InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Zero-G ❯ Catching the Light ( Chapter 14 )

Author's notes: Blah, blah, blah - ooh, look! An ant! (Yes, you're excused for skipping over this oh-so-important A/N.)

 

 

 

Zero-G

Chapter 13

Catching the Light

 

 

 

 

Kikyo was frustrated.

So far this week, three other cosmetics companies had sent spies into the Regenis lab to steal copies of the G-Force formula from under her nose. Kikyo's response had been swift and brutal. Spies had been sniffed out and turned over to the police. Charges had been pressed, and Kikyo had done a little delicate persuasion in getting the judges to throw the book at her unscrupulous opposition under the copyright infringement act.

Nobody would steal anything from Kikyo and get away with it. G-Force was her invention and her discovery - nobody was going to take that away from her. But it was getting ridiculous. If her competitors were so desperate to get their hands on something like G-Force, they should have come up with it themselves.

Kikyo jerked up the hand-break of her car as she rolled to a stop outside Inuyasha's apartment. When she was frustrated, she could always count on Inuyasha to help her blow off some steam in one way or another, although sometimes this served to be self-defeating. Inuyasha had a miraculous talent for infuriating Kikyo even more than she was already.

Pulling down the rear view mirror to examine her flawless complexion, Kikyo began fumbling for her stick of lip gloss. Carefully, she reapplied the colour to her lips before pressing them together and pouting at the mirror to make sure that it was even. She then twitched the mirror further down to examine her cleavage.

“Far too inappropriate,” she chuckled to herself as she tugged her shirt straight and fastened the top button more securely. It would do no good to give Inuyasha ideas, after all. He might start to think that she was deliberately trying to entice him.

The squeal of tyres scoring the road and the loud beeping of another car made Kikyo pause in her preparation to look out the window. A black Ford, which had slid to a sudden halt only a few metres away, suddenly sped off, its horn still sounding. Kikyo shook her head and rolled her eyes. People were so aggressive in this neighbourhood. But she had to wonder which fool had been the one to step out in front of a moving vehicle.

With only a half-hearted sense of curiosity, Kikyo looked back to the girl who was still standing in the middle of the road, looking dazed. She looked familiar, but it was only until Kikyo had stared at her for a few more seconds that the pretty face and untamed hair struck recognition.

Kagome.

She was there - standing in the middle of the road. She looked pale and lost, almost as if she wasn't even aware of where she was at all. But despite the papery complexion, made all the more stark for the strong morning light, she was a vision of beauty. It was unearthly.

A white, lumbering transit van trundled past, obscuring Kikyo's view without warning. The young woman craned her neck to try and see around the vehicle, but once it had passed by, Kagome was nowhere to be seen. Looking around in desperation, Kikyo couldn't locate the girl. Where had she gone? It was impossible to just disappear like that!

Hastily, Kikyo pried her seatbelt away and launched herself out of the car, paying no mind to the traffic as she ran to the exact spot where she'd just seen her cousin standing. More angry drivers honked at her, exasperated that yet another stupid girl had stepped into the busy road. But Kikyo was more concerned with locating her dead relative, and she began trying to retrace the girl's steps…

“Kagome?” she called, earning herself several odd looks from the pedestrians around her. “Kagome - where are you?!”

She stopped beside the window of a local laundrette to peer inside, wondering if Kagome was in there. She was faintly repulsed to see how common the place was. How could anyone bear to wash their clothes with so many other people in one big room? Didn't they have their own machines to do the job for them? But Kagome didn't appear to be amongst the ranks of pensioners and housewives, and Kikyo quickly turned away to scan the street again.

“Looking for something?”

Kikyo turned to cast an even gaze on the man who had spoken to her. He leant against the wall only a few feet away, a pair of dark sunglasses covering his eyes and dark hair pulled back into a ponytail. “You…” She narrowed her eyes. “Did you just see a girl come by here? Shorter than me but similar looking?”

“Perhaps…” The stranger shrugged. “What's it worth?”

Kikyo was not about to bribe some random moron who may or may not have known anything at all. Rolling her eyes, she flicked her hair over her shoulder. “Whatever,” she muttered before turning away and heading back towards her car.

As she opened the door, she wondered momentarily if it had been a wise decision to leave the vehicle unlocked - even if it had only been for a few seconds. With this kind of neighbourhood, it was a miracle that her tyres hadn't been stolen yet. But as she sat herself down behind the wheel, she realised that, yes, she should have been more vigilant.

Inuyasha was sitting beside her.

“Who invited you into my car?” she asked haughtily.

The hanyou shrugged. “Well, I was about to steal your radio… but then I realised who it belonged to.” He turned to look at her fully, and Kikyo noticed the purple circle beneath his left eye.

“What happened to your face?”

“Oh, this?” He pointed to himself. “Tried to steal the radio of a car further back… but the old woman fought back.”

Kikyo could never get the hang of his self-deprecating humour. “Who did you kill today?”

Slightly put out that she hadn't played along, Inuyasha gave her a mock pout. “That's for me to know, and you to find out,” he said with a shrug. “But I did get paid quite handsomely for it.”

“Hm.” Kikyo turned her eyes back to the road, wondering if she could catch another glimpse of her cousin. “Do you know something, Inuyasha?”

“Yeah?” He was too busy fiddling with the settings of her air conditioning to give her much attention.

“Do you believe in ghosts?”

She watched him carefully, trying to gauge his exact reaction to her words. But all he did was look up at her blankly for a moment before letting a sly smile spread across his face. “Why? Has Kikyo-kun been seeing dead people again?” He slouched back in the passenger seat. “Out of curiosity, when was your last MRI scan?”

“Don't be ridiculous,” Kikyo admonished, looking over her shoulder in paranoia. “Ghosts are very real, Inuyasha. The only problem is that I'm not able to see them. So why did I just see my dear cousin in the middle of the street?”

Her words didn't seem to shock Inuyasha. “Yes, why did you see your cousin in the middle of the street?” he pondered. “Dare I say - an MRI scan would be ideal right about-”

“Unless she's alive,” Kikyo interrupted, turning a hard eye on Inuyasha. “Which begs the question - what is she doing near you?”

The hanyou gave her a slightly irritated look. “Kikyo. The brat is dead,” he said evenly. “I saw her die myself. I squeezed the last of her life out with my own two hands… there is no way that the girl is alive.”

“Then what is she doing here?” Kikyo waved a hand at the road.

“Perhaps you really can see ghosts?” Inuyasha shrugged carelessly. “Or maybe your conscience is finally catching up with you. It does that after a few years.”

Kikyo shot him a dirty look. “Oh, what do you know?” she snapped.

Inuyasha's sigh could have put any young soap actress to shame. “Oh yes, how silly of me. What do I know about consciences?”

The young woman sniffed and turned away with her arms folded. “If that's your attitude, get out of my car.”

“What, you came all this way to just sit in your car?” Inuyasha remarked with disbelief.

“I won't ask you again,” she ground out.

“Then how about a goodbye kiss?”

That was the last straw for Kikyo. Without hesitation, she bent forward to retrieve the gun she'd stored beneath her seat… only… it wasn't there.

“Looking for this?”

Kikyo looked up to see the hanyou spinning her weapon around his index finger like a toy. She glared at him and held out her hand. “Give it to me,” she ordered.

“Why?” He held it out of her reach, pointing it at the roof. “You're only going to threaten me with it. So like you, isn't it Kikyo? When you don't get your way, you just resort to violence.”

It wasn't worth getting angry over. Folding her arms again, Kikyo simply turned coy and flirtatious with him. “Violence can be very persuasive, Inuyasha.”

“True,” he hummed as he examined the gun in his hand. “Cool… these only just came out on the market. But you do realise that you could get yourself ten years imprisonment for possessing a gun like this?”

Kikyo tilted her shoulders up. “I have a licence.”

“No such thing.” He smirked, closing one eye and pointing the gun at her playfully. “But doesn't it bother you, Kikyo?”

She blinked at him slowly, her smile never wavering.

“Your power lies in your tools, and that's a very dangerous disadvantage for you,” Inuyasha explained softly. “Like this gun - in your hands you could threaten me, bully me and even kill me if you wanted to. But see how easily your power was turned against you? Now you're at my mercy, and you have nothing with which to defend yourself.”

“It's just a stupid gun.” She gave a shrug as if it didn't bother her that a deadly weapon was being aimed at her body. “And anyway, you wouldn't shoot me. You love me.”

“Ah, I see!” Inuyasha nodded as if she'd given him the most enlightening answer in the world. “Perhaps you're not as defenceless as you seem.”

“I'm the most dangerous woman alive, and you know it.” Kikyo sneered at him.

“Yes, you are.” Inuyasha conceded. “But you shouldn't take my advice lightly, Kikyo, because the moment you're betrayed and your most reliable weapons are stripped away - you will be defenceless. Not all your enemies are in love with you.”

“You're underestimating me, Inuyasha,” Kikyo retorted, reaching out to take back her weapon from his yielding fingers. “I know how to handle myself. I have the Coalescence on my side, after all.”

Inuyasha shook his head with a slight smile. She'd missed the point… as per usual. And now she had retaken her temporary power and was pointing the gun at his head. “Get out my car,” she told him. “Or your brain will decorate that window behind you.”

“What about Kagome?” he suddenly asked. “If she's really alive, don't you want my help in tracking her down again?”

“After you fucked up so badly the last time? I doubt it.” Kikyo gave a derogatory snort. “But she's not alive. We all saw that corpse, and the DNA test was conclusive. Ninety-six percent chance of being related to my aunt - that's too high to write off. Yes, that girl is very dead.”

Inuyasha shrugged. “Then you're going crazy, baby.”

Kikyo rolled her eyes. “Didn't I tell you to get out of my car?”

“Well, there's no need to tell me twice.” He started to open the door, but the moment his foot touched the pavement, Kikyo grabbed his sleeve and jerked him back towards her. His face was tugged towards hers, and with a cool finger and thumb gripping his chin, their lips met.

Good old, unpredictable Kikyo. It wasn't a tender kiss - more of an attack than anything else. Her forearms clamped behind his neck, locking him in place while she assaulted his mouth. If their genders had been reversed, Inuyasha was pretty sure that he could have filed for sexual harassment. Hell, he'd probably file for sexual harassment anyway. But there was just something about Kikyo that made him melt into a useless blob of putty whenever her lips touched his, enabling her to handle him in any way she wanted.

“You haven't been keeping secrets from me, have you, Inuyasha?” she purred, stroking his ears intimately, even while she still held the gun.

“Haven't… had to.” He'd have to start wearing his motorbike helmet whenever he was around this girl. She had a habit of reaching straight for his most vulnerable spot… but… for now… screw it…

Kikyo drew him back for another lingering kiss. “Kagome is dead, isn't she, Inuyasha?” she whispered again.

“As dead as… they get…” Her kisses were intoxicating. It was hard to think straight and keep up the continuity of his lies when she rubbed his ears as wickedly as she was doing now.

“Such an adorable puppy,” Kikyo crooned, holding his face between her hands. The chrome casing of the gun was cold against his brow, but somehow didn't compare to the chill of her kiss. His eyes flicked open a moment to look upon her flawless beauty.

And he saw Kagome gazing back at him.

Disturbed, Inuyasha tried to pull away, but Kikyo's grip was strong and alluring. When she kissed him again, it seemed to resonate warmth… some sort of affection. Her touch was kind, her manner gentle. For that brief second she was almost interchangeable with her younger cousin, and Inuyasha saw hope.

But the moment was shattered with a deafening bang as Kikyo's gun discharged beside his head. A terrible pain ripped through his skull, a scream tore from his throat as he lifted a hand to cradle his wound. It seemed fruitless. The blood still flowed thick and warm down his scalp and neck.

“You bitch!” he gasped. “You shot my ear!”

Kikyo didn't appear to give a toss about his wound. “Don't you dare ever take my weapon again,” she whispered in a low, venomous tone. “Next time, I'll be shooting off more… expendable parts.” She glanced down at his lap for emphasis.

On hindsight, it was probably a good thing that Kikyo had pressed a foot against his chest and literally kicked him out of the car. Inuyasha was in too much pain to have done more than whimper pitifully. As Kikyo's car roared away down the street, leaving him in a cloud of dust and gravel, Inuyasha lay on the pavement and grimaced up at the heavens.

Of all the places she could have chosen to punch a bullet through… why did it have to be his ear? It was the most sensitive part of his body - he'd taken bullets in his shoulder that were less painful than this. The blood was pooling beneath his head, filling his nose with the metallic stench of injury. His instincts told him to get up and stop being such a pansy… but his mind was reeling in defeat.

In truth, the wound was not devastating - it would heal quickly and completely given a few days. But the fact that he'd been caught off guard so drastically… to have been lulled into believing, for those two seconds, that Kikyo was capable of decency and love… that was the devastating wound. The only solace he had was that Kikyo had probably shot a hole through her car's roof during that attempt to remove his ear.

“Shit…” he breathed, laughing quietly at his own stupidity. But that laugh threatened to choke him, and he quickly lost sight of the humour in his situation. “Shit… shit… shit… shit!”

“Excuse me, young man, do you need an ambulance?”

Inuyasha had his eyes closed and his arm draped over his face, but even so, he could still tell that the speaker was an elderly man. The hanyou politely refused his offer. “Fuck off, you old twat.”

That was the nice thing about this neighbourhood. You could be gunned down in the street, and no one would bother you with their interfering nonsense. Inuyasha didn't know how long he lay there pathetically, waiting for his ear to stop bleeding. He lost count of the mothers who crossed over the street with their prams to avoid him - he lost count of the people avoiding him full stop. Occasionally someone would poke him to see if he was alive, but other than that, Inuyasha was left very much in peace.

Then Kagome arrived.

“Oh my god!” He heard a familiar shriek beyond the roaring in his ears. “Oh my god - Inuyasha!”

Another car honked angrily as the girl took a second kamikaze dive across the road to reach him. Moments later, she tumbled down onto her knees at his side, her fingers splayed across his chest. The constant smell of blood that had been bombarding him was chased away for a moment by the arrival of something much sweeter and more flowery. Inuyasha sighed, wondering if he should feel relieved or annoyed.

“Inuyasha - what happened?” Her fingers clenched against his shirt. “Oh god, you're bleeding everywhere. Tell me what happened! I heard the gunshot, but I didn't think - I mean - I didn't know- oh god - oh crap!”

Inuyasha opened his eyes to look up at her. He saw the intense worry etched into her face and the wet tendrils of hair that had been dislodged from her hair toggle during her dash to reach him. Her face may have echoed Kikyo's, but her spirit flared independently.

If only you were capable of being as kind as she is…

Inuyasha's lack of response was beginning to worry Kagome further. Looking around, she tried to find someone who was willing to stop and help. “Please - someone call an ambulance! He needs help!”

“I've got a phone in my pocket, if that would help.” Inuyasha offered flatly.

Kagome peered down at him, concerned. “Are you alright?”

“Fine.” He shrugged and lowered his arm from his face. “I'm quite well, actually.”

Kagome's gaze darted over him in a quick once-over, doubting his sincerity. “Your ear's a bit… injured,” she said shakily. “What happened?”

“Drive-by shooting. It happens around here, what with the different gangs and stuff…” He looked at her bleakly. “Did I mention that this was a bad neighbourhood?”

“Several times.” Kagome touched a careful hand to his brow, examining his wound. “We should probably get you to a doctor. I don't like the amount of blood you're lying in…”

Inuyasha made an indifferent sound. “Head wounds. They always look worse than they actually are.”

“Yeah, well, that's still bad enough.” She frowned into his face. “Your eye's bruised… what happened to it?”

“Got punched,” he responded bluntly.

“By who?” She gaped at him.

“Someone with a very big fist?” he guessed vaguely before raising a hand to shield his eyes from the midday sun. “You have to go, Kagome.”

Kagome blinked in confusion. “What? You mean… go get an ambulance?”

“No. You have to leave,” he stressed. “Preferably now.”

“What are you talking about?” she said hotly, dismissing his words as the mere ramblings of a man suffering from heat stroke. How long had he been lying in the sun anyway? “Can you stand?”

“Yes.”

“And can you walk?”

“Of course I can.”

“Then let's get you inside.” Kagome attempted to help him up, but Inuyasha seemed reluctant to cooperate. Exasperated, the girl sighed at him. “Come on. You're going to bleed to death if you sit out here all day!”

“No, I won't.” He shrugged.

“But people are staring at you!” Kagome hissed, looking around at the many curious faces peering back at them. She could forgive them for staring - after all, it wasn't every day that you saw a sulky hanyou bleeding on the pavement. Sighing, she looked down at him and continued her reprimand. “You're being childish.”

“How is bleeding on a street corner considered `childish'?” the hanyou groused as he finally allowed himself to sit up. Kagome gulped at the sight of his blood-drenched shirt, but steeled herself to focus on the more important task of helping him to his feet.

Inuyasha didn't appreciate her attentiveness. “Stop it.” He forcefully pushed her away and climbed to his feet alone.

Kagome tried to pretend that she wasn't hurt, but she'd never been that good at hiding her emotions. Frostily, she waved a hand to the steps leading to the block of flats. “Come on then,” she said, hovering between her teenage desire to flounce up the steps and leave him behind to rot and her nurturing tendency to reach out and help him up the stairs.

Fortunately, Inuyasha didn't need helping up the stairs, and he swiftly passed her as if in perfect health. Kagome trailed after him slowly, feeling slightly bemused at his behaviour. She followed him into the building and up the stairs toward the flat. He let himself inside, but Kagome stopped in the doorway to watch with further bewilderment as he simply sat down at the kitchen table and began staring off into space.

He's probably in shock or something… thought Kagome. Screw that! I'm in shock!

Closing the door quietly, the girl tiptoed forward a few steps. “Inuyasha… are you really ok?”

“Never better,” he responded in a monotone, now beginning to frown into space.

Kagome echoed his expression as she moved over to the kitchen sink. This was probably one of those times when it really would have helped to own a first aid kit… but for lack of proper bandages and disinfectant, Kagome had to improvise. She took one of the cleaner kitchen towels and began soaking it in warm water before wringing it out and moving to sit next to Inuyasha.

“Is it ok…?” she asked cautiously, holding up the damp towel.

Inuyasha merely shrugged, allowing Kagome to have her way with him.

The wound wasn't actually as bad as it had first appeared. There was a messy tear in his ear, but it seemed to have healed so fast that Inuyasha barely even flinched when she dabbed the ear with the wet towel. His immaculate white hair had been stained a dark red, as had his shirt. Kagome managed to persuade him to remove the top in order to wipe away the blood crusting over his back and shoulder. “Wait there,” she said, tossing the towel back into the sink. “I'll just get you another shirt.”

The hanyou didn't even bother acknowledging her as she sped off to start digging through a fresh pile of laundry. She returned after a few minutes with a grey cotton shirt and, with absentminded cooperation on Inuyasha's behalf, she managed to slide it over his shoulders to button up the front.

As she finished the last button, she looked up at him with a weak smile. Inuyasha was now glowering into space, and Kagome could easily tell that his mood had been deteriorating ever since she'd found him on the pavement. “That was pretty lucky, wasn't it?” she ventured, trying to make him see the lighter side of the situation. “A few inches lower, and he would have got you in the brain.”

“I don't find it particularly lucky,” he stated tersely, “that I was shot at all.”

Kagome drew back. “I'm sorry… I was just-”

Inuyasha interrupted her as he suddenly stood up, knocking his chair to the floor. “What are you still doing here?” he snapped, but Kagome knew it was rhetorical. “I've done my part by you - I saved you. The least you can do in return is to leave me in peace. The longer you stay here, the more danger you put me in!”

Kagome narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. “Are you saying… someone shot you because of me?”

“No,” he barked. “But what will happen when Kikyo discovers that you're still alive? What if she already has? How long do we have until she comes to tie off a few loose threads? You need to leave here before she figures the truth out.”

The girl could only stare at him. What was this all of a sudden? Until now, Inuyasha had been pretty laidback about this matter… so why was he pushing it now of all times? “Inuyasha… has Kikyo found out that I'm alive? Did someone tell her?”

“She saw you, Kagome.” The hanyou dragged a hand through his hair in exasperation. “But I don't know if she figured out the truth, or sincerely believes that she's just being haunted by her conscience.”

Kagome's mouth went dry. “Are you serious?”

“Who the fuck did you think shot me?!” he snarled.

She looked at his ear with wide eyes as the pieces of the puzzle slotted into place. “Kikyo shot you?” she whispered. She probably should have been more shocked… but after learning that her cousin was very capable of murder, this didn't seem so far fetched.

Was this why Inuyasha was so upset? Because he'd been shot by the woman he loved… by the woman he hated? And perhaps this was why he was suddenly so desperate to get her to leave…?

Despite herself, Kagome couldn't help but ask the question that had been bothering her for a while. “Do you still love her?” she asked softly. “Even after all she's done… even after this?”

“My feelings are none of your concern,” the hanyou spat. “It would be best for all of us if you simply left!”

Kagome laughed caustically. “I don't have anywhere to go!”

“Anywhere is better than here!”

“I told you that I would stop at nothing to get my life back!” she argued, turning in her chair to glare at him. “I meant it. I know you said that you wouldn't help me - and I respect that - but I still have to do this. I'm going to tell the police that Kikyo has connections to the Coalescence, and then I'm going to go home and resume my life.”

“We've had this conversation before!” Inuyasha snapped at her. “The moment you reveal yourself to anyone - Kikyo, the police, it doesn't matter - the Coalescence will know within minutes and have you killed. Right now, your life is tied to mine, and if you die, I die.” He shook his head angrily and moved to the sink to begin washing the blood out of the towel. “I am not willing to let that happen.”

Kagome was silent as she tried to figure out another plan of action on the spot.

“Your only chance is to take down the Coalescence.” Inuyasha said, squeezing red water from the towel. “Take away Kikyo's main weapon, and she will be defenceless to whatever you throw at her, albeit lawsuits or hand grenades.”

“Then that's what I'll do.” Kagome said determinedly, even though she knew it was irrational and near impossible.

“I don't think so.” Inuyasha glanced back at her, and for the first time since she'd met him she saw a spark of unfathomable hostility in his eyes. “Because I won't let you even touch the Coalescence.”

A stifled beat of silence passed between them as Kagome met Inuyasha's steely gaze with defiance. “What's that supposed to mean?”

The hanyou shrugged and focused his attention back on wringing out the towel as if he had meant nothing by his words.

Feeling uneasy, Kagome watched the back of his head, trying to figure him out. By now she was confident that she couldn't trust her own cousin… but had she been wrong to assume that Inuyasha, the enemy of her enemy, was her friend?

………………………&# 8230;…………………….............. .........

Kagome had refused to speak to him for the better part of that day. She had gone to bed with little more than a curt `Goodnight' and a flip of her hair as she stomped up the stairs to get changed. It wasn't even her bedroom, yet she acted as if she owned exclusive rights to it. This was merely another motivation to get the teenage girl out of his flat… maybe he'd be able to have a decent night's sleep in his own bed for a change.

The hanyou had stayed awake all night watching television, as usual. There was never anything interesting on - only new reports and late night education programs aimed at toddlers. By six o'clock, Inuyasha had assured himself that he was now able to count to ten without any aid from coloured frogs or patronising women.

It was at this time when his mobile phone began beeping insistently in his pocket. He snapped it open quickly to keep from waking the slumbering teenager upstairs and narrowed his eyes to see `One new SMS' from `The A$$hole'. Giving a bone cracking yawn, Inuyasha opened the text message and read the contents.

`Spanish embass. is cuming 2 town. Y dont U cum an join the welcum committee w/ us? We will B by the fountain at tube at 9. Koga'

“Urgh…” Inuyasha snapped his phone shut. “Use freaking predictive text, you moron.” If he says `cum' one more time…)

It had been quite a few months since Inuyasha had worked alongside his cell. Recently he'd been assigned a lot of `solo' jobs that he could complete himself. The fact that Naraku thought that this particular job needed more than one agent meant that it would undoubtedly be a little tougher than usual.

The tough part came in tolerating Kouga for longer than five minutes. The other members of their cell weren't so bad. Bankotsu may have been one of those short squirts that made up for height and education with aggression and arrogance, and Jakotsu may have been a little on the fruity side, but at least they weren't as annoying as Kouga. Ok… maybe Jakotsu could give the wolf a run for his money.

Inuyasha sent a short `Sure' response to Kouga before heading to the bathroom to give his face a quick wash. He checked his appearance in the mirror and was glad to see that his ear had healed perfectly during the night. Bullet wounds could be a pain in the ass and would sometimes take days to heal… but fortunately, the bullet had passed straight through this time so that there was no lasting damage. At least this meant that his fellow cell agents wouldn't see the injury and start giving him stick about being shot down by a woman…

Venturing upstairs, Inuyasha pushed open the bedroom door to peer inside at the sleeping teenager. The room was dim, but enough light filtered through the window to cast a pale oblong across the tangled bed sheets and Kagome's exposed legs. With a sigh, Inuyasha mooched forward to straighten the duvet before she caught a chill… and only paused for a few moments to admire the smooth skin of her calves. Her burns had faded almost completely now, leaving only a slight white sheen to her skin in patches.

Kagome didn't stir, seemingly oblivious to his presence as he eyes flickered behind their lids in a deep state of REM sleep. Assuming he was safe from her wild accusations of `paedophile', Inuyasha sat down beside the girl and watched her dream. With her hair ruffled in an unidentifiable style and her mask of serene tranquillity, she looked almost identical to her cousin. It was almost too painful to look directly at her, so Inuyasha directed his gaze to her shoulder instead.

“You have to understand…” he whispered to the unmindful girl, “that I can't help you destroy the Coalescence. It's impossible, and it would only get us killed.” He sighed again as he brushed his fingers lightly over her arm. “It's all I have, Kagome.”

The girl twitched in her sleep, slapping at her arm as if there was a mosquito crawling over it. Inuyasha stood up and began looking around for a pen, deciding that Kagome might appreciate another little note to explain his absence - without actually explaining anything, of course…

………………………&# 8230;…………

It was becoming oddly familiar to wake up in the morning and find herself all alone in the flat. Inuyasha had once again disappeared without a trace, and Kagome was left stumbling around the kitchen in a groggy daze, looking for the note of absence which seemed to be eluding her. Perhaps he'd forgotten to leave one… or perhaps he was still vexed and angry with her?

When Kagome finally managed to stagger into the bathroom to brush her teeth, she also found Inuyasha's note.

It was, logically, written across her forehead in permanent black ink. Even more amazingly, he'd written the note backwards so she'd be able to read her own reflection.

“Gone to work… back later.” Kagome repeated, grinding her teeth as she noticed he'd also signed his name down the bridge of her nose.

Oh, that scabby little hanyou would pay dearly when she next clapped eyes (and other things) on him.

Infuriatingly, it took nearly twenty minutes to scrub the ink off her face, leaving behind a bold pink glow on her forehead and nose. This only helped reaffirm her desire to batter Inuyasha's skull in with a frying pan. Her mood didn't alleviate any further when she then discovered that someone had knocked her pile of clean clothes onto the floor.

“So graceless…” she muttered to herself as she pulled on her weekend uniform and tied back her hair with the nearest scrap of cloth. The ribbon may have been red, but Kagome reasoned that since she probably wouldn't leave the flat today, it was safe to wear such a bold colour. No one would see her.

Inuyasha's having a bad influence on me, she thought with a wry smile as she flopped down on the sofa and began watching the morning news. Nothing interesting had happened to the world since Kagome had last been updated. A few more car bombs had gone off towards the centre of Tokyo and a Spanish ambassador was visiting for the day, but that was pretty normal.

Her mind strayed back to Inuyasha, and she idly wondered if his wound had healed from the previous day. Was it really true that Kikyo had shot him? Did Kikyo even know how to fire a weapon? How fast did hanyous heal anyway? Was he trying to get her to leave simply because he was tired of her presence? Or was he becoming so irresistibly attracted to her that he had to push her away for her own good? Had Kagome been reading too many romance novels recently?

She gave up her `idle' ponderings before she gave herself a headache. Coverage of the Spanish ambassador's arrival wasn't nearly as interesting as it sounded, so she stood up and went to the fridge to find breakfast.

Halfway through pouring the milk into her bowl of cereal, the door opened behind her and someone stepped into the flat. Kagome smiled to herself, thinking it was Inuyasha. “So what were you doing today?” she asked. “Putting out fires and helping kittens out of trees?”

She turned to bring her breakfast to the table… but the moment her gaze landed on Kikyo, the bowl slipped like ice from her fingers to shatter on the floor. A spoon hung limply from her other hand as she stared in horror at her cousin.

Kikyo, on the other hand, seemed delighted. “I knew he was keeping you here…”

………………………&# 8230;……

 

Fackyews! Yay! Aren't these fun?!

 

Why is this story an R? (translation: Where's the sex?!!)

To anyone asking this question, go take a gander to my profile page and read the `fic status' section. It explains why all my stories suddenly jumped up in rating. It's a long boring story which takes exactly 1,000 words to outline completely, so I'll just give it to you in a nutshell: Trolls, reports, fic deletions, ferrets, hopping mad rozefires, and random gratuitous scenes of author abuse.

GAR! There's no such things as 'moo cows' ER-ARGH! GERUP!! Name-name should llik ruoy yrros esr!! GAH! Chip-chun-chah!

Stop smacking the chinchilla against the keyboard!

OMGDZ!!1! Inuyasha can't be 25! That's too old! He really is a paedophile!

Hey, you haven't read my über-fantastic plot twist that's coming up in which Inuyasha falls into a stasis tube and sleeps for ten years and when he emerges he's exactly the right age for Kagome and they all live happily ever after and had lots of babies. (Meh, might save this twist for a different story…)

“To thine own self be true,” is from hamlet. Can they sue you for that?

No, because it's a proverb.

Where did you get all those sayings? A book?

No, because it's a proverb.

Are you much like Kagome in real life?

Only in that we're both female. Other than that… not really, no. I'm more like Miroku. Quite nice and pleasant on the surface but you just know that there's something seedy and opportunistic about me…

What's a paedophile?

Are you sure that you're old enough to be reading this story?

Why are you so bitter about everything?

Because I live on the same latitude as Siberia.

You have a plot. You have an idea. You have no reason to claim of a delay by a writer's block.

Well, duh. I never said I had writer's block on this story.

When's the hot Inu/Kag sex coming?

Probably never.

Ooh! Do you speak with a british accent?!

There's no such thing as a British accent. Britain consists of three different languages (UK has four) and each region has its own unique dialect, if not a handful of them. Accents change in Britain every ten miles or so, but thanks to the BBC and a lot of british films (Harry Potter, Bridget Jones, etc) who think Britain starts and ends in London, it's a common misconception that there are only two accents in England: cockney and upper-class snob-lish. So I do not have a `british accent', I have a blend of several northern accents (Surrey, Stokie, Solford, Oldham, Manchester) as well an unfortunate London tendency to pronounce my words intelligibly - giving me the blandest `British accent' ever. My Mancunian friends think I'm posh, my London relatives think I'm common… I can't win, really. All I can say is that my accent is worryingly close to Ron Weasley's.

Ok, someone is sexually frustrated and it's not me…

Well, don't look at me.