ever sets foot on the third floor of this building ever again, Sergeant Kriesel."

She immediately veered back toward her register, thankful for a small group of customers who had just trickled up, seemingly uncaring of the spectacle that she knew was going on. She tried helping them and ignoring the chaos only twenty feet away off to her left at the same time. It was damn difficult.

Kagome managed to block everything out until she saw one of the cops who often worked on patrol at the theater leading her former concession stand coworker Clint forward, his hands behind his back in what she knew just by obvious guess and due to Clint's previous outburst to be handcuffs, followed by Naraku himself, who looked extremely pissed off, and yet at the exact same time, very pleased…

…and who was dressed in a Freddy Krueger green and red striped promotional shirt for the new Freddy Vs. Jason film that would be debuting the next day.

Kagome could do nothing but stare blankly in shock at the scene before her as she went through the motions of helping her next customer.

Okay, whether or not Naraku was the antichrist, seeing him even partially dressed as a horror flick villain was the creepiest thing she had seen in a good, long time.

She shuddered.

---

Upstairs during the clean-up of the stand, Naraku requested Kagura's presence away from her self-imposed supervision of the floor staff, all but physically dragging her into the GMO.

"So, we got Clint busted for pocketing money?" she asked casually as he began to mess around with the payroll and the police report paraphernalia that cluttered up the top of his desk. He muttered a bit, flipping through papers, searching for something specific. After receiving no answer, she asked again, this time a bit more insistent.

He leveled his icy gaze at her with a 'do not fuck with me right now' look that set her just about ready to run out of that very office before answering, "I've suspected him for a while, but we caught him tonight. Kagura, I need you to make sure the paperwork for the rental gets reported to the Corporate Office. Cher is a big enough name that we'd have to legitimately report the rental. No extra money this weekend," he drawled out, his eyes slits.

Kagura suppressed the urge to tell him to fuck off. She knew better. "Give me the papers, then," she ordered, holding out her hand.

"They're in the pile on the far corner of my desk," was his reply, and when she did not move from her spot, her hand still outstretched and an annoyed look on her face, he smiled at her, asking, "What's the matter? Your feet don't work?"

Choking back her urges, she silently composed her face into a veneer of indifference and walked the short distance to fetch the papers herself, all the while mentally muttering to herself what she truly thought of him.

In the cash room she went about the paperwork like an indentured servant who had long forgotten what she had sold her freedom for. She tried to ignore his phone calls to the projectionist and then the Sergeant who had taken Clint away in cuffs.

He frequently broke her concentration by interrupting her work, asking her if she thought he'd be able to get out of paying Clint for his last week of work or some other minute concern of equal stupidity and sliminess. She fought to keep her teeth from grinding, his interruptions greatly frustrating her ability to get anything done.

"Oh, and Kagura?" he called out, his voice muggy with the smirk he most likely wore.

She lightly slammed the pencil she'd been writing with onto the counter and swiveled around in his direction. Faking a smile, she silently awaited his next statement.

"I think you need to have a talk with a few employees who are concerned about their paychecks being smaller than they'd anticipated, if you know what I mean," Naraku chuckled out as he leaned back in his chair and stretched his arms out behind him, the combination of his Krueger shirt and his long black partial ponytail giving him an almost demonic appearance.

No, wait, Kagura was just visualizing him as a demon because that's what she had been likening him to just moments before. It took all she could muster not to cringe beneath his gaze.

"Yes, Naraku," she answered.

"Good." His voice was a smooth, drawn out croon. He sat back up straight and threaded together the fingers of his hands, his elbows upon the armrests.

When Kagura finally left for home and arrived at her apartment, she collapsed into a heap on the floor from exhaustion just outside the door to her bedroom, cursing all the while. She felt pitiful, and when she tried to get up, she felt weak, completely drained of energy. So, she merely slept on the carpet. In her good clothes.

She was tired, and it showed.

She only wished she could end it all.

---

A/N: just a few things I keep forgetting to mention:

First, I have a store at cafepress(dot)com/numisma, at which you can buy "The Power of Cuteness Compels You" shirts and buttons (quote from chapter 20). Also, KrisCynical has a store at cafepress(dot)com/Kristin store at which you can buy shirts, teddy bears, and prints of the "Management" pic she did of Umezu-san (the bears only have the MHH logo).

Second, please check out the MHH oneshot that LadyCatBailey wrote for me, called Welcome to Umezu-san Stalkers Anonymous. You can find it on ff(dot)net and AFF, though FF takes out the - in Umezu-san. It's really, really funny.

Third, thanks for the uplifting comments concerning whoever had left those reviews. They make me feel all squishy and gooey inside, in a good way. Yay!

Lastly, Japanese vocab:

kuji - 9 o'clock

un, kuji wa ii - yes, 9 o'clock is good

taiyozoku = sun tribe, a particular Japanese film genre

Taiyo no Kisetsu - Season of the Sun