DISCLAIMER: Sadly, I don not own Inuyasha. I just like playing with them.

Relinquished Destiny

Ch. 17

By: Lara Winner

Kagome’s eyes were glued to the wooden box and its contents as if they were going to jump up a bite her.

There were countless, partially formed ideas running around in circles in Kagome’s mind but the only one to push it’s way forward and win her attention was the inane irony that Miroku’s staff was wrapped in purple a cloth that was near identical to the color of his robes.

Not that the observation had anything to do with the question she just asked or was really of any importance at all, but her mind seemed content to pause on that thought and reflect on it for a moment. It really was such a pretty color and the velvet, while crushed in certain areas, still looked soft and just beckoned for her to run her fingers over the material…

I am so not ready for this!

A distraction, any distraction for that matter, was safer for her sanity than facing the cataclysm of confusion that was waiting to crash over her the second she acknowledged it’s presence. It was best not to face it yet and give Inasho the chance to explain.

He was watching her closely, the look on his face a cross between mild alarm and bewilderment. "I didn’t steal the damn thing it if that’s what your worried about…" when his quip failed to get the desired smile he was aiming for, he frowned. "It belongs to a friend of my Dad’s. He’s letting me borrow it for the project."

"Is the staff authentic? Is it really an antique?" She asked, more to convince herself that it couldn’t be a coincidence than because she really cared.

"That was he says," The reply was spoken absently as Inasho’s frown deepened. "Hey are you sure you’re okay? Your face went completely white. You’re not going to hit the floor again like you did in the cafeteria are you?"

"Huh?" With obvious effort Kagome tore her gaze from the innocent looking staff and pulled her hand away. "Hit the floor…"

It took her a moment to remember what had happened the previous week. That’s right, she recalled, I closed my eyes and saw Onigumo… She shivered, masking the reaction with a jaunty shake of her head. "I’m fine."

"Are you absolutely sure? My sister worked at a hospital for a while so if your not feeling good she might be able to help."

Inasho’s offer was sweet but Kagome could only deal with one thing at a time. There was no way she could handle being with Kikyo… er … Kieko right now. So she did the only thing she could do, she forced a smile that was a little too bright to be convincing and lied. "I’m fine really. It’s probably low blood sugar or something. Sometimes I get that way when I haven’t eaten. No need to worry though. I feel terrific."

"You sure?"

"Yes. Geez, you’re beginning to sound like my mother." She laughed a little nervously.

Inasho remained a bit dubious but seeing that Kagome was getting some of her color back he relented. "Okay, okay I give. But you can’t say I didn’t try to help. If you drop dead then it’s your fault not mine."

"I’m not going to drop dead," she rolled her eyes, "I wouldn’t give you the pleasure."

"You’re being a smart ass again."

Casting Inasho a glare that was menacing, Kagome reasoned, "The only reason you don’t want me to die is because we’re in your room and you’d have to drag me out of here."

"So your point is?" When Kagome’s lips pursed in a pout, a sign that meant prepare for an oncoming lecture, Inasho beat her to the punch. "If you kick the bucket then your gonna blame me and personally, I don’t like the idea of sharing my room with your pissed off ghost. It’d be creepy to try and sleep with you around and…" he suddenly grinned wickedly, "and you’d probably watch me when I change clothes-"

The pillow that landed in Inasho’s face successfully silenced him and Kagome pulled a face. "Eeew! Like I’d want to see you with out clothes on. Talk about a traumatizing experience."

"So says the poster child for the advantages of birth control." Inasho countered as he tossed the pillow back to where Kagome had gotten it only to get hit in face with a second pillow. Inasho remained still letting it fall onto the bed. When Kagome tried not to laugh at his blank expression, he sneered. "As much as I love this game of target practice, I’m must warn you that if you touch my pillows again, especially if you launch them at my face, I’ll kill you and hide your body where no one will ever find it."

"Somebody didn’t take his medication today." Ignoring his glare, Kagome smiled innocently. "What? All I said was somebody didn’t do his meditation today."

Inasho’s evil expression didn’t budge. "How stupid do you think I am?"

Kagome looked away to hide her unrepentant grin. "You really don’t want me to answer that."

"That’s it. You are officially number two on my hit list." Inasho exclaimed as he suddenly walked over to his desk, opened the top drawer, pulled out a piece of paper and began scribbling. "Note to self: Kill Kagome."

"You have a list of people you want to kill and you think I’m a head case…" she mumbled under her breath.

"I heard that." He said dryly without turning around. Tucking the paper away again, he grabbed his history books off the desk and returned to the bed. "You’ve just moved up from number five to number two. Keep it up and I’ll make you number one."

Inasho flopped down on the bed motioning for Kagome to do the same. She hesitated a moment as she realized that their teasing had eased some of the anxiety that had almost overwhelmed her. The shock of being presented with Miroku’s staff was slowly fading and with it was the drowning feeling that plagued these unexpected surprises. Gingerly she sat down taking a deep breath as Inasho began flipping through the textbook before him.

"It says right here that staffs such as these were used in exorcisms and healing rituals." He turned the book for her inspection and pointed to the paragraph. "I figure an exorcism is a fight with a evil spirit or demon so technically this could be considered a weapon, right?"

If you could remember the way Miroku used it you wouldn’t have a doubt… "I don’t see why not." She agreed.

"Since we need visuals for our presentation I thought we could use this. What do you think?"

"You’re definitely onto something." She said, nodding appreciatively while wondering how to steer the conversation back to the current owner of the staff.

"Really?" He gave her a lopsided grin, looking at her hopefully.

It was an uncommon sight though Kagome was almost positive Inasho was unaware of how easily she could read him when his guard was down like this. It never occurred to her that he would take her opinion seriously but her approval seemed to make him happy and in turn she found herself smiling back. "It’s a great idea."

As if he suddenly remembered himself, his grin turned into an over confident smirk as he shrugged carelessly. "Of course it’s a great idea. I thought of it, duh."

Kagome sighed. His sweet side was nice while it lasted, all thirty seconds of it, but now it was back to square one. How did the saying go? ‘Fight oil with vinegar’ or was it ‘Fire and water don’t mix’… she couldn’t remember but either way, a little sarcasm was called for and she was inclined to oblige.

"That’s right," she snickered, "I forgot I was in the presence of the great one. All hail Mr. Perfect."

"Now if only you’d remember to give me proper respect all the time we could get along famously." He noted in a superior, distinctly snooty tone.

"And if I actually had half a mind to listen to this rubbish you would have me groveling at your feet." She huffed turning her nose up haughtily. "I think not."

"I didn’t ask you to think. I wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself or anything."

"I resent that." Grabbing a pillow she hefted it threateningly. "You’re asking for it."

"Hands off the pillows." When she ignored his command his eyes narrowed. "Drop it. I don’t want it to stink like yomhp-" The insult became garbled by yet another accurate hit with the pillow that he didn’t even try to block. Exaggerating the blow he fell backward and bounced against the mattress, completely limp.

"Baka…" she muttered, trying not to crack a smile.

"I am not a baka!" he insisted from beneath the pillow, "and you throw like a girl."

This time Kagome couldn’t hold back her laughter. "Okay, even I could do better than that."

Inasho reached up and dragged the pillow away from his face, just enough for one eye to become visible, and glared at her for all he was worth. "Gimme and break, will ya? You just attempted to murder me with a pillow. My head is a little fuzzy."

"Nope, not buying it." She said with a firm shake of her head for added emphasis. Forcing herself to concentrate once again, she thought she heard a faint "damn" from beneath the pillow but chose to ignore it. "Come on, we need to get serious for a bit. I’m dying to know more about this staff."

"If you insist." he sighed reluctantly as he put the pillow aside and leaned up, resting on one arm. "What do you want to know?"

"For starters… how did your Dad’s friend come across it?"

Inasho shrugged. "I dunno. Mr. Ichiro is always getting his hands on all kind of antiques. It’s like his hobby or something."

"Oh." She frowned, "Did he tell you anything more about it?"

"Not really. He said he was going to find out what he could for me so I’m waiting for Maiso to call me."

"And who is Maiso?"

Kagome was completely lost. She wouldn’t have been surprised if there were dancing question marks above her head.

"One of my friends." I took Inasho a moment to realize that he needed to explain further. "Maiso is Mr. Ichiro’s son. He’s the one that got his old man to let me borrow the staff in the first place."

"That was nice of him."

"You wouldn’t say that if you knew Maiso." Inasho grumbled. "Now I owe the shit head for doing me a favor."

How anyone could be so pessimistic was beyond her. "So you do something nice for the guy in return. It’s not like it would kill you."

"I’m not so sure about that." Inasho said with a strange look on his face. "We’re talking about a guy who would con a poor, starving priest out of his last yen if he thought he could get away with it. I wouldn’t be surprised if he demands my first born kid for a favor like this."

To Inasho it was an offhand comment about his friend but for Kagome it was an all too familiar description of a certain perverted monk. This is too much… The urge to laugh wildly was strong but she fought it down and managed to whisper, "He can’t be that bad."

"Your right, he’s worse. I can’t think of one redeeming quality he has."

"You know, if this is how you talk bout your friends I’d hate to hear what you say about people you don’t like."

"I don’t talk about people I don’t like." Inasho confessed in his honest way, but before she could fully process in that bit of information he continued on saying, "I just call things like I see them. Maiso’s a creep but that doesn’t mean he’s not cool to hang out with. I’ve just learned that you don’t listen to everything he tells you and whenever he sees a pretty girl pretend you don’t know him. Both will spare you a lot of bullshit."

"I used to know a boy like that." Kagome wasn’t sure what compelled her to say it or why she felt the need to get the memory off her chest, but suddenly she didn’t feel so confused. She found herself smiling. "He was always getting into some kind of trouble, especially when it concerned girls."

"Did he chase them around until they kicked his ass?" When she nodded, Inasho rolled his eyes. "I don’t understand guys like that. They give the rest of us a bad rep, as if being a liar and a cheat isn’t bad enough. You want to know what really pisses me off though, more than all the other stuff?"

"What?"

"How religious Maiso is. I don’t get how he can do all that stupid crap and then have the balls to lecture me about karma and spiritual development psycho-babble." Inasho growled. "You can’t be a devout Buddhist and have prayer beads in your right hand while your left hand is grabbing some girls ass. It’s not supposed to work that way."

"No kidding…"

The more Kagome heard about this Maiso guy the more she realized that she wasn’t all that surprised. In fact she was numb. Or maybe she was in a self-induced daze and the minute she was alone she would snap and go blissfully insane from a little nervous breakdown… That was a nice, comforting thought and she tucked it into the back of her mind as plan b.

And yet if she could believe in destiny then maybe she shouldn’t be reacting this way. Kami warned her that the choice she made had changed the future. What if it was her destiny to be with the people she left behind? What if there was a deeper reason, something more important than jewel shards and curses, that bound her life with theirs? This could be the second chance she needed so badly…

But I’m so afraid to hope, she admitted, casting the innocent staff a mournful look.

Reaching out with fingers that shook slightly, Kagome gave into the impulse and felt some of her tension fade as the pads of her fingers slid over the cool metal. Each grove and blemish tickled more then just her skin as her thoughts traveled back into the past.

"It’s beautiful." She whispered, letting Inasho take her words for face value though she was actually referring to the flashes of memories that remained vivid in her mind.

"Yeah…" Inasho gave her a vague response that matched the far away look on his face. He was watching her idle movements but his thoughts were also traveling a different path, one that became obvious when he spoke, as if to himself, "Sometimes Maiso would stare at that thing for hours… he wouldn’t say a word… and I… never understood what was so fascinating about it.

Kagome’s gaze lifted to Inasho. "Maybe its special to Maiso."

Inasho blinked.

"I guess it is," he conceded with a smile, "his Dad’s had it for as long as I can remember."

Kagome knew a good opportunity when she saw one. It was her chance to find out more about Inasho and she jumped at the chance. "If you’re are so different then how did the two of you become friends."

A short bark of laughter colored the air. "I don’t think we ever had a choice in the matter. Our parents kind of stuck us together and said deal with it. But I guess it has its perks. He’s nineteen, three years older than me, and that can be very useful."

In the blink of an eye Inasho’s expression turned mischievous and Kagome’s eyes widened in amused surprise. "Now I’m beginning to wonder which of you is worse."

"I learn from his mistakes," he proclaimed in his typical conceded fashion, "so that way I know what you can get away with and what gets you busted without actually doing anything. And before you go say ‘that’s-not fair’," his voice an octave higher and be batted his eye lashes for maximum mimicking effect, "let me state for the record that he’s gotten me into enough trouble so I deserve a little compensation."

"I wasn’t going to say anything," she lied, then as an afterthought, "and I do not sound like that!"

"Yeah you do. You’re just like a chipmunk on crack." He laughed.

"Baka…" she sighed as she lifting her eyes heavenward. "You could try the temper of a saint. I bet I know why Maiso is religious. Its because he’s praying for the patience to put up with you."

"Who me? No way! I’m the easiest guy in the world to get along with." He pulled an innocent face complete with sparkly eyes and a sweet smile.

Kagome was feeling generous. By the hardest she let it slide, grasping the textbook and saying in a tone that demanded no argument. "Let’s get back to work."

 Tbc…

A.N.- *grins* I felt this was as good as any place to end the chapter since Kagome can only think about this so much in Inasho’s presence. This chapter was meant to be more informative than anything else.

I hope my attempt at humor was at least somewhat funny. It was time for Kagome to have a little light hearted fun and I figured if there wasn’t some form of comic relief then the poor girl would have snapped and we can’t have that… yet. *_~

I did warn you guys from the beginning that this story is one big cliché. The only question is who will make an appearance and who will not. And that is for me to know and for you to find out. Yes, I am shameless but you must keep reading. ^_^

*Hugs* Thanks so much for sticking with this story. Next chapter should be up in a week or two. Until then take care. Later guys!!! *_*