The first thing that drifted on the muddy surface of Kagome's consciousness was that she was numb. Like her entire body had fallen asleep, and she was consumed with pins and needles that came in waves.
Her ribcage hurt,and she could sense, just barely, that she was lying on her side. All her weight was crushing her ribs into a flat, cold, and impossibly hard surface. Her cheek was cushioned on her right wrist, the weight of her head sandwiching her arm between it and the floor.
Finally she managed to figure out which limbs were which, had followed the owner's manual and discovered where her face was, and her eyelashes fluttered against her cheeks lazily. She called them dirty names behind their backs when her eyelids remained shut.
"Jeeze..." She cleared something disturbing out of the back of her throat, mind still murky and thick like the sinister herbal remedies her grandfather made and forced down the throats of his loving family with glee. Fear and confusion pawed angrily at her abdomen and heart like a frustrated kitten, but she pushed them away in favour of focusing on more pressing things.
Like how scummy the inside of her mouth was. Her tongue was literally welded to the roof of her mouth, and her teeth needed a vigorous brushing before they stopped tasting like cotton.
Stretching with a groan,and wincing at the feeling of dozens of joints and bodily paraphernalia readjusting with ominous pops and crackles, Kagome tried to open her eyes. It took so much effort to figure out how one went about operating eyelids, that she almost gave up and went back to the warm, sleazy embrace of sleep.
When she managed to crack her left eye open, she stared into the nothingness for a long moment before she shut it again. Taking a long moment to reaffirm her religion, she opened both eyes.
Darkness. It was all-encompassing. As in the exact opposite of friendly sunlight, chirping birdies, and trees swaying cheerfully in the wind outside your bedroom window.
She took a deep breath through her nostrils, licked her cracked and bleeding lips, shifted herself into a comfortable position, curled and unfurled her body like a great cat, counted to ten (backwards, forwards and then by spelling out the numbers in chronological order and giving them names). When those things didn't work, she sucked in a lungful of air and began to scream as the panic closed in.
Kagome didn't much like the dark.
Inuyasha was lazily sucking at his left fang in favor of foregoing a toothbrush when it began. A horrible, reverberating shriek that had his ears diving for cover against his head like the big cowards they were, and his left eye twitching in time to the ringing in his ears.
He pivoted on the bed, pulling away from the wall to stare at the bathroom door in disbelief. His brain had melted into slag and then the mushy wetness sat in his skull and fervently reminded him of how much it disliked that particular noise.
"Ow." New curse words were brought into existence and then died on his tongue. He turned to the bed adjacent to his and pointed at Miroku violently. "Fix it!" He gestured at the bathroom door with one clawed finger, his eye still twitching violently.
Miroku pulled his fingers out of his ears and sighed. "Guess she's awake.." He turned off the television and got up with a groan and a stretch as the wall across the hotel room began to vibrate angrily. Someone thumped the wall with a fist.
"Hey! Shut the hell up in there! You're ruining the mood, assholes!" said the wall.
Inuyasha threw the alarm clock on his nightstand at it. "Go to hell. There's no one in there but you and your fist." He growled and clamped his hands over his ears. Noise. Bad. The screaming picked up a new crescendo, and the sudden optimism that she would pass out from lack of oxygen comforted him immensely.
The beige wall answered sulkily and stopped thumping. "Exactly."
Miroku squared his shoulders, took a moment to pat the pockets of his worn jeans before he opened the bathroom door.
The volume increased and joyfully carved initials on the inside of Inuyasha's skull. He swore and followed Miroku into the bathroom, because the noise had to stop.
Miroku jabbed the switch with his thumb and they both waited for the florescent bulb to stop flickering, mostly for Miroku's benefit, because Inuyasha could already see the source of the problem.
The school girl was lying on her side, facing them, in the bathtub. Her face was buried in her arm, which didn't seem to be muffling the volume of her cries at freakin' all. Raven hair fell into her face, the long fringe of her hair covering her eyes, and showing only the faintest hint of the black strip of fabric that was wrapped over her eyes.
"What the hell did you blindfold her for? Did you think she wouldn't figure out she was in a bathroom? I mean, the tub is a red herring, I agree.. But she looks clever, this one." Miroku raised an ebony eyebrow and scratched at a spot on his chest while they both examined the girl with morbid fascination.
"I shoulda gagged her too. This girl's got some hella good range." Inuyasha shook his head to throw off his stupor and he leaned over the tub and flicked her in the nose, hard.
Her mouth closed with an audible clack as her teeth cracked together. Both males winced in sympathy involuntarily at the sound. She shuddered and pulled her face out of the crook of her arm, pushing herself into a half-sitting position awkwardly with bound hands. Her face turned to them, blindly searching them out through the blindfold.
The hanyou stared. "Creepy..."
The teenager made a noise in the back of her throat. "Can someone turn the lights on, please?" She croaked, shivering in an obvious reaction to fear.
"They are on, moron. You're blindfolded." Inuyasha smirked, and jabbed at the fabric, most likely poking her in the eye in the process.
She pulled back from him, making a noise that indicated that was very probably what he had done and tried to push the blindfold out of her eyes with her shoulder. "That makes sense, I was wondering why my watch alarm kept beeping suppertime if it was pitch black."
Miroku decided he liked her instantly, and that they would bond well. Hopefully in passionate, dirty ways, and repeatedly. His violet eyes drifted to the expanse of pale skin her skirt did nothing to hide. 'Scandalous.'
Inuyasha watched her fumble with the blindfold for a long moment before the amusement faded into boredom and then impatience took hold. "Here, idiot. You need hands to move that."
"Oh right, hands. Why didn't I try that earlier, instead of trying to jimmy it off with my shoulder blade like a stroke victim?" She gestured limply with her hands, showing the plastic zip tie that bound them, and nearly falling over in the process as they were all that was holding her up. She sat, fidgeting nervously as Inuyasha fumbled with his own handiwork.
"Damn.. Freakin'.. Knot..," he pulled at the cloth angrily, forcing a yelp from the girl as the fabric both bit into her eyes and pulled the strands of hair caught in the knot. "Who tied this thing?"
"You did. Do you need help?" Miroku moved forward to offer his skills but Inuyasha slapped his outstretched hand away. "Alright then."
"Back off! I got it." He ignored the girl's chorus of "Ow's" and then gave up with a growl and just worked a claw underneath the fabric and sliced through it neatly. Amber eyes flashed with amusement as she went shock-still at the foreign feeling of something so obscenely sharp sliding over fragile skin and muscle. The blindfold fell to her lap in a heap, laying over her thigh in a pile of torn fabric.
She reached for it, looking mechanical and unthinking, and fingered the severed edge that Inuyasha had created, mouth parting softly with fear or awe, he couldn't tell which. It was immensely gratifying to his ego. Like a pat on the back, "Well, done. Jolly good."
"There's not even any frays..." She mumbled, apparently unaware that she was speaking aloud.
His mouth stretched into an even larger self-satisfied smirk.
"And here's the part where he tears of his shirt to show you rippling muscles and battle scars, and recounts his glory days... Don't encourage him." Miroku scolded, drawing the attention, rightfully, to himself.
She blinked, then her attention slid off of him like he hadn't even spoken and stormy eyes roamed over the stark scenery of the bathroom. Her eyes returned to them after a long period of awkward silence. She cleared her throat and looked at her hands, wiggling the fingers which had gone white from the force of her grip on the tub floor.
"So... When are you going to kill me?" She started softly, her voice cut out faintly, and she cleared her throat and asked again-- this time sounding uninterested and disconnected. Completely at odds with the fine tremor that ran through her like an electric current.
Miroku blinked, looking confused, and Inuyasha only folded his arms over his chest, looking bored.
Kagome worked on returning feeling to her hands, hoping it would distract her from both the residual fear that still held on from being alone, in the dark, and the terror that rose like a tidal wave to bury her beneath foaming, heaving water. She felt nauseous, and hot, and cold, and tingly.
'Just kill me and get it over with.. I don't think I can just sit here and think about it any longer.'
The thought that she might actually stop living struck her, and she couldn't help the spasm that tore through. Her hands were starting to sweat, and her hands made a terrible squeal of friction against the porcelain when she slipped forward and nearly brained herself off the edge of the tub.
"Kill you? Erk. No." The one with the shaggy raven hair shook his head. "You're far too pretty, and I'm far too nice for that." He blew a piece of hair out of his face, then grimaced when it fell directly back into his eye. "I'm Miroku, and this cheerful guy is Inuyasha, by the way."
Kagome glanced up, hope dawning on her features like a physical light. "No.. Dying?" She managed, surprised she could be coherent when her mind was dancing the rumba in sweet, sweet joy. 'Life!'
And then--- Everything hit the cusp of the cliff and fell, landing in a messy heap of gore at her feet. Because people weren't just kidnapped by youkai and then released with a pat on the bum for good luck. And they had shown her their faces! And given names!
Kidnappers only told you their names and let you see their faces when they were pretty darn sure you weren't going to be able to pass that info on.
She said as much. It came out more as, "You liar." She added a glare and furrowing of the brow to make it known that she wasn't stupid. Then, remembering how easily lured into the whole situation she had been, she revised it to 'that stupid'.
Inuyasha snorted, tapping claws on the outside of his arm to show how superior to all this he was. "Yep. He's definitely lying. We just like to build the hope up and then, BLAM, we kill you. It's this thing we do."
Miroku worked his index and middle finger between Inuyasha's ribs happily and rushed to patch up the situation. "He's so witty. Listen, sweetheart-- What's your name again?"
Kagome narrowed her eyes and began to work on slipping her wrists out of the zip tie, whereupon achieving glorious freedom, she would dance out of the bathroom and be home, possibly in time for supper. 'and Oden!'
"--Riiight. We're not going to kill you. We're more of a.. collection agency, shall we say-- Yes we shall." He articulated with his hands, parting them benevolently as if he had just eased all her worries.
Inuyasha choked on his spit, and he had to lean on the tub rim for support while he crippled himself with laughter.
Raising a sardonic brow, Kagome blew the hair out of her face and managed not to spit all over her chin in the process. "So you're going to deliver me to the people who are going to kill me, shall we say, yes, let's." She mocked, bitingly.
Her wrists were going purple around the thick plastic that dug into her skin. Knowing she couldn't physically break it (How many times had she tried to remove the stuff from a pair of sandals, and failed? Besides this was much thicker. They'd probably gotten it from Sketchbags R' Us.), so she was going for the wiggle out method.
Miroku frowned, looking put out. "No. There will be no killing. None." He watched her struggle with the ties, his face caught in a frown as he worked out the precise wording to reassure her.
She was having none of it. None. Of. It. 'I wonder if they'll take offense if I spit.. This needs some moisture to work, I think. It's too tight to wriggle out of otherwise.' And Mr. Sketchy and his smug, stabby, giggling compatriot could just go stuff themselves into a carpet and roll off a bridge, and take their reassurances with them.
Inuyasha sucked in a dizzying amount of oxygen and wiped a tear from his eye sentimentally. "Ah. Collection agency. I loves it," He thumped Miroku appreciatively on the back, almost knocking him face-first into Kagome, and then put his business face back on.
There was a small noise from under the sink, issuing from the cabinet. All three turned towards it for a moment, looking oddly synchronized, and then dismissed it collectively as the sink backing up, or some sort of drainage.. thing.
"Well, thanks for the offer, but I'd like to go home now." Kagome grunted and studied the tie to see if she'd gained any ground. Other than her skin looking a disturbing shade of lack-of-blood-flow magenta, progress was pretty much nil. "And I don't care what you're collecting, I like all of my organs, and I'm not down with the sex trade."
Inuyasha looked intrigued, Miroku-- frustrated. "It's not like that." He took a deep breath and visibly pulled himself back to a tenuous plateau of serenity with some effort.
Even Inuyasha looked peeved. Silly girl, why was she so stubborn? They were nice kidnappers with needles.
Giving one last try, Kagome tugged her wrists outwards, trying to get some give out of the unyielding plastic. She yelped when it bit into her skin hard enough to rupture blood vessels, and then slammed her hands down into the tub in frustration. "Cheese and crackers!" She swore vehemently when that sent shockwaves of pain through every nerve ending in her hand.
There was a pause in which no one knew how to answer that.
In the silence, while Kagome held back tears of frustration and pain, there came a soft scratching from under the sink.
"Do we have mice?" Inuyasha thumped a foot against the cabinet. "Go away."
A thought niggled at Kagome while she watched the ears on Inuyasha's head twitch with a misplaced awe. She pushed it away and reveled in his distraction to watch them swivel and twitch, catching all the various noises. 'Uhn..' She twitched with the completely inappropriate desire to run her fingers over the soft looking fur.
'Stop it! Remember, this is a youkai. He lured you into an alleyway, slapped you around a little like you owed him money, and then drugged you. You are in his hotel bathtub. You will not squee like a vapid teeny-bopper.'
"Sounds like a big mouse." Miroku commented, watching with interest.
Replaying the broken memory, bits and pieces were warped and missing, probably due to trauma, was becoming necessary to restrain her fangirl urges. She got to the part where her brother turned into a youkai and demanded money when she realized-- The thought gave up whispering and smacked her upside the head to get her attention--
'I wasn't the only one he took!'
"Forget the freaking mouse, would you? Where's the little boy.. youkai you took, jerk!" Hopefully they hadn't dispatched of the boy already, figuring him to be useless or something else killers did.
"Little boy-- Oh! The kitsune. I knew I forgot something." Inuyasha smacked himself in the forehead and then leaned forward to pull the cabinet doors open suddenly.
A bound and gagged kitsune with familiar russet hair came tumbling out with a muffled squeak and landed on his face. Kagome gave a cry of shock and nearly cracked her head off the tub for the second time, completely taken by surprise.
Miroku banged his elbow off the sink, he jumped back so quickly. He covered his heart and grimaced. "Ow. My heart," He gave Inuyasha a look of disgust. "You might want to give a warning next time. And where the hell'd he come from?"
Inuyasha looked amused at the looks on their faces, and Kagome almost suspected him of planning it. "She's a demanding bitch, this one." He jerked a thumb in her direction.
Kagome stared at the kitsune laying on the floor, looking dazed and angry, and vaguely remembered she'd made the youkai take him with them. She'd utterly screwed him... Now he was just as in the hole as she was.
'Great Kagome, let's ruin everyone's lives, why not?'
But that was unfair.. There was a very good chance that somebody would have stumbled upon the kitsune's unconscious body in the alley, taking the garbage out or collecting a shipment. And it would have been very nasty from there. Child or not, Tokyo had a very firm policy when it came to dealing with youkai. It was the laws of retribution.
She bit her lip. So, it would take time for them to find out how much damage she had done from this point on.
Kagome came back from her thoughts in time to hear Miroku arguing with Inuyasha over the wisdom of bringing your loose ends home with you, while Inuyasha shrugged and looked apathetic.
She met the wide pair of green eyes that were watching her with what she imagined was the kind of instant bond brought out between two captives. She swallowed and looked away guiltily. 'Sorry.'
"It's not my fault, she's the bitch who threatened to bring all of Japan down on my head if I didn't take him." Inuyasha threw out defensively, his eyes flashing dangerously.
"Hey now. I have a name. Let's keep it clean." She bit out, glaring at her kidnapper, although her anger almost faded when his hair (love!joy) caught the light and turned the silver-white up several frequencies.
'Shut up, brain!'
"Yeah, I know. Kagome Higurashi, seventeen, lives on the shrine out in east city, walks the three blocks west to her high school, sits by the cafeteria windows on rainy days, and outside under the trees when its sunny. I know almost everything there is to know about you, Ka-go-Me. "
Kagome nearly swallowed her tongue. That made it seem less and less like a random thieving of a teenage girl off the streets, and more like a well-thought out plan that was even more cleverly played out.
'Why? Please tell me it was a random thing.. And not because they know I'm--'
Panic grabbed her by the throat, and threw her around a little. If they knew what she was...
The wards plastered to her stomach began to itch right on cue, as if reminding her of what, exactly, she had to hide. 'Well, damn.'