InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Stranger In My Bed ❯ Chapter 4

[ P - Pre-Teen ]
Disclaimer: None of the characters from Inu Yasha belong to me, but Eva is mine.
***

“This tells me nothing.” he says as we stand at the site where I found him.

Laying his hand to the snow, he sneers contemptuously. “Are you sure you found me here?”

I fight the urge to kick his backside into the snow, placing my hands in front of me instead. “Sesshoumaru-sama, what are you looking for?”

“A resonance, a portal to the next world... anything but a mound of snow!”

“Perhaps you wandered away from the portal and collapsed here.”

He rises from the ground, saying nothing. After a short while, he turns to me. “I will return in the evening.”

***
When he returns, he pours over maps, asking me questions about terrain, transportation... The encyclopedias lie open next to him. He commands me to study up on magnetic pulse. It’s all gobbledygook to me.

Suddenly, his ears prick alert.

“Something approaches.”

The doorbell rings.

"Hello..." there is a man I have never met before. He has small eyes embedded in a prune-like face .

"Can I help you?" I ask through the screen door. He shifts in his feet, rubbing his gloved hands against each other in uncertainty. Or maybe he is just freezing.

"Well, I'm with a... book-selling agency and I was wondering whether I could come in..."

"What books you selling?" I ask cynically. Jehovah's witnesses and people asking for donations come to the door. Not "book-selling agencies".

"Lots... I was just..."

"I don't need books. Thank you anyway."

"Wait wait !" the little man yells out desperately. "FINE I'm NOT SELLING BOOKS..." I continue closing the door. "C'MON, Just... HEAR ME OUT!"

I wait. He waits.

"What is it?" I ask impatiently.

He pauses, apparently waiting for something. When it doesn't happen, he asks a bit sheepishly,
"Aren't you going to invite me in? It's freezing out here."

"What makes you think it's any warmer in here?"

He is clearly annoyed at my insolence."I was wondering if you saw any strange..."

Just then I hear another voice. "JeSus.. wHat aRe yOU doINg? ShaRiNg Hot FUDgE caKE recIpes? " the little man is pushed aside and my door is suddenly being bashed in with a mallet by a bigger, man. The shock makes me jump back and slam the second screen door and locking it. There is utter chaos in the foyer as I struggle with the dog, throwing itself against the screen door in a flurry of anger. "Come ON!" I yell at her, pulling her into the main house with me by the collar.

The two men are arguing with each other amidst the bashing:
"Wait! We can't go bashing in on just ANYBODY"S DOOR! What if he isn't here????"

"ThEn she"lL lEarn tO bE PoliTe neXt tIme!!" the other man growls.

'he'? Are they looking for Sesshoumaru-sama? "I'm calling the police!!!!!!!!" I yelled at them, spinning around to enter the main house when I collide into my house guest.

"YEAH??? Go On then... CAll the PolicE... I'Ll hAve yOur HeAd riPped ofF AnD bE pIsSing iN yOur neCk beFOre YoU caN saY.."

"Sesshoumaru-sama!!!!!!!!!!!" the little man screams in surprise and excitement.

"What??" THe other man stops as if not understanding, but when he looks in and finds Sesshoumaru-sama, his ape-like face blurs into a sea of serenity. The mallet drops to the ground.

They both stand there peering through the cracked screen, transfixed by "Sesshoumaru-sama." as if they are looking on God's countenance.

They throw themselves to the cold icy ground, the little man addressing Sesshoumaru-sama in archaic Japanese. Before he finishes his sentence, however, Sesshoumaru-sama interrupts:
"Your poor imitation of my language insults me."

Raisin looks like he's going to die from mortification. "Se... Sesshoumaru-sama, I apologize, I only meant to make you more welcome to our strange and wonderful world."

Sesshoumaru-sama looks bored. "Then speak your purpose plainly."

Raisin looks sheepish again. Shifting uncomfortably in the freezing snow, he asks "May we request a private council with you, Sesshoumaru-sama?" he looks at me pointedly, “The lowly human girl should not be privy to the message I have to bear.”

“i WiLl pUrgE youR eXcelLencY oF heR sTencH!” Ape-face volunteers suddenly, leering menacingly at me.

“Continue with your message.” Sesshoumaru-sama says as if Ape-face had never spoke.

"Ahh... As you wish, Master..." he clears his throat into his glove. "This humble servant was instructed by my leader to brief you on your mysterious emergence into this world (which must have proven Very inconvenient for such a magnificent personage such as you) and then take you to our sanctuary, a much more fitting abode for an illustrious and munificent youkai lord such as yourself..."

"i have no wish to enter a prison." Sesshoumaru-sama answers.

"Oh no No, Sesshoumaru-sama, you are mistaken..."

Sesshy's eyebrow lifted imperceptibly, which makes the little man tremble even more. "I mean..."

"I have heard enough.” Sesshoumaru-sama says as he turns away, his boa writhing gently over his shoulder. “You may wait for my decision."

"ahh... yes Sesshoumaru-sama."

"What was that all about?" I ask him as I close the main house door behind me. How did these people know where to find him? And who are they? 'Leader'? 'Sanctuary'? Why didn't he wait for them to tell him why and how he came to be here? Will more people like Ape-face be coming here in droves???

"It is a trap." he replies, as if in answer. He is standing at the window, like he’s waiting for something to happen.

“What are you going to do?” I ask. Although advising him to follow Raisin-face and manic freak-on-a-leash is far from my mind, they are the most immediate answer.

He chooses not to answer me, as if my words are just wind. Turning gracefully, his hands reach under the hem of his sweater and pulls it over his head. Even though we’ve only known each other for a short time, I know he will not speak when prodded.

His arrogant taciturn makes me want to scream!!

"There will be a snowstorm tonight," he states, breaking into my mental rant. His back is to me as he strips off his clothes and folds them neatly on the bed. "which will conceal our departure.”

"Aren't you being a bit hasty?" I ask, "What if they'll return you to your time?"

"Why would they return me after all their effort of summoning me here?" he curls his lips in distaste, and I see his fangs for the first time.

"Maybe they have a good reason for you being here."

"Your naive questions bore me." he says, his hand at his waistband. In a flash, I realize he's stepping out of them and that he's not wearing anything else underneath. My eyes bulge slightly, but he seems unperturbed. I turn around and face the window, but I think his nakedness has just been burned into my memory.

He continues as if having a private monologue. “Even if you were uninjured, you would not be able to keep up with me. I will have to carry you on my back.”

I still haven’t said a word.

Obviously noticing my rare silence, he asks “Are you sick?”

“No.”

“You are a maiden, then?”

The question startles me. Who cares about those kinds of questions anymore? “Hardly.”

He finds this somewhat amusing, I can almost feel a smile cracking those stone-cold lips.

“How are we traveling, Sesshoumaru-sama?” I ask despite myself. My whole being wants to be in this enterprise before my mind has figured itself out.

“You ask too many questions.”

“Do you even know where we are going?” I ask more insistently.

“You doubt Sesshoumaru-sama?”

“Yes.”

This obviously does not phase him, his mind is on the matter of our departure.

“Why don’t we just take my car?” I suggest.

“Did Diana not say the road was too dangerous?”

And a snowstorm coming too.

“I just don’t see why and how we’re going to outrun these people on foot!! What if they follow us?”

“They will not.” he says with finality, strapping his armour on. He looks formidable.

I pack lightly, wondering whether I made the right decision in leaving. Diana said I was being crazy. What is it to me that some John Doe asked me to help him find his way back home? I’d only told her that he was lost and didn’t remember his own name. “That’s crazy, what if he’ll rape you and leave you on the side of the road?” I argued that he would have done so already. “You’re not in love with him, are you?” I laughed at this notion.

I looked at my grandfather’s picture on the mantelpiece. Standing next to it was my aunt’s. My aunt, who’d resented him for forcing her to live a sedentary lifestyle. ‘Go into accounting, get married to this guy, buy a bungalow, live well’. She’d done all of this, but he never seemed overjoyed. Now that he’s dead, she’s in Cuba looking to buy a bungalow and eventually settle down with a cabana boy named “Juan” while her estranged husband is in Toronto living with his mistress.

There is no logical and rational way to live.

I turn to realize Sesshoumaru-sama is right behind me. I stop. “Smells like blood...” And then I realize the full ramifications of his last statement. “You killed them didn’t you?”

***