The Affair

A/N: Well, taking me a bit longer to write these now. Not so sure where I want to start taking it from. Oh, and "Inuyasha" has been taking up more and more of my attention, haha.



Ahem. Let's get to it.

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You're smile is like the sun to me.

So bright it's weakening,

You're so sweet.

But with all that you'd like from me,

A smile and be okay,

Sorry.

It's taken my every day

To accept that I have to say,

To say no.

I'll be right here,

Say something's wrong

To just find fault.

She complains the room's too cold,

But when I learn to make heat,

It's just to disappoint.

Oh, you know I'll forget, so quick.



- The Early November, "Everything's Too Cold... But You're So Hot"

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Chapter 12: The Club.



Hojo hated crowds. He'd gone to a small high school just outside of Tokyo, and he'd gone off to a small college just outside of Kyoto. When he graduated with his computer degree, he'd moved to a small town just outside of Denver, Colorado in the U.S. Hojo was just... not a crowds person.



So finding himself standing at the bar of one of the most popular clubs in Denver on this snowy Saturday night was unexpected, to say the least.



It was a nice bar, he had to admit. As he sipped his Crown and Coke, he looked around. Beautiful young college women, covered with sweat and scantily clad in halter tops and mini skirts filled the dance floor. Pink and blue and green and purple lights flashed and danced against their skin. Hojo turned from the sight of the dancing crowd to get a refill, and when he turned back, his eyes settled on the most enticing sight he had ever seen.



Neverending legs that were lean and muscular and smooth. They were connected to feet covered by dark red stilleto's and a thin torso that was barely covered by a shimmery, black dress, the skirt of which stopped just underneath her ass. There were no sleeves to the dress, and the woman wearing it wasn't covered in sweat like the rest of the people in the crowded club. Hojo's eyes widened when he looked upon her familiar face.



"Kagome?" he hollered in disbelief. Somehow, over the earthshakingly loud rock music, the vixen heard him call her name. She stopped moving, and her head turned sharply, her dark eyes settling on him with an intense look.



She left her friend behind on the dance floor, stalking over to him in her heels. "Hojo?" she asked, her mind unable to believe her eyes. "I cannot believe that you're here!"



He stood, his anxious grin overpowering his facial muscles for the first time in years. He inwardly rolled his eyes at the butterflies forming in his stomach at the sight of Kagome once more.



"Oh, wow!" she cried out, smiling broadly. "I haven't seen you since high school!"



"I know!" he replied just as loudly.



Kagome turned her head a little as her friend came up to them. She was a tall, striking woman with long, sleek black hair, purple eyeshadow to complement her amethyst eyes, and she was around seven months pregnant. "Oh," Kagome said, smiling at the woman. "Sorry. Hojo, this is my best friend Sango. Sango, this is Hojo. We knew each other in high school, back in Tokyo."



Sango nodded, observing this newcomer into her friend's now stable life. "So," she started. "What brought you all the way to America?"



"To get away from my parents in Japan," he told them. "My father wanted me to run his corporation, but... I like computers as much as the next guy, but I'm more of an entertainment kind of guy myself."



He looked at Kagome very seriously. "And what about you?" he asked suddenly. "The last I heard, you were at Tokyo University, studying nursing."



Kagome laughed a little. "That was a really long time ago," she answered. Sango was giving her a puzzled look, and Kagome smiled as she explained, "Before I started at the theater and met you guys, I was going to Tokyo U to be a nurse and working in a hospital lab. But I decided that I didn't want to do that anymore, so I switched majors and found new jobs."



Sango nodded. "I remember seeing that lab job on your application. It makes sense now."



Kagome turned back to Hojo. "I changed my major to photography and minored in business. Now I own a small two-story building right inside Denver. The ground floor serves as my studio, and the top floor is where Sango and I stay with her husband Miroku and my son Shippo."



Hojo's eyes widened considerably. "You're a mom now?" he asked Kagome practically in disbelief. She grinned, nodding, and laughed at his reaction. "I know, I know!" she told him. "No one in high school would've ever thought I'd make a good mom, but, if I do say so myself, I think I've been a pretty good one!"



Hojo shook his head, still in awe. "No, no, Kagome! We never thought you wouldn't make a good mom! No one at the high school could see you ever settling down with anyone to become a mom!"



He looked around. "So where's your husband?" he asked. "I'd like to meet the man that made the infamous Kagome Higurashi settle down!"



Kagome and Sango exchanged looks. "Well, Hojo," Kagome began. "I'm not married."



He blinked at her for a moment. Then his expression became confused. "I don't understand."



"I'm not married, Hojo," she told him again. "I had Shippo out of wedlock; his father and I... we split up while I was pregnant."



He watched her with an intense look. "But he helps you care for Shippo, right?"



"He should!" Sango hollered suddenly, but Kagome shot her a look.



"Shippo's father doesn't know..." she told Hojo slowly. "He has no idea that he has a son living in America."



Hojo stepped back. "Oh, that's harsh, Kagome," he told her.



"No way is that harsh to Inuyasha!" Sango cried out, gripping her large stomach. "He was a complete and total ass to Kagome! How are we supposed to expect him to treat his son any better!"



"No, no," Hojo said, waving his hands. "I didn't mean that it was harsh to Inuyasha; I know that if Kagome left him and came all the way from America to get their son away from him, then she must have had a good reason to.



"But, Kagome, the boy needs a father," Hojo told her.



Kagome shifted her weight to her other foot, planting her hands to her hips as they cocked to one side, and she gave him a hard look. "I don't need help taking care of my child."



"I'm not saying help, Kagome," he told her. "I'm talking about a father figure that will teach Shippo what boys need to learn from their fathers."



Kagome watched him carefully, knowing that he was right.

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Inuyasha had been having some pretty strange dreams lately.



In one, he was standing with Kagome somewhere... There was nothing else there besides them. Just white space lay beyond Kagome's face. He reached out to touch her, and she flinched away from his fingers. She stared up into his golden eyes, her eyes burning straight through into him. "What's wrong with you?" she breathed. She tried to back up, but she couldn't. They both looked down.



A knife was shoved hilt-deep into Kagome's torso. Her dark blood ran down her legs, staining her jeans and her fluttery pink blouse. She gagged a little, her knees becoming weak, and he caught her. What shocked him is that he had to remove his hand from the hilt of the knife to do it.



He much preferred the other dream. This one, he's laid out on the bed with Kikyo sleeping extra soundly beside him, and Kagome is lying on top of him. They're both completely and beautifully naked, and he and Kagome take up the entire night with deep, intimate conversations and laughing at jokes. He loves her, and she loves him.



And then he wakes up. And she's gone.

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Stay tuned guys and gals:



Chapter 13: The Question.