By: OtakuSailorV
She was late! Late again!
How many times had she said it would only be a 'few days' and then show up a week later? How many times had she requested a few more days just so that she could study for one of those ridiculous tests? Useless!
He was fed up, and he was ready to give her a piece of his mind when she came back. But soon he had become frustrated with simply waiting at the rim of the well and he jumped in with a gruff grunt to retrieve her.
As he arrived on the other side, his noise picked up a strange sound that he had never encountered in Kagome's time before. Was her house under attack? He smelled no danger but still he hurried, not bothering to close the door to the well house back behind him again as he dashed out.
A streak of red lifted through the sky as he landed on the roof, his silver hair trailing behind him.
Walking to Kagome's window, Inuyasha shoved it open only to be blasted back by a mixture of strong smells and noises. It was like lemons and pine, soap, dust and water all mixed, making his nose twitch. He growled, jumping back as his nose twitched. What a stench! And that noise? What was that horrible sound!
He couldn't decide if he wanted to plug his ears or his nose more. The barrage was unbearable and he quickly jumped through the window and shut it back. He was too annoyed with Kagome to let something like this push him back.
He turned the corner into the hallway and spied her right away, a strange device covering her ears and a bandana around her head as she handled the creature that was creating the unbearable noise. "Kagome!" He yelled, but she didn't reply, just continued to move the long black neck of the creature around to catch the dust.
"Kagome!" He cried louder, but still received no reply.
Irritated, he stomped over to her and picked up one of the things covering her ears. The noise of the machine was almost intolerable now, he was sure his ears would start to bleed. Added to it was a strange music that was just as loud pouring out from the earplug device. Inuyasha stumbled back, covering his ears and growling in disgust. How could Kagome stand all that noise pounding into her ears like that!
Kagome, startled, gasped and promptly dropped the hose of the vacuum she was using. Reaching to her belt, she turned off her CD player at the same time that she turned off the vacuum and stared at Inuyasha with wide eyes. Her eyebrows were raised in question as she slipped the earphones around her neck. What was Inuyasha doing here?
"Inuyasha?" She blinked as if to assure herself that he was actually there. "What are you doing here?"
Having recovered from the wave of unwanted noises and smells, he jumped forward, glaring at her. "You're late again, Kagome! You were supposed to be back yesterday! And what is that damned thing?" He pointed a clawed finger at the vacuum accusingly as he grimaced. His ears were still ringing.
Kagome put her hands on her hips and leveled him with a glare of her own. "I am not late, Inuyasha. I told you I would be back in three days and tomorrow is that day!" She informed him with loudly. "And this is called a vacuum it's used to clean." She shoved it toward him.
Inuyasha investigated it with a wary look, sniffing it experimentally. He regretted it when the other smells permeating the house came in as well and made him gag. "This place stinks, what the hell are you doing?" He asked, trying not to sneeze.
"It's spring, Inuyasha, it's time for spring cleaning."
"Spring cleaning?" He asked as he followed her back to her room. Kagome stopped when she saw that her window was already opened and then went into the others and opened them as well.
"Yes, I'm helping mom, Souta and Jii-chan clean the house for spring." Picking up some boxes, she handed them to Inuyasha and instructed him as to where to place them.
The hanyou, making a noise of surprise as the boxes were handed to him found that now he too was enlisted in this little escapade of sorts. "What am I doing?" He grumped, but did as he was told.
Having gotten his own bandanas – one for his ears and one to cover his nose and mouth – the inu hanyou looked around at the spotless house and why they were still cleaning. "Here Inuyasha, cleans the doors." Kagome said, demonstrating what he should do with a wand-like duster.
"Be gentle." She added as a stern after-thought before going back to her own work.
Inuyasha looked at the duster curiously, bringing it close to his nose to test its scent. He sneezed as a cloud of dust suddenly infiltrated his nose. Coughing, he held it at arm length and glared at it.
Looking to the sliding shouji doors now, he grimaced as he tried to clean them as best he could.
'Be gentle.' He kept Kagome's advisory in mind as he did the best he could to clean the fragile doors.
Paper ripped, one clawed finger protruded from the opposite side of the door, rigid in astonishment. Inuyasha held very still as he realized what he had just done by putting too much weight in his arm while crouching to clean the lower edges of the doors. He gulped, looking at his finger, still lodged in the hole in the screen. Well, so much for being careful.
By the time he had finished with the doors, there were several other holes in them, and several of the slim pieces of the wooden frame had broken as he had clumsily tried to pull his fist out of the door. He looked at his handiwork with a slightly worried expression, Kagome was going to raise hell for this. . .
And indeed she did. The moment she came back, her jaw had dropped and her eyes had grown wide. Fuming, she shoved him out of the room and gave him equipment for his next assignment, which she hoped wouldn't get him into too much trouble.
"Just go scrub the floor in the shrine or something, Inuyasha."
Scrub he did, though he had to have the old man show him how to do it properly first. Why him? Why hadn't he just stayed by the Well and waited for her? He glared at the wet streaks he was leaving in the polished wood, the reek of the pine-flavored soap driving him nuts.
It was hard work, a type of training he wasn't used to and exercised muscles he didn't regularly use. His bask was growing stiff and his legs and arms were starting to grow numb. The intense smell was getting to him, and little tears filled the corners of his eyes as they inflamed his head and made him dizzy.
When he had finally finished, the hanyou leaned against the mop's rod, easing his weight slowly onto it. Much to his dismay the mop was still wet and slick on the shiny surface. It slipped away from under him, leaving him to fall on his side on the floor. Grabbing for a hold, Inuyasha only managed to tip the bucket of water over, drenching his hair and his clothes.
Just great. . .
Souta had tried not to explode laughing as an irritable half-demon had trudged back into the house, his hair and clothes smelling heavily of the pine flavored water in the bucket. The mop was in one stiff hand, and the bucket hung from it. Wadded up inside of the bucket were the two bandanas that had become soaked as well by the water.
Inuyasha had given up trying to avoid the sounds and smells; they seemed determined to plague him anyway.
Kagome had an astonished look on her face and ordered him to march right back outside instead of dragging his dirty self into the clean house. He growled and grumbled, but did as he was told, leaving the mop and bucket behind in the doorway.
Outside Kagome washed his silken hair as best she could while her mother ran his shirt through the washer. His pants would have to stay wet for a while since none of Souta's clothes fit him.
"Thanks for helping out today, Inuyasha." Kagome thanked him with a smile as she washed his hair off with cold water from the garden hose. The hanyou shivered and glowered, even pouting to some extent.
"Keh." Was his only reply.
A funny little one-shot I thought up while helping my father paint earlier today. Heh heh. It's mild KagomeInuyasha, this was mainly for my own enjoyment since it's been bugging me ever since I got home today.
Anyway, thanks for reading this far and be sure to leave a review. wink Happy Easter everyone! Ja'ne!
Review Please.