This story is a very old one, posted by Demonlordlover on the Demonlordlover2 Yahoo!Group over 3 years ago. As she entrusted me with her stories, I’ve finally cleaned it up and broken it into chapters - which will be rather irregular in length. Frankly, she was much better than I am at chapter breaks and titles! I am posting it here, only on Dokuga, as a special holiday gift to all my good friends on the site. ~~Wiccan~~
HAPPY HOLIDAYS, DOKUGA!
"I'll be down there in about an hour. Thank you for calling." Hanging up the phone with a slight clink, the petite woman rubbed her forehead with her right hand, gently pushing against her skin in an attempt to alleviate the ache that she had been fighting against all morning.
There’s no hope for it. I'm going to have to take some Tylenol.
Sighing, she turned around from where she was perched on the kitchen counter and reached behind herself. Balancing her weight with her right hand and reaching with her left she opened the cupboard that held the needed medicine and retrieved the familiar red and white bottle. Jumping down, she walked over to the sink and grabbed a glass out of the strainer before moving to the refrigerator, grabbing the grape juice, and pouring a small bit before putting it back and shutting the door, leaning against the hard polished surface.
Monday. God, I'll be glad to see it over.
Opening the bottle and tapping out two pills, she swallowed them dry before drinking her juice, clearing her throat of the remaining flavor.
"Hello, Kagome dear, did you have a good morning?" Striding into the kitchen, a trail of colorful scarves fluttering behind her, Kagome's mother appeared.
Standing straight, Kagome palmed the small bottle she still held and placed her hand behind her back. Smiling brightly at her mother, she hoped her headache would go away quickly.
"Yes, Mama, everything is fine."
Waving her left hand vaguely, jewelry flashing in the morning light, Kagome's mother turned to the cupboards and opened one after another.
"Not that I had any doubt, dear. Nothing could be wrong with you here to make sure of it." Finished going through the upper cabinets she now was in the process of bending down to rifle through the bottom ones, becoming agitated upon not finding whatever she was looking for.
Sighing, low enough that it would not be heard, Kagome walked to the third cabinet away from the last and reached into the second shelf, removing a box and handing it to her mother.
"Oh, thank you honey! I've been looking all over for this. You know I can't start my day without my special granola mix to put on my yogurt!" Patting the arm which had handed over her granola, the woman, middle-aged, but still possessed of a childlike innocence, moved away to retrieve her expensive hand churned yogurt from the refrigerator.
Well used to the routine, Kagome brought her mother a bowl and spoon from the cupboard, absently straightening and closing the ones in which her mother had sought her much needed granola.
We need some more flour; that's got to be thrown out in a couple days; oh, look there’s a new ingredient in the ravioli... I need to get going, or I'm going to be late!
Sighing again at the remembrance of her phone conversation, the girl shut the last cabinet door and grabbed her purse off the counter next to the phone. Knowing she would need it later, she slipped the bottle of pain reliever into one of the pockets while she turned around to face her mother.
"Mama?" Waiting for her mother to look up from her Ladies Weekly magazine, Kagome smiled at the image of contentment her mother presented.
Her yogurt, magazine, and her special granola. As long as she has these her morning is perfect.
Her mother, finally called from her reading by a slightly louder voice, turned to see what her daughter wanted.
"I'm going to run down to the city. I'll be back sometime by lunch, okay?"
Nodding slightly, her mother smiled absently, already edging her eyes back to her article. "Yes, yes, dear. Don't hurry back on my account. The girls and I are going shopping today at the new store opening on the boulevard. We probably won't be back until after dinner, so enjoy yourself and I'll see you later!"
Hesitating slightly upon hearing her mother was going shopping, she struggled briefly with the impulse to ask her mother to watch how much she spent, then managed to overcome it. She walked out the door, making sure to lock it behind her, and strode to her car.
It's not like she'd remember anyway.
---------
Slamming her door shut, she pressed her key alarm, activating the security system on her green Honda Civic. After a quick glance at her slim watch, she decided she had a moment to straighten out the wrinkles in her silk flower-print skirt, so she brushed her hands against the bunched material for a few seconds before giving up.
I should have known better than to wear this. One little movement and I get a new wrinkle. I should have known there was a reason it was on sale!
Hearing her name called, Kagome's head came up from her inspection of her hopelessly rumpled appearance to spot the man she had come to see, waving from a cast iron table near a sidewalk café. Slightly confused at his being at the café, instead of waiting for her in his office like he usually did, she glanced around nervously before approaching him.
A green awning overhead provided relief from the sun already beating down upon the earth, giving a level of comfort to the patrons of the fashionable establishment. Serving imported coffees from all over the world, much of the business district came here to relax and enjoy a cup of joe. Not being a part of that world, Kagome had never stopped by here, only seeing it in passing.
Sitting down across from him, she was surprised that the metal chair, matching the table in its delicate twists and turns, was much more comfortable than it looked. Scooting forward, pulling her chair in, the young woman placed her purse in front on her on the table before addressing the man.
"Howard, why we here instead of in your office? I thought you had papers for me to sign."
Grinning broadly at the pretty woman in front of him, Howard reached across the table to pat the hands she had folded on top of her purse.
"I thought we could use this opportunity to celebrate your graduation! Try the special, it comes straight from the heart of Brazil." Leaning forwards and looking around, he whispered as if he were imparting a great secret.
"Personally, I think it really comes from the heart of downtown Idaho, but it still tastes divine!"
Sighing mentally, she managed a weak smile.
"Thank you, but I don't drink coffee. It makes me too nervous. Do they have tea?"
Howard gasped dramatically, grabbing his chest as if holding his heart in place.
"Don't drink coffee?! That's a secret you need to keep around here. Coffee is the life blood of those in the business world."
Placing his left hand on top of hers and squeezing, his sweaty palm leaving the backs of her hands feeling slightly moist when he lifted it away, Howard reassured Kagome.
"Don't worry; your secrets are safe with me."
Awkward under his suddenly intense regard, she fidgeted in her seat.
"Look, Howard, I'm grateful you wanted to celebrate and all, but I really have to be going. Did you have those papers?"
A flash of disappointment crossed his features before he managed to smooth it away. "Yep! I have them here in my case."
He paused a moment, his hand frozen between the table and the floor. "Are you sure I can't convince you to try a cup of their special?"
Hope was shining from his eyes, but she just didn't see this man as anything other than a contact. Kagome had met his father twelve years ago. Her family had been awash in debt. Their family shrine had been sold years before her brother Souta had been born. Even she had only vague memories of the place.
Then six years old, she had heard her mother and grandfather in an argument. They each blamed the other for the almost-poverty in which they found themselves. Kagome, not your average child, already knew they were struggling financially but, as long as everyone was happy, she was content to stay in her world of paints and books.
Hearing her mother and grandfather screaming at each other was a harsh wake up for the loving child. Knowing she had to help, Kagome went into her room and put on her nicest dress, a hand-me-down her mother had picked up at a thrift store. Kagome had been so happy to receive it. She thought the big pink flowers and happy yellow sun faces made the dress look like spring, but her mother had merely thrown the bag onto her bed and told her to hang it up.
Now, wearing her spring dress, she walked out the door and down the hallway of their apartment building, absently counting the cracks and holes in the wall. Once she reached the archway door, she left the building completely and walked the three blocks to the university.
Standing in wait, she found who she was looking for after only a couple hours of waiting.
A young woman, obviously an artist by the huge portfolio she was struggling with, came down the stairs of the Art Department at a run, not looking where she was going. Stepping out in front of her, almost getting run over, Kagome introduced herself.
After getting over the shock of a strange girl in a glaringly bright dress approaching her, the young woman listened to the proposition set out to her. Deciding that it was too weird NOT to investigate further, she agreed to meet the little girl in a few hours at a burger joint a few blocks away.
On time, Kagome was almost worried the woman had changed her mind when she walked in.
Waiting for the artist to seat herself she handed over a folder full of her paintings. And, from that point on, Kagome and the young artist, who was introduced as Kaede, became partners.
Impressed with the duplicates Kagome, the little girl, could recreate of the great works of art such as the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, she agreed to find a buyer for the paintings. Taking a cut, as she was, of course, a starving artist herself, Kaede only took a modest 3 percent off the top.
For a while, Kagome was able to help her family by leaving the money where it would be found, never letting anyone know where it came from. Soon, though, it wasn't enough and she knew more steps had to be taken to see her family happy.
Souta was starting the fourth grade now and wanted to have the same things his friends enjoyed, such as game systems and brand name clothes. Her mother, finding pleasure in having a mysterious benefactor, had begun buying new clothes and jewelry, saying that she wouldn't repay them by looking pitiful. She, of course, treated her children to her generosity. Her grandfather, well, he joined a literary guild and spent most of his portion of the funds on membership fees and expensive leather-bound volumes. And so, with her family’s needs driving her own, she called Kaede.
Now in middle school, still petite and skinny, Kagome still reminded the now-graduated artist of the little girl in the sunny dress. Upon hearing her request, Kaede wasn't sure she could help, but decided that she would do whatever she could for her little friend.
After three weeks of searching she was able to introduce Kagome to Mr. Wilks, Howards father, and small time Wall Street investor. Giving him the money she had put together for this purpose, Kagome shocked the grandfatherly man with her list of investments. Some were risky, but most were extremely sound investments that he had recommended for his own clients.
Thinking to advise her against the more risky ventures, she remained adamant. Knowing he could get in trouble for taking a child for a client, he told her he would have to meet her parents before investing any of her money. Seeing no hope for it, Kagome, the middle school student, took him to their now modest home in the suburbs to meet her mother and explain to them the source of their years of comfort.
Shocked, but also overjoyed that now they didn't have to worry any more about the money disappearing, her mother gave Mr. Wilks permission to do transactions with her daughter. Setting it up under her mother's name so that everything was legally sound, Kagome was able to then expand her financial support for her family.
They moved into another house, bigger, and in the more exclusive district. No one in her family saw anything wrong with her being their sole financial support. She was obviously gifted, as her mother had known, from the time she began reading at six months, to the masterpieces she created when she turned two. It was only natural that those skills be used to their best advantage.
It was not all a one-sided exchange. Though enjoying the finer things in life, her mother and grandfather indulged Kagome's desire to be a 'normal' child. They didn't push her to enter the private academies she could afford, or to use her talents at memorization and mathematics to impress their high class friends. She was loved, there was never any doubt, but neither was she allowed to relax. Her family needed her to be on top of things and she was.
Their need was a double-edged sword; forcing her into early adulthood, but also allowing her to develop skills that might otherwise have lain dormant. This was her childhood but, while intelligent enough to know that others would pity her should the details become known, she merely passed though the years with a smile. Her family was happy, that was all that mattered. She had them and, for her, it was enough.
It wasn't until much later, as she reached her age of legal maturity, that loneliness began to creep into her soul. The need, the desire to have someone understand her heart, to see beyond the smile, would come to her at night, while she laid waiting for sleep to come. Every morning she would wake up and shake herself out of those, to her, selfish desires, and begin her day anew. After all, she had everything she needed, didn't she?
----------
So now she is sitting in a café that only serves a beverage she doesn't drink, trying to find a way to let down a man whose father had been very helpful through the years, without letting him know she didn't see his desire to be something more.
It would hurt his pride to know I saw it.
"I'm sorry, but I have a lot of errands I have to do today." Thinking fast, like always, she was able to come up with a way to avoid future problems with him.
"One reason I needed to meet with you was to let you know that I wanted to have any other papers sent via fax for me to sign." Smiling gently she rounded out her reasoning.
"There's a lot going on, and it isn't a very comfortable ride to make whenever I need to make some changes. I'm sure you'll find it a lot more convenient as well." Sensing his disappointment, but knowing it was for the best, she held her smile.
"I see. Well, I can't say that I won't miss these meetings, but I can see where a beautiful young woman such as you would have better things to do than meet with a stuffy businessman."
Sensing she was going to protest, he held a hand up to stop her flow of words. "Naw, it's okay, I get it. I might not be a brainiac like you, but I can read between the lines."
Feeling a bit hurt at his remark, but hiding her pain since she knew it was only his disappointment speaking, she stood up.
"It was nice to see you, Howard. I'm sure we'll meet again. You can just fax those papers to me?" At his nod, she smiled again and left, leaving him still sitting, drinking his coffee.
I know he wasn't disappointed to lose a chance with me. It's my ability to anticipate the stock market that he wants. His father had always tried to get his son and me together ever since I was old enough to date. I don't know what I want, though.
Getting into her car after deactivating her alarm, she checked her cell phone out of habit for any missed calls.
Huh... I wonder what Sango wanted. I have to run and get Souta to pick out his birthday present.
Shrugging, she decided that if it was really important, Sango would call back. On the drive home to pick up her younger brother, she passed the park near her old home, a crumbling apartment complex, and remembered the first time she met Sango.
----
The air conditioning had been broken in her apartment. With her grandfather gone to the library and her mother and brother at the community pool, Kagome had been alone at the apartment when it made an odd clunking sound then died.
Her fingers, stained with the paints she had been working with, fiddled with the knobs, trying to get it to turn back on. Soon though, she realized it was a fruitless effort. After years of faithful service, it had finally given up. Opening the window, hoping the breeze would pick up, she went back to her landscape.
Only a short while later, a half-hour at most, she began to sweat. Knowing her family would be gone for hours yet, she knew she had to find something to do. The local news station had called for temperatures in the upper eighties. While that wasn't too bad, it would become unbearable in the apartment with no air conditioning and little breeze.
So, the little girl packed up her supplies for another day, grabbing instead a sketchbook and pencil, and wrote a note telling her mother where she had gone in case the woman came back early.
Walking across the street, watching both ways for cars, she made her way into the park. Built three years ago by the city in the hopes of providing a bit of beauty in an otherwise rather squalid area, it was soon forgotten and fell into disrepair.
Kagome didn't care. It had trees to sit under and that was all she needed. Maybe it was because of her early beginnings on a shrine, but she always felt so relaxed when she could sit under a tree and pretend she was surrounded by them.
Sitting down under her favorite oak, Kagome opened her sketch pad and began to try to recreate the leaf sitting on the ground beside her. Just as she was putting the finishing touches on the veins running through the middle, a shadow fell across the pages of her pad.
Looking up, unsure of why her light had been blocked, she saw a girl, no older than herself; staring down at her while she leaned against the tree, her arms crossed.
"Why are you drawing a leaf?"
Scrunching her nose, the girl leaned in to get a closer look at the leaf next to Kagome, and then she compared it to the drawing.
"What's so interesting about a leaf, anyways?"
Kagome didn't recognize her, so didn't answer.
The girl, not at all put off by her shyness, plopped down beside Kagome, and grabbed the pencil out of her limp grasp.
"Here, let me see." Holding her hand out, the girl waited.
Kagome looked at her. She had shining bright brown eyes, filled with life. Her nose was sprinkled with freckles and she had her brunette hair held up in a pony tail. Overall, she looked like a cute little girl. It was her clothes that gave her away, that she wasn't from Kagome's world.
Clearly expensive, while they had fresh smudges of dirt from her recent activities, they had no fray marks or loose threads. Strangely, knowing this girl was from another part of town made Kagome open up to her in ways she had never done with another. Thinking that, just for today, she could let another into her world, since tomorrow this strange girl would be gone, Kagome handed over her sketchbook.
For hours that day the girls drew together. They never talked, just took turns filling her pages with doodles. For the first time, instead of copying what others had done or nature had created, Kagome opened her mind to let her own ideas fill her pages.
The girl, after a while of seeing Kagome become lost in a creation of her own making, just sat back and watched her. It wasn't until at least an hour later that Kagome realized how rude she had been.
Feeling embarrassed, she blushed and stammered out an apology, afraid to meet her eyes and see the anger, or worse yet, the look others got when they realized she was different. Not normal.
Under her lashes she saw a hand reach out and take the book out of her hand and look closely at her finished work.
"Wow! Can I have this? My mom pulled up and I gotta go. Could I take this with me? I promise to take real good care of it!"
Shocked, and pleased, very pleased, that this girl, who had sat with her and who was very nice, wanted her picture, Kagome nodded. Tearing it out of the book, the little girl with expensive clothes tucked it into the front pocket of her coverall shorts and held out her hand to Kagome.
"My name's Sango. We're gonna be best of friends, I promise!" Looking at her proffered hand for a moment, Kagome slowly reached out her own hand and they shook.
"My... my name is Kagome."
Sango smiled broadly, the biggest smile Kagome had seen yet. "Nice to meet you Kagome. I'll see you later... I promise!"
And, with a wave, she ran off towards the distant parking lot where a woman, wearing the kind of suit Kagome had only seen on TV, was standing beside a very shiny new car.
"Bye, Sango."
-------------
That day began a pattern, a lovely, wonderful pattern. Sango kept her promises, both of them. She returned the next day to the park and Kagome was there, under the same tree. This time the sketchbook was put aside in favor of the soccer ball Sango had brought.
Kagome was terribly embarrassed by her clumsiness, but Sango merely laughed and said nobody could be good at everything. Somehow, that phrase struck a chord within Kagome, the little girl who everyone looked at as being weird for knowing and doing more than most adults, yet who they also had come to expect these great things from. From that day forth, Kagome gave herself the right to be clumsy and, well, not perfect, when she was with Sango.
When she began to sell her paintings, her times in the park with Sango were a way to let go of the tension holding her down. Eventually, when she began investing, her friendship with her only true friend managed to take the next step. By moving to a better district, she, in fact, moved only a few blocks down from her childhood companion. Now, they didn't have to wait to meet a few days a month in the park.
Every day was spent together without fail. Schooling was a breeze for Kagome and she helped out her best friend through her tougher subjects. As for Sango, she helped Kagome 'fit in.’ Having decided she was tired of being different, Kagome had asked Sango to keep her secrets. It was a change for Kagome. She didn't attempt to change her personality. She wanted to keep true to herself; she just didn't share the fact that she had been born a savant, one of multiple gifts.
Even her family didn't know the full extent of her 'gifts.’ Only to Sango, her best friend and confidant, did she trust with everything. Eventually, Kagome, the girl who had once had only adults to talk to, had three very good friends.
Through her friendship with Sango, Kagome had met Miroku and Inuyasha. Miroku was a nice boy, but had a bad habit of being a bit fresh with girls. Sango had confided in a sleepover between the two that she had a huge crush on him, but would never show it because he was too much of a playboy.
It was Inuyasha who had become Kagome's first crush.
A half-demon, he was the first demon with whom she ever had a conversation. With their long lives, most demons were beyond wealthy, placing them far above her family in the social structure.
When she was introduced to him on her first day at her new school, he had yelled at her for staring at his ears. Embarrassed, she had apologized and, from that moment until she reached her seventeenth birthday, when he had found a girlfriend and proposed to her, Kagome had loved him with all her soul. It was easy to hide her heart from him, because she knew he wouldn't ever see what he didn't want to see.
He was still a good friend, however, and, between Sango, Miroku, and Inuyasha, Kagome's world was broadened beyond her wildest expectations.
The homes of her friends became her own personal escape from the tension of Wall Street and the billing statements which poured in every day. It was not uncommon to see her walk through the doors of either house, especially Inuyasha's, even when her friends were not home. Her quiet, unassuming nature had endeared her to the parents of her friends.
From a home without a strong male figure, she found herself gravitating towards the dominating personality of Inuyasha's dad. In her deepest dreams, she would imagine herself in her friend's place, with a father there, telling her everything would be okay, handling her problems.
She never let herself lose sight of reality, however, knowing it would only cause her to become depressed, and she refused to let herself become lost to pity. Her life was the way it was meant to be, and she would make the best of it.
It was with this attitude that she turned into the driveway of her three-story brick house and honked the horn, summoning her brother.
Running out the front door, slamming it shut loud enough for her to hear it with the windows closed, Souta jumped into the car.
"You ready?" He smiled, his windblown hair sticking up all over, and she reached out her right hand to try to smooth it down.
"Aww... come on sis!" Lightly slapping her hand away he buckled his seatbelt. "Let's go! I wanna get a..."
Listening to the stores he wanted to stop at and the toys he wanted to get, Kagome settled in for a long afternoon.