Chapter One: Tempting Fate
AN: Ah yes, I swear, I have a very good reason for starting another fic; pity I can't remember why at the moment. For all you out there, feel good about yourselves! You guilted me into updating—lol.
It was a gad-turn-off-the-daggum-sun day, sunlight glancing off of every available surface and painting her apartment awash with light and heat. Kagome was no stranger to this kind of heat, and, even as she thought about it now, she had to suppress a grin.
Summers in modern Tokyo didn't hold a candle to those in Feudal Japan.
She headed to the faucet, vigorously pumping her soap dispenser and scrubbing her hands pink. Sweat beaded on her forehead and she wiped it off on the back of her hand. Turning, she located the cup cabinet, filling the floral patterned glass to the brim and balancing on the edge of the kitchen bar with a gusty sigh. The view from Eri's apartment was phenomenal, if not a little depressing. Concrete canyons were entertaining for a grand total of three minutes before they slid into deadly depressing.
Nostalgic much? No, not her.
Kagome sighed, and traced a wiggly line in the dust on her sill. She missed the green, lush forests of the Edo period, the clear air and clean streams. Life went on, sure, but—
The phone rang, abruptly shaking her out of her reverie and startling her from her precarious perch. Lurching forward and trying to pretend in her mind that she'd meant to do that all along, Kagome yanked the phone off its cradle.
"Moshi, moshi!" She chirped, twirling the cable between her fingers as she listened to her grandfather's prattle. "Yeah, sure gramps! No problem."
Grinning from ear to ear, she finished the conversation and set the phone back. She was going to England! Who knew?
This was the life, she thought happily with all of her earlier sentiment cheerfully obliterated. She had a great summer job; what teenager could say that they exorcised ghosts every other night? Strictly speaking, it wasn't much, but it gave her a few yen to contribute to the household account and brought in a little something else besides.
It really was a smooth set up; her grandfather was getting older every day and often preferred to spend time at home with his books and antiquities while she was young and often with more energy than she knew what to do with. It suited them both for him to turn over his clients to his miko granddaughter with a recommendation.
Most of the time, it was little else than a rather drafty house and after having a few discrete, stern talks with the shingles from behind a hammer, she was set and paid. The very few times there actually was a spectre, it paled in comparison to any youkai of her former acquaintances. Hell, the once she'd actually found something with one twentieth of the power in one of the lowlife demons she'd grappled within in Edo, it was a harmless elf—a let-us-help-the-Miss shoemaker type!
Kagome shook her head with a grin; she'd taken it back home and set it to work. Since then, she'd never had better footwear.
But England! It was a tad strange to get a call from so very far away, but who could refuse an offer so generous as airfare and board paid, but with an added bonus of 60,000 yen? Not Kagome! The money alone would have easily covered a year of shoes and—Kagome frowned. It really was almost too good to be true, but her grandfather had had dealings with these people before.
What could go wrong?
Two hours later, she decided that to say 'what could go wrong' was tempting Fate: like putting candy in front of a diabetic, like-
"'S like putting a whore in front of a priest!" cried the red-head in front of her to his twin. The whole plane ride had been a disaster from the beginning, starting with these two red-headed monsters in matching—Kagome had to have a quiet giggle at this—maroon sweaters each emblazoned with either 'F' or 'G.' She could've sworn they looked to be her age—until one opened his mouth, that was.
Kagome sighed and quietly banged her head on the window, wondering what had possessed her to learn English.
Thump, thump, thump. The twins turned, twisting in their seats to stare at the crazy Japanese woman. Moments later, a girl with a messy red bun appeared beside them, sending her a sympathetic smile over the back of the seat.
The one on the right with an 'F' stamped on his sweater gave Kagome a grin, pulling a yellow pastry from inside his shirt and handing it to her.
"Fred!" The girl hissed and swiped it yanked it from Kagome's loose grip, scolding the boys, "She's a you-know-what! You can't do that."
Kagome bristled at the implied insult to her race and arched a brow to which the girl responded with a shaky smile and a hasty disappearance. The boys grinned, propping an arm on the headrest almost simultaneously and sharing identical grins as they produced another wrapped pastry.
"It's only candy," A brother whispered, bringing a finger to his lips, "Sorry 'bout Gin here, she's…"
He twirled a finger on the side of his head, grinning. Kagome pretended like she knew what it meant and gave them a strained smile. Crazy British kids but at least they gave her candy. The boys sat down but kept turning back at her and winking in a distracting manner—she'd always had a soft spot for redheads—as their sister tried very hard to ignore them.
Absently, her mind darting ahead to the job ahead, her fingers fumbled with the wrapper. Canary Pastry, huh? She thought, biting into it and mentally filing it away as an acquired taste. Somehow it almost reminded her of burnt chicken, oddly enough…
It was five minutes until she'd sorted her thoughts out enough to notice the two casting her expectant, if slightly devious, looks from the row in front of her. She cocked her head to the side, thoughts tumbling through; had they spiked it? Kagome quickly recalled horror stories and didn't her mother say not to take candy from strangers?!
She could picture it! Right now, her guts were dissolving into shapeless mounds and her brains were about to start pouring out her ears and was her head hurting! Was that a tingle she felt? WAS SHE SUDDENLY FEELING WOOZY?!
There was a flash of pink and she coughed into a hand.
A bright yellow feather flew out of her mouth and she stared at it. The pastry wasn't that bad, she thought with an uncertain look to the slightly damp feather.
"What the heck?" F whipered ferociously, the rest of his words lost in a stream of unintelligible gibberish that flew between the twins as they gestured to between her and the pastry.
The other girl sat up, muttering savagely until she saw the wrapper in Kagome's hand. Snarling viciously, she snatched it up. A hostess moved quickly down the aisle, frowning, as a murmur swept down the plane.
"What seems to be the problem?" The woman asked, staring too at the feather a little bemusedly.
"Nothing, that's what!" Said the one identified with a 'G,' glaring at Kagome as if the 'nothing' were her fault. The attendant raised a brow but nodded and turned to march back down the aisle, stepping aside only as a matronly woman made her way up from the back of the plane, sporting the same unruly red hair as the teenagers before her.
"Didn't I tell you to behave?" The woman muttered, a spitting image of her daughter of moments before. Her hands came up to rest of her generous hips and Kagome fought the urge to lean away from the obvious mother-power.
"Yes mum," Said a twin, still eyeing Kagome with some distrust.
"Yeah, sure," Agreed the other.
"Then turn around and sit down." There was a series of thumps as their butts hit the chair and, satisfied her children would behave, the woman began making her way back. Kagome, an eye on the twins, set the pastry aside on a napkin.
"No fair," Muttered F, turning around and sitting up to grimace at Kagome.
"You'd better be lucky she's one of us, Fred. You could so get in trouble with the Ministry. Why aren't you flooing?" Asked the girl, suddenly cheerful. Kagome blinked.
"Flooing?" The black-haired girl asked, puzzled as the twins traded knowing smirks.
"It's okay," said the girl, prodding the twins with a meaningful look. Sighing, one took out a stick and discretely muttered a few words.
"Happy?" He asked churlishly, his glare alternating between Kagome and the puff. "Stupid thing. I knew it needed more lizard lips."
The change in the air was palpable and the miko felt it almost immediately; the sensation was quite like being under water, with the sounds of the other passengers muted and their faces distorted.
"What is this?" She demanded, feeling rippling waves of something not dissimilar to youkai magic rolling off the three as she strained her senses forward. God granny, you must be getting old if you haven't noticed this by now, she chided herself.
The three redheads grinned.
"I'm George by the way. This," A twin put his hand up and seemed to be pushing against a barrier or some sort, "Is a variation of a standard Bubble Head charm and Silencio. Clever, no? And patented by the Weasley brothers."
"Charm?" She asked faintly. Ah yes, don't let the door to reality hit you on the way out. A flash of annoyance flickered across his face as he leaned back.
"There's no need to play stupid for the muggles here- from the outside it looks like we're doing normal stuff. And didn't I mention the ingenious addition of an Illusion?"
"Charm?" She asked again, weakly.
"Yeah, charm, ya' know," His eyes flicked over her expression. "Oh shit."