InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ That's Show Business ❯ What A Handsome Drunk! ( Chapter 9 )

Disclaimer: I do not own yadda-yadda, blah-blah, I'm not in the mood today.

chihiro-san: Hey everyone! I love it! I love it! Yes I do! For some odd reason virtually EVERYONE that I love updated the other day! I spent most of the evening laughing my @$$ off. It was great. But, sadly, in two week's time…I'll be a mindless zombie…because it's FINALS at my high school. Augh…*whimper*whimper* Take me now, Lord! Oh, the pain! You can't make me take my Chemistry final! I won't do it! NOOOOOOOOOO!!! THE CHEMICALS!!!! NOOOOOO!!!!

ch.-san: Oh well. Everything in that class looks like glittery sprinkles, so nothing too bad can come from mixing the wrong ingredients, right? Haha. I thought so. Toodles!

Ps: there's a lot of WAFF (I think it stands for Warm And Fuzzy Feelings, I dunno) in here, so if you hate WAFF, then I'm not the author for you!

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"Inu Yasha, what are you up to?" Kagome asked suspiciously as the waiter disappeared, only to reappear two minutes later with a wine list. Inu Yasha ran a finger down the list of Merlots and Zinfandels until he found what he was looking for. He tapped on the name twice, indicating that he wanted a bottle. The waiter looked at the wine he had selected, then up at the hanyou in shock.

"Are you sure, sir? It is our most expensive wine! Wouldn't you rather drink something a little less expensive?" The actor's eyes glittered maliciously at the waiter.

"No, I'd like this please. A bottle, mind you. And yes, I can afford it. I can afford to buy this place twelve times over. Don't you know who I am?" It took the man a moment to see past the human appearance, but when he did his expression was nothing less that horrified. For a moment, Kagome thought that the man was going to get down on the floor and lick Inu Yasha's shoes. He seemed so horrified at what he had said, but she couldn't tell why. `He's not God, you fool, he's just an actor. I've yelled at him for crying out loud! Jeez, you people act like he owns the world. Well, news flash! He doesn't! He's nothing but an arrogant, selfish, horrible, sophomoric…' She would have seethed further, but soon realized that the waiter was gone and Inu Yasha was staring at her.

"What?" she snapped. He raised an eyebrow at her and half-smiled.

"What's eating you?" he asked.

"Nothing." Inu Yasha had been `around' a lot of girls and was still lost when it came to girl-language. `Nothing' could mean anything. To save himself from getting a migraine, he just assumed that she was mad at him, which was usually the case.

"Really. Now, when I see someone's face looking as sour as yours, I'd say that something was bothering them." A look of hurt poured over her features.

"I don't have a sour face!" she barked.

"Well of course you don't think so; you're on that side of it." Kagome felt her teeth grinding, but did nothing to stop it. She might have been destroying years of orthodontic work, paid for by her mom, but it was much better for her to ruin her teeth then go to jail for stabbing a moviestar to death with a butter knife.

"So I'm ugly, am I?" she spat. The always-perceptive Inu Yasha just widened his smile and leaned back in his chair.

"To me, yes, but there's got to be someone in this world that doesn't think so. Oh, right…you've got Kouga, don't you?" The emphasis he put on her boyfriend's name startled him a bit. `Why am I making this an issue? I don't think that she's ugly at all…but as for Kouga…He needs to be neu-` His thought was cut short when he saw his wine glass drift away from him. The glass was slowly sliding towards the opposite end of the table, along with all of his other eating necessities. It was only until he looked up that he saw why. Kagome was gripping the tablecloth and bunching it in her hands so as not to run to his side of the table and strangle him.

"Don't you dare speak to me about Kouga," she hissed.

"What's there to talk about? Well, besides the fact that he's a mindless, annoying, horrible person."

"HE IS NOT!" she yelped and leapt up out of her chair. It seemed that someone had pushed the mute button, for everything fell to an ominous hush. All eyes were on Kagome as she blushed with rage and embarrassment. The omnipresent scowl was, yet again, plastered onto Inu Yasha's face.

"Sit down, will you?" he sighed. She did, but grudgingly.

"He is not…he's a sweet, amazing, kind boyfriend - "

"Who's never around to care for you like I…like a boyfriend aught to." Kagome's eyes widened as she stared at him, utterly shocked. `Was he about to say what I think he was about to say? No way! He hates me; he wouldn't say something like that. And that is so not true. Kouga has always been around to…to…' Realization hit Kagome like a sack of flour in the face. Kouga had never been there for her. He was always with Greenpeace on some `mission'. He wasn't there for her brother's graduation. He wasn't holding her hand at her grandfather's funeral. He wasn't there. Ever. A crystalline tear fell down her cheek and landed in her plate.

"You're right," she whispered. Her gloved hand was brought to her face and she began to shake. Inu Yasha's breath caught in his chest. `Oh shit. I didn't mean to make her cry! What do I do? What do I do?' In a fit of nervousness, he shot out of his chair and knelt on one knee next to her.

"Kagome, sweetie…" `Sweetie?!' they thought. She looked at him sadly through her silky blue fingers. The silent tears had made her mascara run, giving her a racoonish look that every girl wants. (a/n yeah, right. If you don't catch this sarcasm, I feel bad for you) She turned to face him. He gently took her free hand and began to stroke it with both of his.

"You're right, Inu Yasha. He hasn't ever been there for me. Never ever. Not even when…when my grandpa d-died," she croaked. The pain of his death returned to her and she slid off of her chair and into Inu Yasha's astonished arms. She buried her face deep into his chest and cried. He looked around in a distressed way, trying to find any sign of help or assurance. Having found none, he looked back at Kagome. He did, however, find a thousand sappy smiles given by old ladies with moth-eaten gray wigs placed precariously on their heads. They sighed and mumbled something about `young love' to themselves before turning to their meal. Just then, a familiar face appeared. The waiter stumbled out of the kitchen's double doors with the two bottles of wine. Inu Yasha waved at him and indicated through crude (yet effective) sign language that he wanted the wine, two glasses, and a check. After about two seconds, the waiter returned with a basket. In the basket was the wine and two of their crystal wineglasses. Inu Yasha handed him a few hundred bills, relieved him of the basket, and waltzed quickly out of the restaurant with Kagome under his wing.

~*~*~*~

"Just let it out, Kagome. It's okay." Inu Yasha's level of niceness was being stretched to its breaking point. They were sitting atop a grassy knoll. San Francisco Bay was placed neatly at their feet as they rested on their grassy perch. Thousands of glittering stars exploded to life above their heads in the deep, moonless sky. Inu Yasha bent his dark, human head and whispered in Kagome's ear as he rocked her.

"It's all right…don't worry…I'm here…" She sniffed and gazed tearfully up at him.

"You a-are here, a-aren't you?" she choked. He smiled warmly at her and nodded. She turned back to his chest to cry some more, but stopped short.

"O-o-o-oh no," she sobbed.

"What?"

"I-I've g-g-gotten your shirt smudgy." He glanced down at his white tux and noticed a large mascara splotch on it.

"That's nothing. Don't worry about it." With Kagome still in his arms, he took off his soiled jacket and was left with nothing to wear but his dark undershirt. He took the sleeve and gently wiped off her mascara lines. The ruined coat was tossed over her shoulders when he was done. `If I don't get "The Mother Hen of the Year Award", then nothing will win It.' he thought, flashing her a heartwarming smile. She grinned weakly and snuggled down deeper. Nothing could be heard in the night, save for crickets chirruping in the mini forest behind them. A soft, warm, thick wind played with their hair as it danced across the evening sky. Finally, after an unmeasurably long silence, Kagome spoke.

"I'm sorry," she croaked.

"For what?"

"You didn't get to eat dinner." He laughed and gave her a small squeeze.

"It's alright, and the meal wasn't a total waste; look!" With a flick of his wrist, he produced a wine bottle from the basket next to him. Now it was her turn to laugh.

"That's so you," she giggled.

"What's so me?" he asked.

"You remember the wine but forget to snag a few of the rolls off of the table." She smiled at him, largely now, and he couldn't help but smile back.

"Yeah, I guess. Damn it…I forgot to get a bottle opener. No problem; I'll just use my-Damn it! I don't have claws right now! What will we do?" Kagome took the bottle out of his hands and jammed her astonishingly sharp index nail into the cork. She wiggled, and fought, and after a time the cork came out. He poured her a little wine and she flicked the cork aside. The soft, golden liquid seemed to glow in the immense starlight.

"What should we toast to?" She pondered, raising her glass.

"To Naraku," Inu Yasha chortled.

"Why him?"

"Because he'll roast us when we don't show up tomorrow."

"You mean, we're not going home?" she squeaked.

"Of course not! We're taking the week off."

"Why?!"

"Because A) you need the week off. You're too brokenhearted about breaking up with Kouga; and B)…I can't drive all the way down to Los Angeles at eleven o-clock at night." `Who said anything about breaking up with Kouga?' she thought, but the more she thought about it, the more she knew that she would. He was never around when she needed him, and what's the point of having a boyfriend if you never saw him? Long-distance relationships just weren't her.

"To Naraku."

"Cheers." Clink. She washed down her anger and sorrow with a swallow of wine… and what a swallow! The sweetest flavors exploded in her mouth when she drank the golden liquid. Her eyes grew to an impossible size as she looked at her glass.

"Wow…"she breathed. "What is this?"

"It's Ice Wine." He said, taking another gulp from his own glass.

"Ice Wine?" she repeated.

"Yes. It's a special kind of wine that's only made every hundred years or so. You see, the harvesters have to wait until there is a frost and the grapes freeze, but don't die. When they're still frozen, they yank the grapes off of the vine, rush them to be crushed into wine, add a little magic, and voila! Ice wine!" He tipped some more wine into his glass and filled hers again.

"How do you know all of this?" she asked, taking a smaller sip than before. Again, the amazing flavors blossomed to life in her mouth.

"This isn't my first trip to California, you know."

"You mean you don't live here? I would have sworn that you have a mansion or something in LA." He shook his head and took another swallow of wine.

"Nope. I have a house in England, France, Italy, Japan, and I also have a flat in New York City." Kagome rolled her eyes and took a small sip of her wine.

"Nothing like home, huh?" Her attention slid from the conversation as she stared at the wine bottle. The year was nice enough; it was a 1976, at least. She flipped it around and almost dropped her glass in surprise. `Alcohol Content: 15.1? Holy crap! That's enough in one bottle to knock the sock off of an experienced wine taster! I better make sure that we don't drink anymore.' Unfortunately, it seemed that Kagome had to look out for herself, because Inu Yasha was becoming increasingly drunken right before her eyes. He swayed a bit and his eyes were slightly clouded.

"Home?! I never had a `home'."

"What do you mean?" Her lost attention span flicked immediately to the inebriated hanyou. He drained his glass before staring hard at her.

"I can't tell you."

"Why not?"

"Because you'll hate me, and because Naraku'll blackmail me again." `Blackmail! This is what he was talking to Naraku about! Now all I gotta do is play my cards right and he'll spill it.'

"Blackmail, huh? Sounds pretty bad."

"It was!"

"What was?"

"My father." A slightly cross, slightly drunken look fell on his face.

"Your father? What about your father?" Inu Yasha poured a bit more wine into his glass. As he drank it, Kagome hid the bottle under his stained jacket and hoped that he wouldn't notice its absence.

"My father was a bastard," he said, words slurring together.

"What did he do? What's the blackmail?" She said in an almost pleading voice. She wanted to know. She had to know. If he would confess, then maybe she could help him.

"Naraku said to me one day…he said that he'll tell everyone…"

"Tell who? Tell what?" She rose a bit off of her grassy seat in anticipation.

"He'll tell everyone in the world…that my mother was raped." A stunned silence followed his words.

"Raped?" she echoed. "By who?"

"By my father. He raped her a long…long time ago. That's where I came from, y'know. He st-stuck with her because of her bein' knocked up and all, but that was the only reason. He hated both of us. Hit us a lot too. I tried," he smiled sadly at Kagome as he remembered, "I tried so hard to stop him from hitting mommy. I'd yell and pound on `im, but nothing worked. He'd just hit me across the head until I shut up or passed out. Then he'd hit mommy again. One day he-he hit her so hard that she got sick."

"What do you mean?" Kagome breathed.

"She was really bruised and broken that day. I remember that she told me…she told me that she loved me, and that she was sorry, and then she died…because daddy hit her. Then he ran away." `This is sick. Naraku was using his past for blackmail. The sick, sick man. It's no wonder that Inu Yasha doesn't want anyone knowing about all of this; it's horrible! I can't believe that his father…the famous actor, would hit a woman. It's no wonder that he was an actor. No one knew, and I won't let anyone know.' Kagome tossed her glass to the side and hugged him.

"Oh," she gasped as she tried not to get too teary. He looked so lost and helpless that she couldn't help but feel bad for him. The poor dear was so lost and alone in the world…

"Inu Yasha," she whispered, "I feel so horrible about what happened." The somewhat sober corner of his brain clicked on as she hugged him tighter. `She's not sorry for me? That's original…but then again, she was always an original person; and so caring.' He hugged back and gently brought her ear up to his lips.

"I love you," he murmured.

"What?!" She shot out of his arms like a bat out of a hot spot. He tumbled onto his back before getting half-hazardly to his feet.

"I love you," he repeated. She clapped her gloved hands over her ears and shook her head.

"No you don't! You're drunk, you fool! It's the liquor talking, not you!"

"But, it can't be the liqu…the lik…the wine, because I always feel like this when I'm around you. I always feel warm, and fuzzy, and sad."

"Why sad?" Interest won over caution as she relaxed a bit. He might have been completely plastered, but after realizing that you were breaking up with your boyfriend, a little romantic reassurance felt pretty good.

"Because I know that you hate me and I could never get you to love me as much as I love you." He might have been swaying when he said it, but it was still the most loving thing Kagome had ever heard. He stumbled towards her slowly and put his hands on her shoulders.

"Inu Yasha, I-" She would have finished, but suddenly found that she couldn't. It wasn't because she was lost for words, it was because at that moment Inu Yasha enveloped her in an intimate hug and pressed his lips against hers. Her eyes threatened to take over her face as they widened in shock, but she soon closed them. The close up of his face that she was getting was making her nauseous. Then, after about an eternity of seconds, Inu Yasha collapsed in a heap on the ground. He was out cold.

`Stupid wine. I was wondering when he was going to pass out.' Kagome thought. But that wasn't all that she was wondering about. Was that really Inu Yasha, or was it the wine talking? And what about that kiss? It wasn't the best, but it was still a kiss. She packed up the glasses and the empty bottle of wine. It took a bit of strength, but she supported Inu Yasha's limp body with one hand and carried the basket with the other. When she reached the road, she hailed a taxi and shoved everything into the back seat.

"Where to?" asked the driver.

"Pier 39, please." She closed the door with a snap and the driver set off. Inu Yasha's wilted form was lain crossways on the fake leather seat. His head was in Kagome's lap. She played with his raven colored hair and smiled down at him. `Either way,' she thought, sighing, `you won't remember any of this in the morning.'

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chihiro-san: Hey guys. I'm dead tired….augh….pleeeeeeezzzzzzeeeee…..Let me diiiiieeeee! Sooooooo tired……. Ah well. So what do you think? The cat is out of the bag with Inu's little secret, and don't worry. The next day will go by fast so that we can learn about what happened to Miroku. Toodles!