Chapter 13 (ooh, unlucky)
Okay, let's see how bad this sucks.
I don't really feel like updating. I'm not getting that many reviews. I have 367 hits so far. 98 people have looked at the first page, but then they all leave and only 23 people look at the 2nd chapter.
Inu's POV>
"Is it just me, or does no one throw away a good pair of scissors anymore?"
I know, that is a really dumb question, but all the ones I had found were either rusted shut or half of the blade was missing.
"I know, doesn't seem fair, does it?" Her name was Charlotte and she was that hooker from before. She was sober, and not mad that I'd taken the twenty and skittles from her. I'd given them back in return for a hair cut anyway. She was working on my bangs at the moment.
"Yeah, It's not fair we have to stay here either." It was true. It wasn't fair. But not a lot of things are when you don't have anywhere else to go.
"Life's just not fair these days." She sighed, snipping another flyaway string of hair. She continued quietly for a while, I was just fine with silence. I kinda liked this chick. What she said, she meant and she didn't seem to just like the sound of her own voice. If I could ignore what she did as a living, she almost reminded me of mom.
"Ya just gotta deal with it sometimes, and hope for something better. It could be worse, couldn't it." she chuckled after a while, "We could be out in this blistering heat wave that's struck the city."
I had to laugh at that one. If anything, it had gotten colder. The snow was piled up so deep it was beginning to be a hassle just to get out of the subway in the mornings, before janitors came and cleared it away.
"There you go Hon: a new do, and enough hair to stuff a mattress." She said, referring to the giant pile of black clumps that now surrounded us.
"Thanks." I replied. I put all the hair in the trashcan nearby and shook any thing that was left over off of my coat.
"Anytime. Just don't let it go that long again." She said, leaving the semi-warmth of the subway out into the snow outside. She adjusted her coat a little closer to her body before heading out to whatever street corner she was focused on working that night.
I decided to stay down here just a little bit longer. The place was starting to grow on me, even with the constant threat of being found out. I'd been coming here for about a week now. It'd been just a few hours ago I'd given that note to Kagome.
Kagome. Her name just sounded so perfect. She was perfect, now that I thought about it. But I didn't think about her to long. It just reminded me of the food and friendship I'd been starved of for so long.
It was almost starting to become a problem. Being part demon allowed me to starve just a little bit and be just fine, but I was really starting to waste away. As if to accent my point, my stomach decided to growl right then.
"Fine, just shut up." I thought to my stomach. "If you could just stop whining, maybe I could find something for you." I continued. I wasn't going crazy or anything, it just made the hunger just a little easier to deal with, pretending it was some kid I had to take care of.
I finally relented after a few more minutes of slouching in the bench. I finally decided to go out and at least look for something to eat, even if it was late.
It was about 7 pm, and the sun almost behind the horizon, but there was no beautiful sunset to make things orange, and red, and purple. Everything today was grey, the buildings, the cement of the sidewalk, the slush in the gutters, the sky with its tinges of black toward the east. Grey. It even described my mood. Down, depressed, desperate, but not black. Not yet. Not all the good I'd gained from leaving that note for Kagome had left yet.
I hadn't remembered life on the streets being this hard. It almost felt like my first few years, back when I was just a whelp. I kept walking, my eyes scanning for anything edible while my brain kept thinking. It was almost amazing how detached my mind could get from my body. The talent had appeared over time, now that I thought of it. It was easier to forget how tired, or cold, or hungry you were if your mind wasn't paying any attention to it. It was also easier to forget how much things hurt.
I finally decided why things seemed so hard now. I had gotten soft. I'd gone to be with Kagome, and then I was at the lab with Riku. For two years, I'd gotten used to a soft bed, warm meals, friends, and now that that was all gone, it was harder to forget what I was missing.
No matter, I could get over that easily enough. It was just taking longer than I wanted. I tried to distract myself from the downsides of being on my own, and decided to think of the positives.
At least I was finally in control. No one was telling me what to do. I was my own man. And I wasn't responsible for anyone. I could do what I felt like and not have to apologize. I didn't have to worry about anyone either. Just myself.
But then I started thinking about that a little more. I only had to worry about myself because there wasn't anyone else. Pushing Kagome and Riku away just made me alone. I had always blamed people for forcing me into places where they thought I'd be happy, and I had run away from so many of those places. But in the end, I was the one responsible for me being alone.
But what did I expect. If I actually went back to the lab, or to Kagome and said I was sorry for leaving, that I was coming home, they would just get hurt. If I was alone it meant that no one else could suffer for my mistakes. It meant that I was free to make mistakes. Right?
For some reason my mind couldn't convince my heart that I was better off this way. So I just ignored both and walked numbly around. I didn't find anything to satisfy my stomach. It was as if my luck had run out for a while. I didn't need luck anyway. I didn't need anybody.
I kept on walking, even though it was starting to get really dark. The black from the east slowly advancing like an opposing army, the city growing darker, just like the sky. The cold, pressing down harder and harder till it was like an icy metal vise.
I didn't feel like going back to the subway where it was warm. Not yet. I could take just a little more. I was strong enough. I kept saying this to my heart; that I was strong enough to survive. I could make it, all alone. I didn't need Kagome. I didn't. But the feeling wouldn't go away. I couldn't even explain what it was I was feeling.
"I'm fine! I don't need her!"
"You know you do."
"If anything, she's the one who needs me! She's always getting into trouble."
"That's not true. She, unlike you, has a family. She doesn't need you."
"Well I don't' need her either. I don't need anyone. I've never needed anyone."
"You needed mother."
"I did not! I don't miss her at all! Not a bit!"
"Then why did you rush back in when he had told you not to. Why did you drag her out, even though she had to have been three times as big as you? Why did you stay by her side, begging for her to wake up? And then why did you cry, inside and outside, when she didn't? You still cry."
"SHUT UP!"
I stomped around the corner, walking briskly as if to run away from that nagging little voice in my heart. It wasn't as easy as that, but I'd been running for years. I wasn't ready to give that up.
I'd never stop running.
Kagome's POV
I thought the best place to start looking, would be that alley where Inuyasha had lived before, just incase he was living there now, but when I got there, the place was almost unrecognizable. The brick building next to it had been knocked down, crushing the plywood lean-to underneath a landslide of rubble. I felt my heart rise up and catch in my throat. He couldn't be underneath all of that and still be alive. He just couldn't.
But then I noticed that some bricks had been cleared away. There were still signs of construction going on, meaning the building had been knocked down a while ago. At least before Inuyasha had written this. Still, it took a while for me to get calmed down again.
Once I was able to swallow freely again, and my heart stopped beating franticly, I tried to think of another place Inuyasha would be. I wracked my brain for 20 minutes, pacing in front of the "former" alley.
I couldn't remember him saying anything, in his dreams or when he was awake, about where else he might go. Sighing in frustration, I decided to walk around, hoping to chance upon some kind of clue.
I know that is just silly. I'd never be able to find any kind of clue. The city was too big, it was too dark, the odds were against me. But I looked anyway. I pulled up my hood on my jacket. It was kind of cold. In the process I managed to trip and fall, skinning my hands and making my clothes damp from the melted snow. I got up and tried to brush of the moisture. I had my back to the wall of some building, looking out onto the street. I leaned against it, feeling hopeless.
Then I saw him. It had to be him. I recognized the spell he used to look human and I recognized the determined, if not angry, way he stomped around. But his hair was cut short, and his face had a look of complete misery on it. There was no trace of the iron will or resolve Inuyasha constantly possessed. I watched as he walked down the sidewalk; head down, staring at his feet as he walked past me. He didn't seem to notice I was there.
"Inuyasha?" I whispered, more to myself than this stranger. But to my surprise he stopped. He didn't turn around, though I saw him lift his head up and briefly shake his head, as if shaking away bad thoughts.
Then he turned around, trying to cover up what I had seen a brief glimpse of.
"Inuyasha is that you?" I asked, I couldn't help my voice cracking with relief.
"Only if that's you." I heard him say, as if I was the last person on earth he wanted to see.
"It's me." I breathed, transfixed in wonder at what I had seen just moments before. Had I just seen the Inuyasha that he kept bottled up; hidden from the world. I had caught a glimpse that night, in the rain.
"Oh, I got your note. I was going to try to give you one..." I trailed off. I felt just a little subdued by his new appearance. His hair wasn't the only thing that had changed about him; he was also so thin, almost delicate the way he looked earlier, but rough and hard as nails now. He reminded me of a stray dog: dirty, emaciated, dangerous. It was all so shocking from the Inuyasha I knew. He may have been rude, and unfeeling at times, but there was a softer side underneath the toughness that always showed through. When he had come back that one day, with Riku, he had looked a little older, more muscular and less boyish, but he still wasn't this stone creature that was before me now. I couldn't see the softness anymore.
"Look, I can't-" he started but I interrupted him.
"What's happened to you?" I couldn't stop myself from asking. Inuyasha tensed and seemed to jerk back a little.
"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked, his tone a little less icy and more shaken than before.
"You don't look like Inuyasha anymore." I told him the truth.
Well, if he wasn't shocked by my question before, he was really shocked now. The tension between us suddenly faded away, and we were left with an uncomfortable silence.
"Kagome, I can't-" Inuyasha started again, but I interrupted on more time.
"why don't you come back with me? Why do you feel the need to be here, what's wrong with being back home, where you belong?" I burst out, tears threatening to form at the corners of my eyes.
"I...I can't...I just..." Inuyasha tried to say something, but slowly deflated before my eyes. Then, just as suddenly as I had found him, I was wrapped in his arms. He was squeezing so tight, it was almost like he thought I was going to fade away if he let go even just a little.
I hugged him back to reassure myself, and him, that this moment was real; that we were actually together again, if only for that short moment that we held each other in our arms.
(All Inu/Kag fans should be squealing in delight right about now.)
(I really hate writing for this guy, I've turned him into such a cold-hearted monster. At his best he's a spoiled brat. Please, ready your rotten vegetables. Here comes...)
Naraku's POV>
I pulled out the binoculars out of my pocket. They were expensive, able to make my eyesight like that of a hawk as it searches for its prey on the field below. And that was what I was doing. I was on the rooftops, spying on that bastard.
Warning: This POV has been label by the surgeon General to be hazardous to your health. Therefore, it shall not be continued. (Suggested by my sis, Black Rainy)
Well. This is where the chapter ends. You know that Naraku has been spying on Inu, you know how much inner turmoil Inu has to put up with, and you know that Kagome is as stubborn as ever. And this chapter has 2480 words. Please review!