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Midnight Café Ch 2 - Inuyasha Fanfic

By sheepishlyshippingsheep

Rated T | AU | Romance, Comedy | Pairs: InuKag, MirSan, SessRin [for now]

3358 words

Chapter 2 - Demons in (a piece of) heaven

Kagome could feel herself laughing inside her mind, like the hours before the present condition she is now is some kind of a big joke the gods played especially for her.

“Not a good joke, Kami. Not a good joke.”

Who would have thought that just some moments ago, she was running to spare her life from three men, a knife almost got her skin dripping with blood, and a man whom she once called an angel but was actually a demon, came and saved her? Just to top off the whole comedy scenario that was written specifically for her, some other guy comes and asks her to be the woman who would bear his child.

Before she could even take offence or feel creeped out by the proposal, the next thing she knows, said guy gets hit on the head by his silver-haired companion. She gets invited inside the abandoned building which in a snap, is actually like a mini version of a palace. And finally, here she is, trying to replay everything in her mind.

That was the best description Kagome could think of and if that sounds absurd, she knows well that she tried to make sense of everything. She deserves a pat on the back for staying sane.

If she knew that life would be this crazy at this age, Kagome wished that she was transported back to the feudal era fighting some monsters with sacred arrows. In such setting, everything could be absurd to the point that she would get immune to it, at least that is what she thinks.

With a wink from the short-haired man and a “We’ll be back. For now, just rest, my lady,” Kagome is left inside, with an emptied glass after she quenched the burning of her throat a few moments ago.

Seated on a white sofa, with golden piping and linings, surrounded by scarlet-hued cotton pillows, with different brands of wine and a tower of glasses presented on a table near her, the young lady can only be still and keep herself company amidst the previous scenarios.

While she is mustering up all the calm left in her exhausted body to be able to think straightly, her gray eyes could not stop from taking in the beauty of the place that has accepted her right now – from its red carpeted floors to its white walls, to the glass-beaded chandeliers that are hung.

Red. White. Gold. Oddly, she is reminded of her savior a while ago who sported similar colors – a red top, silver hair, and golden eyes. Wherever he is now, Kagome will not deny how his entrance and appearance is etched on her memory.

But now is not the time to be thinking about him. With the absence of a mirror near her, she starts to look at herself from her chest to her arms, up to her uncoated feet.

Some silky ribbons embedded on her green dress are now disarrayed. The smooth cloth that hugged her figure so fully now looks like some crumpled green lump. Her dark curly hair, while not damp anymore because of the place’s air condition, is nowhere to be labelled as ‘neat’ when she can feel some of her locks tickle the skin exposed on her back. The marathon with the muscular men earlier may have taken some or most of the hair ornaments that once decorated her head.

While she is not soaked from her sweat anymore, she feels sticky all over her neck, arms, and legs, especially her feet that feel sore, numb, and painful all at the same time. If there is a word for such a feeling, Kagome has no idea.

After pitying her current state (though thankful that the hardest parts are over) her eyes land on the classic paintings that graced the walls, the candles that are lit on the sides, and the baskets of fruits centering the numbers of wooden tables. Kagome has yet to see the whole place, but from where her vision could take her, the place is too huge for just two guys.

In fact, there are far too many cushioned seats, unless both guys were seat freaks, which she doubts is the real case.

“Is it a bar…” before the tone of her question could even bend on the last syllable, she starts, “or some kind of restaurant?” Kagome could not help but wonder. The place looks too fancy to be a bar. While it could pass as a restaurant, the choice of seats is not ideal.

She is not new to the lifestyle of the rich, given her boss is a—she softly gasps, caught in between her breath. Now is not really the time to be reminded of her boss… Kagome bites her lip, too late that the memory already surfaced. She tries her best to shrug the weighing thoughts off and she shakes her head and close her eyes.

Feeling more composed, she takes a deep breath and once again opens her eyes to the sight before her.

Skipping back to her previous line of thought, this is definitely her first to step in a place that looked so fancy like some piece of heaven on earth, in the middle of the darkness of the city.

“What… is this place exactly?” she continues to look up, taking note of the intricate patterns even on the ceilings. The place is too well-thought and well-designed to be a shady kind of place too.

“It’s a host club café,” a man answers her, which almost jolts her upon hearing such silky voice. Without seeing the face of the person, Kagome is positive that this person is different from the two men she met earlier.

Kagome acknowledges the presence of a beautiful man with dark silky ebony hair. He has blood-red eyes that welcome her presence as well. Just like the couple of guys that Kagome interacted, this one is also wearing a suit, except that his was dark gray matched with a darker shade of an inner dress shirt. He bows, “Sorry to startle you. I just wanted to answer the query.”

The 23-year-old nods and waves her hands to dismiss the idea that he had to be apologetic. So it was not only the two men earlier, she notes, now more curious to what the place really is.

“A host club café, you say?”

Kagome has heard of host clubs, but the idea of entering one has never crossed her mind even for simple research purposes or just ‘to try it out.’

Men who entertain women? Drink with guests? These ideas float on her mind, but she still cannot fully grasp what a host club really is.

He nods, and hands her a towel, “Yes. Our manager will be here in a bit to explain everything in detail.”

Kagome bows once again as thanks to the man before her. As if on cue, the man with a short hair comes back with a basin of water on hand.

“My lady, sorry to make you wait. Here, I warmed this up to soak your feet,” the guy kneels just before her to place the basin on the carpeted floor. She whispers another word of gratitude as she lets her feet touch the water.

She flinches at first, suddenly feeling the pain from her decision of running on the streets with barefoot. But letting the water surround her skin, she breathes, glad that no signs of open wounds graced her feet.

Right now, Kagome feels so relieved that she did not step on any sharp object earlier, fearful of what injury she may have gotten.

The dark-haired lady sighs feeling relaxed as her feet touch the inner smoothness of the basin, surrounded by the warmth of the water. The temperature also soothes the pain her legs have been enduring. She stares down at the now-murky water, hoping that she is not in any way infected with all that dirt.

Satisfied, the man kneeling smiles at her.

“If you will excuse me,” the short-haired man says slowly, stands up, and turns his back on her.

On close inspection, Kagome notices that the man’s hair was tied really small and low. It almost amazes her that he is able to tie such small amount and short length of hair. She also sees the piercings on his left ear.

He claps, “Everyone, we have a guest to greet!”

The two men exchange some looks as a door appears between the paintings that Kagome is admiring earlier. If the door materializing out of thin air did not surprise her anymore, she is pretty sure that the events earlier numbed some of her senses.

The door looks like any other regular door, carved in wood with a golden knob. It does have a golden plaque in the middle, but it was too far away for Kagome to read.

As the door opens, two more breath-taking men come out – one with significantly straight silver hair and purple markings on his face and another with long black hair tied in a high pony tail. The silver-haired man is wearing a white suit, with piercing golden eyes. While the dark-haired one is in a brown suit, to which the color makes his azure eyes stand out.

“Isn’t it a bit too early to call us, Miroku?” pony-tail guy asks, as he yawns, fangs showing. He scratches on his chest, exposed with the lack of buttons of his shirt.

The other man stays silent though, seemingly uninterested.

“Let’s just wait for—” “Hey, Miroku, I finally found the wench’s shoes. Happy?”

Kagome almost giggles at man called Miroku’s rolling eyes because it seems that Mr. Sensitive ears likes to interrupt people who are speaking.

“Alright! Everyone’s here, my lady,” that catches a bit of Kagome off guard. Right before her, there were five men in formal wear, each having his own appeal. Indeed, this was a host club. Just a while ago, she is admiring her savior’s features, but right now (though she is not saying that his appearance downgraded) the place is exuding in beauty. She suddenly feels out of place, especially with her current appearance.

“Let me introduce everyone and myself. I am Miroku, the manager of this place,” he points at himself and winks at her.

He points his hand to the black-haired man that accompanied her earlier, “This is Naraku.”

“A pleasure,” he says, giving a short bow.

“He is in charge of keeping the café’s illusion barrier.”

Naraku clears his throat then replies, “I would prefer to call it aesthetics, Mr. Miroku.”

Miroku rolls his eyes, then gestures his hands to the man in a pony-tail, “This is Koga of the wolf tribe,” he introduces as the man of topic says a “Yo” with a smirk.

“Next to go Koga is Sesshomaru,” Miroku continues, as Kagome looks at the man in a white suit, who seems to have an unreadable expression. She almost waits for a brief introduction like with the others, but the cold sweat visible from the talkative man is enough reason for her to not keep her hopes up.

“And of course,” the manager regains his cool and looks at the last unnamed guy in the room, “This is Inuyasha, you must know him already.”

“Keh,” he grunts, with a pair of silver high heels that is Kagome’s, hanging on his clawed fingers.

Kagome makes it a note to react politely to the introduction. Finding strength return to her legs, she stands, feet still in the basin, as she bows. “I am Kagome, nice to meet you.”

Fearing that her weight may crush or break the container, she immediately takes back her seat.

“I really… thank you for the hospitality and for taking care of me,” she manages to continue.

Inuyasha raises a dark brow on her. “At least this woman knows how to thank other people, huh.”

The hanyou taps his fingers in an impatient manner. What is Miroku thinking, bringing this woman to their place and introducing everyone like they are having family introductions?

Heck, why is she in their café in the first place?! And why did he ask him to go and retrieve her shoes like he is some kind of dog?

Inuyasha has a lot of questions right now that need to be answered once Miroku is done with his shenanigans. But right now, everything is irritating every inch of his body, especially that woman.

There really is something about her that is making him feel so unsettled. He needs to be away from her right now.

Kagome’s left brow twitches, narrowing her gray eyes at Inuyasha, “As far as I can recall, I did thank you earlier, Mr. Sensitive ears.”

At first, there is silence… but a burst of roaring laughter then fills the room and the crowd finds out that it is Koga, who is emitting such laughter, “Hah, don’t tell me ya are whining about your dog ears to this pretty lady, hahaha! Can’t believe ranting to us about that everyday is not enough.” Miroku, on the other hand, is trying his best to suppress his own.

Inuyasha is supposed to ignore him until Koga started saying, “I think I like her already.”

“Well your wolf ears must be getting rusty then to not hear that you are not even part of our conversation.”

Man named Koga returns an irritated smirk, ready to land a smack on the half-demon, “Did ya say something, mutt?”

“Ya still didn’t hear? Want me to spell it out to your dull wolf ears?” Inuyasha says, also readying his fists.

Kagome looks at the dog demon and the wolf demon back and forth, like watching an intense ping pong match.

Miroku comes in between the two demons to clear the building tension, “Now, now you guys, pup fights are over at this hour.”

“PUP FIGHTS!?” unison uproars from both that Miroku immediately dismisses as something like a normal scenario at the place, “So as I was saying, Lady Kagome,” the mention of her name gets her attention once again.

“Together with Inuyasha, Koga, Sesshomaru, and Naraku, we are running this host club. However, it only opens at night at 10:00. Seeing the illusion vanish earlier than expected like what happened just a while ago,” Miroku emphasizes on the words and gives Naraku a look, to which the latter just smiles back “was an accident.”

“My vision for the club is to treat women – god-sent creatures – the way they deserve to be treated. Thus, this club was born,” he continues, eyes sparkling.

“However, just to avoid the actions that can be caused by the passionate emotions that may arise from our customers, we decided to only open on selected hours every evening and to hide and make our place inaccessible outside these hours. This also serves as a resting period for our staff.”

Miroku makes a dramatic pose by placing the back of his hand to his forehead, tears flowing, “As much as it pains me to live with men, I must endure for the sake of my beloved angels.”

Kagome nods reluctantly, not finding the right words to reply not only to Miroku’s drama but everything else said and done. Why are they telling her all of these?

“Uhm… Miroku-san… I appreciate everything that you have done for me and the help I received. But I don’t think it’s necessary to have you feed me with all the details. I’ll be leaving this place as soon as I can,” Kagome starts searching for the best words for the situation. She is indeed grateful, but right now, she could not possibly be a burden to them. She has no idea where to go yet or what next step to fulfill. She even has no next step yet!

However, if there is one thing that she knows, it is that she cannot ask for more help from these people.

“I promise to come back and pay back what I can,” she adds.

Miroku frowns and approaches her. “Will you at least let me be the father of your chil—” for the second time, he gets a smack from Inuyasha.

“A-as I was saying,” he starts as he recovers from the hit, “Lady Kagome, I do not think it would be a wise decision to leave. Hearing the story from Inuyasha, men were after you. I simply cannot let a beautiful lass like you be subject to more threat in this world! Why are they even after you?”

Kagome swallows hard at the reality being narrated to her and at the question she refuses to answer. She looks down, gazing at her hands on her lap. She cannot involve more people.

Miroku, who notices the tension on her shoulders, speaks, “So you can stay here with us.” He smiles as if what he just said is the most normal suggestion in the world.

“What!?” This is not Kagome’s reaction verbally (mentally yes though). It is Inuyasha’s.

“Yes, I’m pretty sure you heard it right, Inuyasha.”

“What are fuck are you talking about Miroku!?”

The manager completely ignores Inuyasha and inches nearer Kagome. He holds her hands, “Do not worry. I am not a demon like all of them. As the only human male in this café, I will take care of you.”

Kagome, in her mind, knows that it is probably Miroku that she has to be the wariest of even if he is the only human in there. She fakes a smile though.

“Miroku! Don’t be insane!” Inuyasha is still barking. Kagome could only stare. He really does not want her here, does he?

“Hey mutt, way to go for being rude to a lady. Are ya really a host, huh?!” Koga counters, noticing the expression on Kagome’s face that she is not even aware that she is making.

“Shut up, you wolf.”

Inuyasha had no real comebacks. After all, the place is owned by Miroku and he is the one with problems. But he just knows that being near her would not be good for him.

“Since when did women, scare you?”

Kagome is unsure at first but noticing Miroku’s hand that is still holding hers grow cold, she confirms that the room’s temperature did go down all of a sudden. Blinking, she follows the gazes of the four men. They are all looking at the silver-haired man named Sesshomaru, if her memory is not failing her.

The said man is actually sitting on one of the sofas, legs crossed, drinking from a cup. While the conversations and exchange are happening earlier, Kagome had no chance to know how and when he got in such… graceful position.

“What do you mean, scare me?” Inuyasha asks straightly, though evidently taken aback by the question.

Sesshomaru settles his cup on the saucer on the table. “Have your demon senses weakened? No gun powders, illegal narcotics, blood, or any other scent of crime is enveloping this woman.”

As soon as he makes his point, he stands from his seat and leaves everyone staring at his back.

Why do I get the feeling that Sesshomaru is the manager and not Miroku? Kagome sweatdrops.

“The older mutt is right though,” Koga breaks the silence that came after.

“Fufufu. Maybe you shouldn’t call him that, Koga-kun,” Naraku says smiling. Sesshomaru is never fond of nicknames.

“Keh. Whatever,” it is Inuyasha’s turn to leave. Stupid Sesshomaru.

Miroku sighs and faces Kagome. “I apologize about that. We will not force you to tell us what happened. But I think all of us here agree that we just can’t let you go out again. You are more than welcome to stay here, Lady Kagome.”

Inuyasha doesn’t agree though, Kagome thinks back on his words. But seeing Miroku’s assuring smile, all she can do is nod.

“Thank you very much.”

Koga narrows his eyes, “You can let go of her hand now, though.”

Miroku smiles back, “Sorry, habits.”

Kagome stares at the three men before her, the opened door that Sesshomaru left to, and her shoes that Inuyasha left. Will living with them really be her life now?

______

Chapter 1 here

A/N: I was re-reading the Inuyasha manga and I just really want to say that Kagome sure is amazing to maintain a calm demeanor with everything happening to her. And she was 16 there lol.

Anyway, sorry for the late update. Kinda got sick, but happy holidays everyone!

P.S. I’m also working on an InuKag fanart ouo/ hopefully I can finish it soon.

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