A/N: I know its late again but i have been trying really hard to get some writing time and things kept getting in the way and then when i finally did get to writing i got writer's block so i deleted it and rewrote it again. Very annoying really. Then these new story ideas started popping in my head and i couldn't focus... well u get the picture right?
Well here's the next installment, i hope ur not too mad at me!
Enjoy!
Chapter 4: Fighting Fire
"Don't throw it so hard!"
"Keh! You are too weak if you can't catch a ball this slow."
"You're too strong, you're going to break a few bones of mine!"
"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and believe me kid … a few broken bones don't kill you."
"They do if the broken rib punctures your heart or something like that."
"That 'school' teaches you too much nonsense. I have broken my ribs more times than I can remember and I am still alive aren't I?"
"But you did die once… didn't you?"
Inuyasha stopped mid swing. He and Souta had been playing catch for the past hour and the younger boy had just one complaint – Inuyasha threw too hard. Souta was almost never able to catch the ball… except if you count the time it hit him squarely in the chest. Souta liked to count that as a score.
"That was a long time ago kid… It's over." Inuyasha said with a sigh. He didn't like to think of those days. It brought back painful memories. He hadn't known that the venom of the serpent demons had the ability to slow his healing process down immensely and then destroy his veins and arteries… it led to him bleeding to death. Internally.
"But we wouldn't want something like that happening again… Sis almost ki…" Souta stopped suddenly, slapping both hands onto his mouth but the damage had been done.
"She almost what?" Inuyasha dropped the ball in his hand and taking long purposeful strides walked towards Souta on the other side of the shrine grounds. His stride made Souta feel like a kid about to get reprimanded.
"She almost what Souta? She did WHAT?" He asked forcefully, his eyes bright with fury and something else… something sadder…
Souta mumbled something along the lines of 'nothing' but it only got the half demon angrier.
"WHAT DID SHE DO SOUTA?" Souta cringed at the volume but didn't fail to notice the slight quiver in the voice that had appeared all of a sudden. Souta knew then, Inuyasha was not angry… he was scared.
"Why do you want to know? It's over remember? Why do you want to know?" Souta asked instead.
Inuyasha looked taken back. He looked down at the ground wondering that himself. But he had to know dammit! It was his mate they were talking about… his mate.
"What did she do Souta?" He asked the kid softly. His calm voice betrayed his inner turmoil. The calm voice disguised the feeling of sudden nausea that had threatened to overtake him the minute those words had escaped Souta.
"I think she better tell you that… It's not my place." Souta answered instead. Inuyasha looked at the young boy… no more than twelve and yet he had the eyes of an adult. Souta was not given enough credit for things that happened in the shrine. He was always the little brother… but the little brother had grown up and was much too adult to tell on his sister.
Inuyasha sighed and then turned to go into the house.
"Where're you going?" Souta asked following his brother-in-law.
"To find Kagome… what else? I need to ask her about…"
"Now? Can't you wait for a while, maybe think about it or something…?" If Kagome found out that Souta had let it slip, she would kill him and then bury him.
"What's there to think about? I know she did something, but I don't know what… so I'll ask."
Before any of them could get inside though, an ear-splitting scream rang through the house and Inuyasha ran to the source of the commotion. One very peeved Amane stepped out of the shower with very white hair. Inuyasha stared. Kagome ran into the room and then stood stock still with eyes wide open. Sayo resisted the urge to giggle at her husband's expense and Souta started tiptoeing out of the room.
Sayo put on a face of fake anger and turned to her youngest child.
"Souta!"
Souta cringed.
"Explain to me and your father why you did what you did."
Souta turned around slowly taking his time to walk to the centre of the room.
"I put bleach in his shampoo." He said with such confidence that everyone in the room was stunned. It was almost like he didn't expect to be punished.
Amane tightened the towel around his waist and moved towards Souta with the clear intention of hurting the kid.
Inuyasha on the contrary grabbed the boy with the back of his t-shirt and flung him behind himself, standing in front of the infuriated father. The half demon crossed his arms, and straightened his back looking every bit as menacing as he intended to look.
"Get out of the way you bastard." Kagome bit her bottom lip, silently praying that this would not escalate into another fight. So far they had had a fairly peaceful week. Even though the peace had been forced and Inuyasha and her father had managed to avoid each other as much as humanly possible… or demonly possible…you get the idea right?
"Or you'll do what?" Inuyasha smirked at him; deliberately exposing his fangs to further intimidate the older man.
"This is between me and my son and I would advise you to step away from this. It has nothing to do with you and my son needs to be disciplined."
"I am not your son!" Souta yelled out from behind Inuyasha, "And I am not a small kid who needs to be disciplined. I know exactly what I did and why I did it and I am not sorry. No matter what you say, it won't change my mind."
"Maybe a little spanking would change your mind then, eh boy?" Amane said, his eyes narrowed and bright with rage.
"Touch the boy and I will remove your hand. And just so you know, I don't ever make false threats."
"Why are you coming to the kid's aid? I am the father here, I am fully capable of attending to problems concerning my child." Amane said through gritted teeth, his blood boiling in anger and hands itching to land a few punches on both his daughter's fiancé and his son.
"Unfortunately, you son tends to call me his 'big brother' and I intend to make sure I protect him as a big brother should." Inuyasha countered, remembering the days when he had hoped that maybe, just maybe Sesshoumarou would come for him and protect him as a child. But he never did come. And he had taken a vow that he would protect his little brother or his child if he ever did have one.
Amane's patience snapped and he curled his hands into fists and spoke in a low menacing voice.
"I need to talk to my son. Move. NOW!"
"Or what? You'll fight me?" Inuyasha challenged.
"Believe me boy, you don't want that. I have fought men much larger and stronger than you. You wouldn't stand a chance."
"First rule of combat is never to underestimate your opponent, Dad. So I would advise you not to assume my weakness before you even fight with me."
"You're on boy!"
"Hah! I have been waiting for this day when I finally get a chance to…"
"Inuyasha! Don't!" Kagome yelled coming in between the two enraged men. Souta stopped in mid cheer and looked guiltily at his sister when she shot him a look.
"Why not? He challenged me. I accept." Inuyasha said.
"Dad don't. Please? I don't want you both to fight."
Sayo decided that enough is enough and let them know so.
"I want you both to stop fighting this instant, it's time for lunch anyway." Sayo said exasperatedly.
Kagome sighed with relief while Inuyasha and Amane exchanged one brief glare and turned to go to the kitchen.
Then she turned to Souta.
"Why did you do that?" She glared at him, her voice strong and angry.
"I'm sorry! I just wanted to see Inuyasha fight. He's so cool and strong and he could've kicked Amane's butt any day!" He said excitedly.
"I am not talking about the cheering Souta. You shouldn't have put bleach in Dad's shampoo. And don't call dad by his name, it's rude and disrespectful."
"Of course it is, what else is it going to be when I don't respect him in the first place?"
"Souta!"
"Don't tell me you want to defend him! This is the first time I have ever seen him! What kind of a father is he? I didn't even know he existed before last week."
"Of course he existed! How else would you have been born?"
"There's a difference Sis. There is a huge difference. Inuyasha is more of a dad to me than Amane will ever be. Amane is just the man who fathered me. Inuyasha is 'the dad'. Get it?"
Kagome was dumb struck. She didn't know Inuyasha played such an important role in her little brother's life.
"You tell me Sis. Was Amane the one who saved you and me from the Noh mask? Was Amane the one who cured your cold? Was Amane the one who nearly got himself killed countless times to save you? Or was it Amane who was playing catch with me this morning? No! It was Inuyasha! I can't believe you'd take that creeps side instead of your own fiancé's."
Souta sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Kagome was shocked. Souta had really thought hard about all of this and it made her feel slightly guilty that she had failed to see this earlier and it had taken her little brother to explain it to her.
"Whatever. I am hungry. I'll see you in the kitchen Sis." With that he returned to the kitchen. Kagome instead decided she needed to sit down for a bit first.
…………………….
Kagome peeked into the living room. Inuyasha was sitting on the couch, his back to her, hunched over the newspaper. She was surprised. Inuyasha was not fond of reading, specially modern papers because they didn't make too much sense to him and it frustrated him.
"Inuyasha?" She called out softly. His head snapped up at the sound of her voice and he tried to hide the fact that he had been reading by throwing the paper under the couch in one fluid motion.
"Kagome! What are you doing here?" He asked her giving her a big smile. Now she knew he was up to something. He never, ever smiled like that unless he had something to hide.
"What are you reading?"
"Uh… nothing. You know I don't like reading."
"You were reading the newspaper just now. Don't try to hide it I saw you." She grinned at him and he sighed, giving up. He pulled the paper out from under the couch and she looked at the page that he was looking at.
It was the classifieds.
"You're looking for a job?" She said, surprised… confused… and generally shocked.
"Yeah well how do you expect me to take care of you and my pup without a job?" He snapped. "And I am responsible. I am responsible for you and my baby and I will be a responsible father and mate. Don't look at me like that!" He snapped again when he caught Kagome giving him a look.
"I am just surprised Inuyasha. I didn't mean nothing by it."
"I'm sure you didn't. Is it such a surprise that I want to do something for my family?"
"That's not what I said and you know it. I am surprised but not because I didn't expect it from you but because… I … I don't know! I am just surprised but not in a bad way alright?"
"Yeah right." He huffed, his ears plastered against his scalp, defence evident in his posture.
"I'm sorry Inuyasha." She went and sat down beside him. "I didn't mean it that way." Ghosting her fingers over his she managed to make him crack a smile. "So… watcha find?"
"I don't know… I don't even understand half the jobs they have on there… What the hell is a telemarketer?"
Kagome laughed. "Don't do that job! I can imagine you on the phone! 'You better take this plan or I'll rip your guts out and put them in a bowl!'" She said imitating his voice by deepening her own and it ended up coming as a sort of deep lazy drawl.
"Oi! I don't sound like that!" Inuyasha said, torn between laughing at her impression of him and feeling defensive.
"You so do! And what was the other one? You always talked about shoving the tetsusaiga in umm… a lot of unmentionables."
"Hey! It's a scare tactic. You scare your opponent and half the battle is already won."
"Says you Inuyasha." She said getting up and placing a soft kiss on his right ear as she turned around to leave the room.
"Kagome?" He asked. Not turning around to look at her. "Souta and me were throwing ball outside this morning and… Souta said something … that well… I wanted to talk to you about something."
Kagome frowned. It was rare Inuyasha sounded so serious. She sat down next to him and encouraged him to talk to her.
"He said that… you did something when… I kind of died." At Kagome's widening of her eyes he knew she knew what he was talking about. "What did you do Kagome?"
"It's not important. Look, it was a crazy time and Everything was messed up. Nothing went like it was supposed. You were not supposed to die. Everything kind of went downhill from there. You don't have to worry about it, okay? Point is everyone is all right and well… nothing happened all right?"
"You're not making any sense! One minute you tell me everything went wrong and then you say nothing happened?"
"That's not what I meant."
"Then tell me what you meant! Tell me what happened! I believe I have a right to know!"
"Can we please not talk about this Inuyasha?" She asked him softly. Feeling left out, Inuyasha nodded slightly and Kagome left the living room.
Going back to the classifieds section, he ran his eyes over the ads again. There was an opening for a firefighter. Interesting … fighting fire… well as long as there was fighting, he might as well apply.
A/N: The story will start picking up from here and it will not seem so pointless. If you have any story suggestions let me know. I dont promise to incorporate them all but if i really like one i'll be able to steer the story in any direction i want from this point.
I don't really know if fire departments put ads in the paper but in this story they do...
Now for the review responses:
Ashiki: Sorry! I will complete this story but the updates will be slow in coming. Again i apologize.
Beny: LOL. Sure... maybe.
KagomeLoveMoonInuyasha: Thanx! Hope you enjoy this installment!
Zarbok: Thank you!
Jinx: Sorry for the delay!
Natzombie: Thanx!
Whimzy007: Everything will be explained later in the story. Amane has a very good reason to be hostile to Inuyasha. But you'll all have to wait for it. As for Amane being manipulative... i think he kows what everyone's weakness is and tries to exploit it but for that he has to push all buttons to find which one hurts right? So far he's been doing that.
Arienishi: I hope that answers your question.
Kagomesdance: Hehe... can't help being lazy! Part of my personality! Hope this chapter was up to par.
Alex: Thanx so much for the review. Hope you like this chapter too.
Iverness: Thanx!
Drake Clawfang: Hmm... I don't know yet...
Until Next time!
P.S. Oh and REVIEW!