Assassination

A/N: Sorry about the delay, but I was working slavishly on 'Hindsight'. That, and I was busy heaping abuse on a referee...
Anyways, so I'm evil, and we know it, therefore I am going to make Inuyasha go through even more trauma.

DISCLAIMER: *Sigh* The likelihood of me owning any part of Inuyasha and company is equal to a referee giving fair judgments in the World Cup against a non-European country. Therefore, it's pretty much nil.

CHAPTER 10: CALL IT WHAT YOU WANT

“Oh Gods. Life is complete. I can now die and make my excuses to St. Peter. Or weasel my way out of the passage on the River Styx. Or…can be reincarnated into a toad. I have reached the pinnacle of joy. There is nothing else for me.” Kagome and

Souta laughed at Shippo’s monotone speech, eyes glazed and arms limp.

In front of them was an Aston Martin Vanquish, jet-black and shining in the sun. Shippo woodenly walked over to the car, stopping jerkily a few inches from the bonnet. Suddenly, he pelted himself onto the car, trying his best to wrap his arms and legs around it as he pressed his cheek to the clean paint, eyes alight with desperate joy.

“You think he likes it, Sis?” Souta asked under his breath, causing Kagome to laugh under hers. She had capitulated, like the most inexperienced parent, in response to Shippo’s constant begging for that particular car, expensive and inappropriate as it was for a first car. The obvious rapture emanating from the teen currently wrapped around the car made the residual feelings of guilt melt away. Souta had already gained his reward for, as he put it, ‘not sucking mightily’, in the form of his own car. To his credit, he had not attempted to merge with the paint job, a task Shippo was still currently engrossed in.

As Souta loped over to coax Shippo off the bonnet and suggest actually entering the car, Kagome’s thoughts drifted away to a very recent memory. Sesshomaru’s golden eyes linked so strongly with hers only three days ago was still vivid in her mind’s eye. She could still feel the glowing regard of his statement wash over her. Indeed, whenever her newfound resolution wavered, it only took remembering Sesshomaru’s proclamation of pride, and the boys’ effort to restore her to normality, and she would rally.

It concerned her, however, that Sesshomaru’s encouragement always bolstered her faster than the boys’. She did not know why, and she honestly did not want to delve in any depth into the reasoning. She could tell, instinctively, that she would not appreciate the answers held in her subconscious.

Shippo’s elated yell pulled her out of her musings, and she noted with no little amusement that he had finally released the car and was reveling in the interior. His pleasure with the exterior apparently forgot, he now crowed lovingly over the richness of the car’s depth.


*****************

Inuyasha could not concentrate.

And it was entirely Kagome’s fault.

He tossed the papers in front of him furiously against the walls, watching balefully as sheaves gently drifted to the floor.

Ever since Sango had attempted murder-by-rock in the gardens, he had been unpleasantly assailed by her soft rebukes. His initial assessment -that he couldn’t deal with her because of her face- seemed hollow and cowardly now, upon inspection. He found himself taking unwanted strolls down the halls of his long memory, recalling all his interactions with Kagome, even before Kikyo came into their lives and between them.

He remembered their gibes, which were usually meant but never taken seriously. He remembered the pranks they had pulled on all their collective acquaintances, including an assailed professor who deigned to tell them to act their ages. He remembered dancing with Kagome on a beach under the blanket of the night sky, stars smiling down upon them benevolently as they swayed to inner music.

He remembered his obsession with her, which quickly paled when she introduced him to one of her friends, who was eerily identical to her in every way but for the colour of her eyes and something a lot more obvious and equally hard to verbalize.
He remembered it all, and liked it none.


***************
FLASHBACK
***************

“Oh, gods, Kagome. I don’t want to go out tonight. I’m bloody tired from that godawful exam. I want to vegetate on a couch or flat surface with three crates of ramen and four piles of movies.”

Kagome was paying not the slightest bit of attention to Inuyasha’s whining, instead grabbing him by the hand and dragging him along to his bedroom, where she unceremoniously shoved him onto the bed and made for his closet.

Inuyasha reclined on the sheets, propped up on his elbows as he waggled his eyebrows and shot the most perverted leer he could at Kagome. “Y’know, while I’m here we could make use of this fine…durable…flat surface.” He was only half-joking.

“I think not, sweetcheeks. I’d rather sleep with Miroku.” Sadly, she was completely serious.

As she riffled through his closet, his brows drew together. She hadn’t once even turned to look at him. He was not very amused or happy with the state of events between him and Kagome. He was drawn to her so strongly, it was a now-palpable ache to be in her presence, knowing as he did that he had absolutely no chance to do anything other that hiss barbs.
Usually, any girl he wanted would remove herself from his person only with considerable force. He literally had to beat the ladies away, seeing as he was so damned sexy and everything.

But she…?

No. She continued to blissfully ignore his sexual frustrations, and his emotional upheavals. Well, strictly, truthfully speaking, it was more physical than emotional, but she didn’t need to know that. It wasn’t as though she were a bloody mind-reader.

Just then, Kagome turned, glaring at him, and he froze, automatically blanking out his thoughts in the odd chance that she could read his mind.

“You jackass. Where is your black shirt?” she hissed at him.

He sighed in relief, before pointed negligently to a black sleeve poking out of a drawer.
She stomped over to it, releasing several put-upon sighs that seemed to shake her entire body. Inuyasha found himself momentarily distracted by a slight jiggle in the vicinity of her chest area. As his expert eyes, honed with years of such study, perused her breasts, her head jerked up and she snarled at him.

“Stop staring at my breasts, you pervert.”

Inuyasha immediately dropped his eyes to the carpet in a move reminiscent of an abashed schoolboy.

“Why the fucking hell is this outing so godsdamned important to you?” he huffed, changing the subject rapidly before she
brained him with a nearby lamp; something she resorted to on occasion.

“Not for me.” Was all she said.

She had been this blasted mysterious and fucking secretive all damned day. He wanted answers now.
He leapt off the bed, grabbed her arms and threw her towards the recently vacated sheets. As she landed with a surprised ‘oof’, he landed right on top of her, bracing his weight off her with his arms.

“Tell me why.” He said simply, letting menace float from his eyes and voice.

“Calm the hell down, Yasha. It’s a surprise, okay? For you, it’s a surprise. Want to kill me because I wanted to arrange something nice for one of my friends?” To his surprise, tears clogged her voice, making her speech thick and slow.
He cocked his head, eyes widening as a few errant tears slid down her smooth cheeks.

“Please get off me.” She whispered, still clutching his black shirt.

Inuyasha didn’t move, captivated by the sinuous slide of her tears down her face. As they slid towards her ears, onto his bed, he reached out and gently wiped them away.

“Please, Inuyasha.” Her voice, now positively tiny, reached his sharp ears and he gently levered himself off, still considering her.
He sat next to her as she straightened, his shirt now twisted into swirls.

“Why?” he asked simply.

“Because you’re a friend.” She answered, not looking at him.

“Is that it?” he asked, wondering if that was all he was to her.

“Why else would I?” she replied, obviously misinterpreting him.

He scowled, before the salty trails of her tears drifted up to his nose, and he sighed mightily.

“Fine. I’ll come. And I won’t have a good time, just you see.” He warned ill-naturedly.

**************

That very night, Kagome had introduced him to her friend Kikyo Innesly, a tall, raven-haired beauty whose startling resemblance to Kagome had his head in an immediate spin. At Kagome’s gentle pushing, he and Kikyo danced in the club all night, well into the hours of the morning and into closing time. They didn’t just dance. They talked. About silly things, irreverent things, things that had them falling over themselves laughing. All the while Inuyasha felt himself being pulled deeper into those warm chocolaty eyes, so inviting, so welcoming, and so ready to embrace him as more than just a friend.

They had arranged later dates, soon becoming a regular couple, and Inuyasha’s previous, desperate, seemingly vital attraction to Kagome had been superimposed by the tendrils of another bond being formed by a girl who looked almost exactly like her, but was nothing like her.

He had not fallen immediately into love with her, as he thought he had with Kagome. Instead, his relationship with Kikyo had taken months, even years to properly develop, where they carefully learnt each other’s habits, likes, dislikes, fears and joys.

He never once insulted her, as he still did with regularity to Kagome, who watched the blossoming relationship with inscrutable eyes and delighted smiles.

Kagome, his best friend, who had set him up with the love of his life, and had stood by them both during all their fights, problems and worries. Who had shrieked like a schoolgirl when Kikyo showed her the engagement ring. Who was inordinately happy that fateful day on the carpet, pulling funny faces at them when they got too engrossed with each other.
Who had stood by just him at Kikyo’s funeral. And who had saved him from himself and his own despair.

Kagome, who he had first loved with a passion so great that he knew it would be temporary.
Surely, nothing that strong, that powerful, that immediate, could be everlasting love.

Because nothing in the world could ever be that good, at all.

*****************

Kaede stared at the photo in her hands, as she had been doing for the past half hour. She remembered vividly when she herself had taken in, an obnoxiously sunny day on a pristine beach. They all had gathered there, to celebrate nothing specific, just for fun. All the Kingreaves’ had shown up, even the notoriously uptight Sesshomaru, who had helped his daughter to build a magnificent sand castle, incapable of producing anything less than exemplary. The Higurashis, exuberant as always, had lobbed sand balls at Inuyasha, causing all-out war, along with Miroku and Sango. And she and her sister, the last remaining Inneslys in the world, had joined the rambunctious group, Kikyo dolled up in a fancy bikini that had had Inuyasha literally panting.

Kaede, lugging around her new camera, a gift from the kind Mr. Inutaisho, had insisted on a group picture. Shippo had helped corral everyone, and Kikyo had batted her eyelashes at a grumbling Inuyasha, who immediately fell into place, earning a ‘nice dog’ from a smirking Kagome.

After the requisite quarrel between the two, that Kikyo had broken up, all of Kaede’s large and wonderful family had stood together, smiling toothily at the camera’s tiny lens, even Sesshomaru, although his, she reflected now, was more of a pained grimace as Inuyasha had ‘accidentally’ smashed his foot into Sesshomaru’s shin.

Kaede stared at her beautiful sister smiling happily up at her, Inuyasha’s arm slung around her waist, and Kagome’s arm hooked with hers. After Kaede had developed the picture and showed it to Kikyo, she had smiled gently and told her that it was a picture of her family, blood be damned.

She had also told her that the love they had for each other, and her, shone through the paper and colour that comprised the picture, making it living proof of a beautiful memory and undying emotion.

Kaede wiped away her trailing tears, and smiled tremulously at her sister’s image.

Kikyo had been right. They were all her family, even Kagome. Kaede resolved to get past the pain of Kagome’s face.
She was, after all, her sister in spirit.


******************

Sesshomaru looked at the phone, picked it up, started to dial, then sent the receiver crashing back down onto the cradle, scowling in disgust. The action was the sixth such in the past hour. Each time, the crash grew louder, the scowl more pronounced.

He was never indecisive. He left that particular action to idiots, mortals and the like. He was a youkai of action, one who never strayed from whatever path he guided himself down. This petty stupidity was completely out of character for Sesshomaru, and it infuriated him mightily that he apparently could not just lift the godsdamned telephone and call-

“Oy, big brother. Inasmuch as the view of the blank wall is scintillating, I’m sure you have more productive things to do with your time.”

Sesshomaru looked up, to see Inuyasha lounging against his door, all the way across the room.

“What do you want, boy?” Sesshomaru asked in the most bored tone he could possibly muster. To an outsider, it would seem as though the speaker had just spent the last five days staring at 'Cats'.

Inuyasha’s colour rose at the ‘boy’ reference. He hated it when Sesshomaru pointed out that Inuyasha was a good hundred years his junior.

“At least I’m mature enough to let the call connect.” He shot back, straightening and sauntering over to Sesshomaru’s desk, where he rested his hip on a chair, folding his arms over his scrawny chest.
Sesshomaru’s eyes narrowed in anger, realizing with a sinking feeling that Inuyasha had seen his indecision.

Fuck.

“My maturity is never to be compared to yours. Especially if we are to recollect your seventy-fifth birthday.” Sesshomaru
reminded him coolly, internally grinning viciously at Inuyasha’s immediate pink complexion.

“Oh, fuck you. I was young. Barely out of pup-hood. That doesn’t signify.” He blustered.

“Oh, but it does, seeing as that would only apply if you weren’t hanyou. As you are, you reach maturity faster than youkai. Don’t use that sorry excuse on me.” Sesshomaru even allowed his expressionless face to broadcast the tiniest smirk.

Nasty as it was in nature, Inuyasha obviously saw it, as he recognized like things to himself, and took immediate offense. Just as he was about to launch himself at Sesshomaru, the phone rang.

Sesshomaru smirked a bit wider, before picking up the handset.

“Kingreaves here.” He barked.

“Um…hi, Sesshomaru. It’s Kagome.” Sesshomaru almost dropped the phone in surprise. Almost, of course, being representative of an infinitesimal jerk of his fingers on the phone that not even Inuyasha saw.

At his prolonged silence, he heard her clear her throat nervously.

“Sesshomaru, are you still there?” she asked hesitantly.

“Yes, I am. What can I do for you?” he asked, regaining his voice. He really didn’t appreciate losing it in the first place, and would later beat himself bloody for the latest in his string of loss of control.

“Actually, I’m calling because I just came in, and saw I had six missed calls, and this number showed up and I recognized it and I called, because I was worried about you, and are you alright?”

Sesshomaru smiled at the rambling, nervous sentence, then the smile faded as he realized that she had called him, expecting him to want to talk to her.

Shit.

“Yes, I’m fine. I’m sorry to have worried you.” He said simply, staring daggers at Inuyasha, clearly hinting for him to vacate the premises immediately. Inuyasha responded by plopping his disgusting ass into one of Sesshomaru’s plush guest chairs, propping his manky feet onto Sesshomaru’s pristine desk, and smirking directly into Sesshomaru’s expressionless face.

“Oh, it’s alright. But, then, why were you calling? Is something wrong with Kaede, or Inuyasha, or Mr. T?” He smiled a little at
her nickname for his formidable father. Not many would get away with speaking so informally about Inutaisho, but he seemed to like Kagome, and was equally as comfortable with her.

“No, they’re all fine. We’re all fine. Nothing is wrong.” He assured her.

“Then, why did you call?” she asked, obviously confused.

Sesshomaru had always, and still, prided himself on his mastery of fifty known languages, twelve dead, fourteen obscure, and countless dialects. He was an eloquent, articulate speaker, if he did say so himself, and was inordinately proud of it. He always had a ready answer for every single situation, having lived close to a millennium, and having experienced every plausible situation. He could even call himself an almost match to Inutaisho, and that was saying something.
So, later on in the day, when he had time to reflect on what came flying out of his mouth, he would wonder, with good cause, why the hell he said what he did.

“Because I would like very much if you would accompany me to dinner.”

A/N: WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I could not help myself. It just came out. Oh, I was kind of influenced by the movie, "Sweet Home Alabama". Not the plot, just the idea that there could be two men vying for the attention of a woman. And that there is nothing particularly wrong with either, and that the woman has to choose between two good men.
I just hope that I don't write myself into a corner...

Next up...The Response!!!!