Adult-FanFiction.org : Inuyasha / Yashahime

A Fool's Redemption	By : Grumblebear Category: InuYasha > Het - Male/Female > InuYasha/Kagome Views: 23728 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, nor make money from this story.

Chapter List
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(Note – Updated to version 3 on 08/02/11)
Chapter 3 – Rise and Fall
Sango led the way as they headed into the main hall. “You probably just want to get something to eat and go to bed, so we’ll save the tour for tomorrow.”
“Food and bed sound wonderful, actually,” Kagome said, following her toward the largest archway. The combination of the six-hour truck ride from Eona to Belle Drift and then the three-hour flight to Alduray had left her exhausted and feeling much older than her twenty-four years.
“Boss!” someone called out behind them, and the women turned to find Adem standing at the top of the landing that led down to the tower's entrance.
“What’s up?” Sango asked.
“I just wanted to let you know that Ohanna is going to cover the cams for me tonight.”
“Did you put it in the system?”
He nodded.
“No problem then. Enjoy your night out.” She waved, and then seemed to remember something. “Oh, hey! Can you call Salito and have him send an order of whatever he’s making tonight up to room 1690?” she asked.
“Sure.”
“Thanks.” She turned again and proceeded through the arch with Kagome in tow.
“Boss?” Kagome asked curiously.
“I’m the chief of security for this tower,” Sango explained as they walked into the atrium.
“Really? Your head isn’t shaved like the others,” Kagome mused, looking up. The tower stretched above her to a dizzying height. She couldn’t even begin to guess how many stories there were. The atrium itself was wide and completely round, the ground floor paved in polished concrete. She had been expecting to see more people wandering around, but there was surprisingly little activity, at least on the ground floor.
Sango laughed. “That’s their own thing they like to do. They think it makes them look tough.” She turned to the left and headed toward a pair of glass elevators. “Lucky you got here at just the right time. It's almost rush hour.”
Kagome gave her an odd look.
“It gets busy around here in the evening,” Sango said as they stepped into the elevator. “About an hour from now there will be people all over the place.”
“Why?”
“We like our night life here,” she said with a hinting smile. “I'll tell you more about it tomorrow. Tonight you should just relax and start settling in.”
The doors slid shut and Sango pushed the forty-ninth button on a panel of sixty, and the elevator smoothly started its ascent up the inside of the tower.
“I hope you don’t mind heights,” she added as they rose high above the ground floor.
Wrapping her fingers tightly around the elevator’s handrail, Kagome gazed out over the atrium. Now that they were higher up, she could get a better idea of its size. If she was guessing right, it was almost seventy yards wide. Directly across the atrium, the last hints of daylight were fading through a long window that ran from the ground floor up the entire length of the building.
She followed it up with her eyes, craning her neck back to look through the elevator's ceiling. A glass dome, only about a third the size of the atrium's diameter, crowned the very top of the tower.
“Not really,” she said. “Elevators actually bother me more than heights. I’ve never been in a glass one before, though. It's not so bad when you can see out.”
As they traveled higher, she turned her attention to the floors rushing by. The door lined corridors encircling the atrium were all decorated the same, run with deep blue carpeting lined in fiery red and gold designs, the walls painted in a rich ivory-yellow tone. A few people idled about, walking through the halls and leaning against the solid balustrades, but the elevator moved too quickly for her to get a good look at any of them. From the quick glances she was able to get, she noticed that most of them seemed eclectically dressed in rich colors and unusual styles. Several unnatural shades of hair color caught her eye as well, and she remembered the comment her uncle had made about Inuyasha fitting right in.
“So, how much did Kaede tell you about this place?” Sango asked, interrupting her silent observations.
Kagome turned to her, remembering the older lady who had helped her escape from Eona. “When I asked, she called it a ‘sanctuary of indulgence’. But she laughed when she said it, so I don’t think she meant it in a mean way.”
Sango smiled. “That sounds like her. She likes our ideals, but she could never really deal with our society. She’s just always felt more at ease helping the city from the outside. Not everyone can be comfortable living here.”
The city of Alduray was well known for its unrestrained atmosphere, its drinking, its sex, and its citizen’s ‘work hard during the day and play hard during the night’ mentality. “I’ve heard the stories,” Kagome said.
“And probably none of them good,” Sango said as the elevator slowed and sounded a tiny chime. When the doors opened, Kagome followed her out to the left and together they headed down the hall.
“The outside world still doesn’t understand us very well,” Sango continued. “We have our own ways of living that a lot of people on the outside would view as…excessive. It’s because of that we have a bit of a notorious reputation. We’ve always been open about what goes on here. We don’t try to hide anything. People are just going to think what they want to about things they don’t understand.
“When someone first comes here, I tell them to forget everything they’ve ever heard about this place, to expect nothing, and just experience it for themselves. If they can’t let go of the preconceived ideas and the gossip about our culture that the rest of the world has put into their heads, then they probably don’t belong here anyways. Most people appreciate the advice. It normally makes the decision of whether or not this is the place for them much easier.
“But if you’ve heard the stories then you probably already know that we don’t have many inhibitions here. So if you see people screwing around in the hallways, it’s no big deal,” she said with a teasing smile. “Really, no one cares what you do here, so long as you’re not hurting anyone or breaking an oath.”
The last bit had Kagome giving her another quizzical look.
“You’ll find out about oaths tomorrow,” the older girl said as she stopped at a door with a silver mounting displaying the number 1690. On the wall next to the doorknob was a small black pad. “This one is yours,” Sango said, pulling a rectangular device from her pocket. After pushing some buttons on the device, she said, “Place your hand on this, please.” She motioned to the thing on the wall, and Kagome did as she asked.
Sango pushed a few more buttons, and when the lock in the door popped open, she reached to turn the knob. “It’s programmed to let you in with your hand print now.” She opened the door and stepped inside. “The furnishings are pretty sparse, but you can decorate however you like,” she said as Kagome followed, looking around curiously.
The apartment was set up a lot like a hotel room, only slightly bigger. Just inside the door, on the right, was a small kitchenette, complete with cabinets for storage, a half-sized refrigerator, a sink, and even a counter top oven. To her left was the bathroom. Glancing in, Kagome found it surprisingly spacious.
“Damn,” she heard Sango mutter, and she pulled her head out of the bathroom and walked further into the apartment. A large, unmade bed rested against the left wall. To one side, set into the outer wall of the bathroom, were the double sliding doors of a closet. A nightstand with a lamp resting on top stood to the bed's right, and in the opposite corner, a table and two chairs sat against the large floor to ceiling windows that made up the far end of the apartment.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I completely forgot to put the sheets on for you,” Sango said, glaring at a stack of folded linens at the edge of the bed. “I wanted this place to be ready for you the moment you got in, but I was so busy today I totally forgot. I’ll do it now.”
Kagome smiled. “It’s alright,” she said, and reached to help her. The two of them worked quickly, and just as they were finishing, a knock sounded at the door. Kagome answered to find that her dinner had arrived.
“Tell Sal to bill it to me,” Sango said over her shoulder to the young delivery man.
Kagome closed the door and carried the large box of food to the table. “You didn’t have to do that. Thanks, though. I’ll pay you back,” she said gratefully.
But Sango waved her off. “It's no big deal. My treat, to welcome you. Salito has a small cafe on the third floor. He makes the best food. I thought you’d enjoy it.”
As Kagome ate her dinner, which turned out to be fried dumplings stuffed with pork and chive filling, the two continued talking, and Kagome began to feel as if she'd found a good friend already. “How long have you lived here?” she asked.
“I was born here,” Sango replied. “My father was part of the crew that built the towers, and my mother was a nurse on the support team. They met, got married, and shortly after the second tower was completed, I was born. Alduray is the only home I’ve ever known.”
Kagome chewed thoughtfully on a dumpling, wondering if her own life would ever be that stable. “Are your parents still here?”
Sango shook her head. “My father travels now, working as a foreman for your uncle. He oversees the building of new domes for other cities. My mom goes with him. They haven’t been back in a few years.”
“You must miss them,” Kagome said. She closed the box of food and walked to the refrigerator, placing the leftovers inside, then returned to the bed and opened her bag.
Sango shrugged. “Sometimes. They keep in touch, and I have my job here. That keeps me busy, so I don’t have a lot of time to think about it.” As Kagome turned toward her closet with a small armful of clothing, the older girl asked, “Is that all you have?”
Kagome looked down at the little pile and nodded. “I lost everything else in a fire a few days ago.”
“Oh God, Kagome. I’m sorry.”
“It’s alright. I managed to save most of my important things. I lost all of my clothes though. This is all stuff Kaede bought for me before I left Eona.”
“I guess we’ll have to take you shopping as well then, won’t we?” Sango said encouragingly. “There are plenty of clothing shops here. Pretty much the entire second floor has…”
She trailed off suddenly, and Kagome turned to see why. The older girl had bent over to pick something off the ground. Kagome cringed a bit when she recognized the object.
It was a photograph that she'd managed to swipe from the lab before it had been shut down. The young man in the photo had short, matted white hair and two strange feral ears that sat on top of his head. His golden eyes stared out from the picture defiantly. It was the photo that had been kept with Inuyasha’s file, and it was all she'd had to remember him by.
“This is…the red prince,” Sango said quietly, staring at the picture.
“Red prince?”
“Inuyasha.”
“Oh. Yeah, that’s him,” Kagome said, wondering what the 'red' meant.
“He looks younger. And thinner.”
“It was taken awhile ago,” she explained. He'd never been very healthy while imprisoned in the lab. His hair had always been a mess, his skin pale from lack of sunlight and bruised from the tests, and his bones had protruded severely when he refused to eat.
“So you knew him before he came here, then.”
Softly, she replied, “Yeah.”
Sango glanced up when she didn’t continue, thankfully seeming to understand it wasn't something Kagome wanted to talk about. “I see. I can take you to him, if you want.”
Kagome shook her head. “Thanks, but I’m not ready to see him again just yet.”
“I understand. If you ever need to talk about it, you can talk to me.” She reached across the bed and placed the picture on the nightstand.
Kagome smiled at her. “I appreciate that.”
“No problem,” Sango said. “You should probably try to get some sleep now. Tomorrow's going to be a really long day for you. I’ll give you the tour, and show you where you’ll be working, and if you’re feeling up to it, we’ll go out in the evening.”
After telling her to make sure she was ready to go by ten the following morning, Sango left, leaving Kagome in the silence of her new apartment. It was only then she realized how truly exhausted she was. She quickly shed her clothes, brushed her teeth and crawled in between the sheets of her new bed. She reached over to turn out the light on the nightstand, but instead picked up the small picture of Inuyasha. As she stared at his image in the dim light, she thought about how strange it was to be within the same walls as him once again, and wondered what he was doing at that moment.

*****
The two women had accosted him as soon as they'd stepped into the elevator. But it was all right. He knew both of them well, so he didn’t offer any protest when they began their advances. Now, as the elevator descended down the side of the atrium, they stood one on each of his arms, talking excitedly about their plans for the night, hinting that they would be happy to spend the evening with him, if he liked. The blonde on his right had brushed back his long white hair to begin playfully nibbling his neck, her fingers tracing lines along the front of his shirt, as her friend on the other side continued chattering about things he wasn’t interested in. He leaned his head back against the glass wall of the elevator and stared up through the ceiling.
It wasn’t that he didn’t appreciate the attention. Any distraction was a welcome one. Women enjoyed being around him, and he enjoyed having them around. That’s just the way it was with people here. But lately, the normal diversions weren’t working as well as they used to, and he found himself becoming bored easily. He felt stagnant, stuck somehow. The city was constantly changing and evolving around him, and sometimes he wondered if he was being left behind, if he was the only one who remained unchanging.
He had come so far from his miserable past, but he still felt as if he couldn’t shake it completely. He loved living here, and was grateful for the chance he'd been given to show himself as more than just a victim of irresponsible science. He had a place here, he was popular, and the things he did were appreciated. But even with all of that, there was still something holding him back, something he hadn’t quite let go of. It had been bothering him for months, and he still hadn't been able to figure out just what the hell that 'something' was. The return of these irritating thoughts made him frown up at the ceiling as the elevator continued its descent.
He was distracted from his brooding by the blonde's tongue, passing through the hollow of his collarbone. Her friend had asked something, but he hadn’t heard it.
“What?” he asked. But she didn’t have time to repeat the question before the elevator slid to a stop and the doors opened to reveal Sango standing on the other side.
“Hey, Inuyasha,” she greeted him lightly as she stepped inside.
Inuyasha returned her greeting as the doors shut and they continued downward. He knew her well; better than the women hanging off his arms, though not in the same way. Sango had first met him on the day he'd arrived in the city, but he didn't remember it. He'd been kept heavily sedated until the doctors tending his injuries were sure he wouldn't lapse into another fit of blind rage, and then turned over to a small group of people who had slowly helped integrate him into his new life.
Sango had been part of that group. She'd been his window to this strange world, introducing it to him bit by bit, always maintaining a gentle patience when he became frightened or overwhelmed. She'd been the one to find an outlet for his pent up anger in the quarry, and the one who'd provided him with a sense of purpose and normality by giving him a job with the crew building the greenhouses. With her help, he'd gained the confidence he'd needed to start over, and most importantly, he'd learned how to start trusting other people. Their relationship had warmed and grown, but always remained platonic. He saw her as a sister more than anything.
Evidently, the question the other girl had asked wasn’t something that she wanted to share with Sango in their presence. So instead she joined in the blonde’s ministrations, her hand creeping down his stomach and lower.
Inuyasha suppressed a cynical smile. She was too shy to ask a question but not shy enough to refrain from feeling him up.
He noticed Sango staring at him from the corner of her eye. Her expression was strangely unreadable, and he found it annoying. “What?” he snapped at her.
“Nothing,” she replied, turning her eyes back to the elevator door. “Getting started a little early tonight, aren’t we?” she asked nonchalantly.
He stared at her as if she'd asked the question in another language. “What’s with you? Is there a problem with that, officer?” He accentuated the last word sarcastically, knowing she was used to his attitude and wouldn’t take offense.
“Yeah, officer?” the blonde on his right arm chirped with a giggle. Inuyasha shot the girl a warning look.
“No problem at all,” Sango replied airily as the elevator chimed that it had arrived at its destination. The doors opened and she stepped out with a little wave. “Enjoy your night.”
Inuyasha stared after her until the doors closed and the elevator began its descent once again. What’s with her? he wondered.
“Hey,” came the small voice of the blonde. “Did I make you mad?”
Inuyasha sighed and assumed his respectful, model-citizen persona. “It’s alright. It’s just that she's my friend, so it’s okay if I give her a hard time like that. But you shouldn’t. She’s head of security, after all.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, returning to his neck and whispering seductively, “I’ll make it up to you.”
“I’m sure you will,” he said, forcing a smile to hide his boredom with the idea.
Continued in Chapter 4 – Throughout the Halls of Wonderland
A/N: Thank you again for the reviews! I really, REALLY appreciate them :) Please keep them coming!
Influential music for this chapter
CHE.R.RY – YUI, Can't Buy My Love
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A Fool's Redemption