Beware the Halloween Costume by Opal-Dreams
A Trick on Halloween
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Disclaimer: I don’t own Inuyasha or its characters. Say hello to the very talented Rumiko Takahashi who owns him and the entire cast. Hello Rumiko Takahashi. I also don't own Spider-Man, The Avengers or X-Men, Mavel owns them. Hehehe!
By: year of the snake (at fanfiction) (aka.) crescentmoon (at mediaminer) And now Opal-Dreams on DeviantArt and Dokuga.
Beware the Halloween Costume
I sigh. It is Halloween this coming Saturday, tomorrow, and I still have no plans. I haven’t been asked to the ‘Haunted’ Halloween Ball at my school, unlike all my friends. They have dates. They’ve invited me along, but I don’t want to feel third wheel-ish. And I definitely don’t want to go stag.
My brother Souta is going trick-or-treating with his friends this year. He no longer wants his big sister to tag along anyway. It’s understandable him being in fifth grade and all.
I glance at Mama’s calender and think, ‘Mama is scheduled to work. I don’t envy her job.’ Mama’s a nurse in the emergency room. Lots of people come through emergency rooms on Halloween night, especially when Halloween falls on a Saturday.
‘I suppose I could help Grandpa turn the yard into ‘The Devil’s Playground.’’ I giggle as I think of my Grandpa’s corresponding costume. He would be dressed as a skeleton with large white devil horns, a long bony devil tail, also white, and a pitchfork turned into a devils triton except with five prongs instead of the normal three.
Grandpa transforms the acres of the yard every year. He has a five year cycle, this year is ‘The Devil’s Playground’, next year is ‘Pirate’s Cove’, then ‘The Dragon’s Keep’, after that it’s ‘The Witch’s Cave’ and finally ‘Warring Japan’, to honor our ancestry. He uses Japanese fairy-tales of the period, like youkai and such to make it ‘scarier’. He himself dresses up like a priest and tells stories about what the kids see as he leads them to their treats.
‘Even if I do help him it will still leave me with my night free. Grandpa likes to ‘scare’ trick-or-treaters alone.’
‘I guess I could watch one of those horror movie specials on TV. But… then again, I like to sleep at night. Maybe I’ll marathon watch comic book movies.’ With visions of X-men, Avengers and Spider-man in my head I answer the ringing phone.
“Kagome! Thank goodness!”
“Mama! What’s wrong?” I ask my mother.
“Could you run down to Souta’s school and run my kissing booth for me until I get there? Martha called in sick and Jenny wont be able to come in until half an hour after the carnival thing starts.”
“Sure Mama.” Mama had already told me how to run her booth ‘just in case’.
“Okay. All the things are already at the school except a box of decorations Grandpa is letting me borrow. It’s by the front door. And my hat is on my bed. Oh! Does your black skirt still fit?”
“Yes Mama.”
“Wear a black top with that. We have to be in costume ‘cause of the kids. Was there anything else?” she asks herself.
I can hear someone call my mother in the background. “I’ll be fine Mama. It’s just a grade school carnival.”
Mama’s smile rings through her words, “I know you will dear. See you soon.”
“Yeah.” I answer. Then I hang up.
I get out my new black socks, they have white polka dots on them, and put one in each or my black Maryjanes. Then borrowing a black blouse from Mama, I don’t own any black shirts, and grabbing the witch’s hat from her bed I rush off to get ready.
Soon I’m roller-blading down the sidewalk, box in hand, shoes in my backpack and skirt swishing around my calves. The witch hat is also in my bag along with a snack, in case I get hungry, a little money and a tube of lip balm. My star earrings clink at an uneven pace as I speed up so I can set up the booth before kids begin arriving.
~POV Change~
I look around the room my little sister pulled me into. I am babysitting while Father and Izayoi talk with her teacher. At the far side of the room a group of ladies in the kitchen are selling ‘Grizzly’ food, such as hot dog ‘fingers’, chips and wormy cookies. Further away sat a Halloween duck pond, all the rubber ducks in the water are dressed as various monsters. On the stage a cake walk is being set up. In front of the stage is a pin the eye on the cyclops game. Beside that a booth I can’t see yet because of the ‘fish pond’ and beanbag toss game between us. There is also a ring toss, for cans of pop, a sucker tree and a few lunch tables in the room.
Rin had pulled me passed a classroom transformed into a ‘Mad Science Laboratory’ to get in here.
Just barely managing not the sigh I ask, “Rin, what would you like to do first?”
She stops bouncing long enough to study the nearby games. Grabbing my hand she pulls me to the ‘Fish pond’. By the time it is her turn I have a fairly good concept of the game. The child is given a fishing pole with a small, lightweight bucket at the end of the string. The person outside the curtained area then slips the bucket over the curtain. After the operator finds out the age of the child she whispers that along with the child’s sex to someone behind the curtain, who places a couple of goodies, cheap toys or candy, in the bucket. Then the person behind the screen tugs softly on the rope three times. The bucket is then returned to the child. Children are not fooled, but I suppose they enjoy the guaranteed win.
For her three tickets Rin came away with an orange bracelet that say ‘Happy Howliday!’ and a purple pixie stick. Both were quickly used. Next she decides to spend two tickets at the sucker tree, another sure win. Rin picks a sour apple sucker. I tell her I’ll hold on to it for her. I do not want a hyper little girl on my hands.
As we turn from the sucker tree towards the game called Pirate’s Treasure Toss, the beanbag toss, ran by the teacher who taught Rin last year, in full pirate garb, I notice the last booth’s sign. ‘A kissing booth? At a grade school?’ I stand there shocked until Rin pulls on my hand asking for her tickets. Rin managed to get three out of five bags through the holes in the board. Her total is two hundred fifty. So she got two ‘treasures’ from the pirate’s treasure chest. She chooses a spider ring and a bendable pencil, a sparkly pink one, which she immediately hands to me to hold.
I catch a glimpse of a little boy and a little girl kissing something at the kissing booth as Rin urges me to the duck pond. She plays this game twice but doesn’t win.
She decides she need in on the cake walk as they are now giving big cake as prizes. “No more cupcakes.” she giggles as she joins the group on the stage.
I headed to the opposite end of the stage to wait for Rin to come down the exit stairs. Stopping before the kissing booth I hear the operator explain to a mother and her five year old the rules.
“You pick a frog and give it a kiss, if the frog is a prince he’ll have a crown under his cup. You get to keep the frog and whatever’s under it.”
I turned to face the witchy operator confused as to why I recognize her voice. As she hands the little girl the small plastic frog she chose from the group of cups I get a good look at her face. It is Inuyasha’s little classmate, Miss Higurashi. They often hang out with their friends at the house.
The little girl delicately kisses the frog. Kagome grins and cackles. Then she hands the little girl the crown shaped eraser from under the cup. Exuberant over her prize the girl dances around her mother as they walk off.
Kagome is digging in a box under her table to get another eraser and frog to replace the ones the little girl won when I slap four tickets on the table. She jumps, just avoiding hitting the underside of the table as she falls onto her rump.
When she gathers the dropped frogs then stands to greet me she looks more shocked than when she was sitting on the floor.
“Miss Higurashi.” I greet politely.
“Se-Sesshoumaru!” she gasps at me.
“I wish to play your game.”
Looking at me like I am insane she quickly turns and puts a frog and a crown where they belong. “R-right.” Composing herself as much as she can she begins to explain the game. “You-you pick a frog, give it a ki-kiss and you get to keep whatever’s underneath.”
I nod and survey the frogs. After looking over all the frogs I point to the only one close to my eye level. She turns as if expecting to find a frog among the jars of strange ingredients her grandfather ordered from the homeland, like mummified nymph hand, and the glass eyes left from her grandmother’s doll making. Then she scans the shelf below that. It holds a tray of test tubes filled to varying degrees with different colored liquids. Beside that is winding tubes and beakers with hot deep red liquid flowing from one end to the other. Even with all that and the broom leaning against the upper shelf there was not a single frog. She semi-turns back to me, “What frog?”
“Your hat, Miss Higurashi.”
She pales and pulls the hat from her head. There staring at her is a factory deformed frog that looks almost like it’s trying to escape around the edge of her hat. Unfortunately for it, it is glued down so it can’t get away.
I pluck the hat from her hand and barely graze the frog with my lips.
The frog came to life, right then. At least that’s what you would think with how reluctant she is to reclaim her hat. By the time she replaces in on her head she is bright red.
~POV Change~
My mind is running a mile a minute with embarrassing chatter. ‘What do you expect from a man who kisses a frog on your own hat when he’s playing a game that allows you to keep what is under the frog you kiss.’
“Miss Higurashi.”
I come back to the present to see his hands reaching for me. I jump and say the first thing that come to my lips, no thought involved, “If you touch me I’ll melt!”
His lips twitch in amusement. “That’s the idea.” Then with a hand cupping my head and the other on my shoulder he draws me closer until I’m leaning across the table within reach.
Which is when he kisses me. Or at least I think he did, I’m not too sure. You see one moment I’m leaning over the table, the next I’m draped across it like a massive boneless slug. My lips are tingling like someone shuffled across a carpet in their socks and touched them.
The I hear him whisper, “One kiss turned a frog into a witch. Another turned a witch into a priestess. Perhaps someday I’ll turn a priestess into a princess.” Following that he walks away.
Thats how my next costumer finds me, a melted witch blob trying to drip off the table in both directions. Except my blasted skin is holding me together. And his words keep replaying in my ears.
Magically my bones regrow with very little pain. Once more I am able to pretend that I’m a witch that likes to turn royalty into frogs. I am relieved and ready to zoom when Mama arrives to take my place.
~POV Change~
Rin comes charging down the stage steps after her second round of cake walking. For all her speed she was very careful with her prize, a chocolate cake. The cake is frosted with chocolate frosting, then coated with a couple layers of crushed Oreos. There are three headstones on the cake. Under one headstone is a hard candy foot and leg bone. Beneath the far one in an escaping hand and forearm. Finally the middle grave has two bony hands trying to push the cookie dirt away from a skull.
“Isn’t it cool?” she asks holding it up for me to see.
I am not fond of sweets and graveyards hold no appeal to me, other than the quiet they encourage. So I give an answer that can be taken as agreement or not.
Rin beams like I have agreed. Then she goes prattling off about how she won the cake and the ‘awesomeness’ of it.
She leaves her cake with Izayoi and Father. They get to sit down at a table while she insists I escort her to play the rest of the games.
By the time we make it to the ‘Kissing Booth’ Mrs. Higurashi has taken over. I would love to see how embarrassed Miss Higurashi would be over my return. Alas it is not to be.
~POV Change & Day Change~
“Don’t worry Grandpa, I’ll get it!” I call in response to the chiming doorbell. I forgot Grandpa would already be dressed up and informing the early bird trick-or-treaters. We finished setting up his ‘Devil’s Playground’ set just in time to have an early dinner before Mama headed off to work and Souta hitched a ride with her to his friend’s house.
After waving goodbye to Mama and Souta I went up and took a shower. I got dressed in a T-shirt and pajama bottoms, took an armload of DVDs from my stash and headed downstairs. I had just turned into the living room when the doorbell sounded.
So with a towel around my head and laughing quietly over how Grandpa will be upset that a trick-or-treater got by him, to the house, I answer the door. And there he stands, you know that last person you want to see at any given time, or at least the last person I want seeing me right now. That’s right, Mr. I-Kiss-So-Perfect-Your-Head-Imploded-From-A-Peck-Last-Night Taisho. I would rather be face to face with Godzilla.
“Miss Higurashi.”
Blushing I gape at him like he’s a doctor who just said, ‘Say ah.’ I can’t believe that Sesshoumaru Taisho is standing in my doorway, especially after what happened last night. My mind makes itself busy replaying that event while I stand with the door handle in my hand. My blush is deepening by the second.
Sesshoumaru waits for me to reply or do something other than gawk for who knows how long. Finally he reminds me he’s still standing on the porch in a rapidly chilling October evening, well not in so many words, “May I enter?”
Even though I know he’s spoken and vaguely realize he wishes to come inside, my expression doesn’t change. My mind is too short circuited to move. So in the end Sesshoumaru gently moves me aside. Then with a hand on my hand, around the doorknob he closes the door.
This is when my brain finally clicks back on. I stutter as I blush heavier, “Se-Sesshoumaru, wh-what are you do-doing he-ere?”
He holds up his palm with a red swath of fabric covered by a white one. The fabrics are tied together by a navy blue ribbon. The entire bundle is perfectly square. “Get dressed.”
“Wha?” I ask confused.
“I have no desire to be late.”
“Late? What for?” I wonder.
When I don’t act he moves to grab my shoulder and I instantly yank the bundle from his hand. I dash upstairs to hurriedly dress, thankful for the times Grandpa made me dress in similar clothes. At first glance they look like plain white and red miko, Japanese priestess, clothes. But when I get the pieces laid out on my bed I notice the fabric is heavily embroidered, red on red, white on white. I stare at the fantastic scene of gigantic demonic dogs riding on clouds, dancing around the moon. The bottoms housed a magnificent garden embroidered in such a beautiful way.
A noise downstairs reminds me of what I am supposed to be doing. ‘I wonder if Sesshoumaru will enter to help me is I take too long? I have absolutely no desire to find out!’
I yank the towel from my head, a bitter reminder of the state I answered the door in. But having no time to be moody over how Mr. Always-Prefect saw me I rapidly change. I even tie my hair back with the ribbon.
Rushing down the steps I find Sesshoumaru standing where I’d left him. I finally notice that he is dressed differently than I’ve ever seen him. He is wearing a white kimono, or something like it, with red hexagons surrounding white flowers on one shoulder, spiked silver and black armor with a spiked shoulder guard over the shoulder with the splash of red. The other shoulder boasts what I can only describe as a fur boa. Around his hips is an intricately tied sash of purple and gold. It holds two swords against his armored thighs. Puffy pants lead to black or dark gray boots. A breeze from him moving to greet me at the bottom of the stairs draws my attention to the silver-white hair that ends somewhere below his knees. That hair pulls my eyes upward, my gaze now examines his face and I find myself surprised that I ever recognized him. Not only has his hair and outfit changed drastically but his eye color has as well. No longer blond hair cut in a functional, short style and dark brown eyes that he shared with his half-brother and father, heavens no, suddenly he confronted me with silver-white locks, nearly to the floor and glowing golden eyes. Magenta stripes above his eyes flash when he blinks at me. It’s then I see two tapering magenta stripes on each cheek. Curiously my eyes rove his face a navy moon wanes on his brow. His eyes open again and he offers me a hand, which I unconsciously take.
Sesshoumaru tugs me carefully off the final step and into the living room. On the couch beside the DVDs I set there is armor. Lifting the skirt he sinches it to my waist. Then hefting the breastplate and the backplate at once Sesshoumaru fits them around my torso. The priestess garb is so amazing it’s a shame to cover it up but I allow him to. Tyeing and adjusting the armor to an amazingly snug fit Sesshoumaru steps back to the couch. The armor is remarkably light. Returning to my side Sesshoumaru wraps his arms around my waist, time and again. Finally flipping my ponytail over my shoulder he works with something behind my back. Looking down at my waist I notice a white silk obi with navy waves encircling the warming metal. When he finishes he pats my hips, which causes me to blush.
He then hands me a pair of traditional split toe socks and those ridiculous wooden platform flip-flops. Neither of which I can put on. After I struggle for a bit I say, “You should have waited to put the armor on, I can’t reach my feet with it on.”
Sesshoumaru shrugs, takes the socks, puts them on my feet and does the same with the shoes. Expecting this to be the end of his fussing I begin to move to the door. “Where are we going anyway?”
He turns me back around so I am facing him. “You are not done yet.”
“You’re not putting something on my face are you? I hate makeup, it clogs the pores.” I eye his stripes.
“Not to worry.” He grabs something from his sleeve. Out comes a clam or some other small shell fish shell made into a hand-sized box. Opening it reveals a smooth red substance. He rubs one finger in it then sets the shell down. Sesshoumaru then holds my chin in his makeup free hand. As his finger comes closer I realize it’s tinted lip gloss, so even though his mouth remains the line it always is I open mine to allow him to smooth the gloss on my lips. Only when his finger reaches my lips do I realize that I should feel embarrassed. Heat rises in my cheeks and I begin to babble about being able to do this myself and how embarrassed I am. He completes the job anyway.
Rubbing away the excess on his finger Sesshoumaru gives me a slow once over and my blush intensifies. “This does not suit you.” He then pulls the ribbon from my hair. Holding my hair out of the way he slips the ribbon around my throat a few times, allowing the ends to dangle. Releasing my hair slowly he looks me over again. “Perfect.”
I admit him saying that of me… I have to see his handy work. In the hallway mirror I study myself.
~POV Change~
I come upon Kagome staring at her reflection in a mirror. Her armor is both silver and black, but unlike mine hers has no spikes or shoulder guards. Her elaborately tied obi had given me an excuse to breath her scent without her noticing. Hers is a very sweet scent like a tree that is blossoming and baring fruit at the same time.
“Are you pleased?” I ask when she notices me in the mirror.
“Mmm. Whoever cleans this armor must dread it.” she says fingering the shining, detailed carving on her chest-piece. They are dog demons in their K-nine forms. Her fingers pause over the navy stone at the center, it is shaped like a waning moon.
“It has always been a pleasure to clean. Even as a… boy.” I look at her face to see her reaction.
“You clean this?” She is astonished.
“Hmn. It is one of my responsibilities.” I let her think on that a moment, then I say, “Now you are ready, we will go.”
“Where are we going?” she asks again as she grabs her key from the table before her.
“I believe our school is having a celebration tonight.”
She gasps at me, “Yo-you’re taking me to the Haunted Halloween Ball?” The mirror was no longer a suitable way to view me I suppose. She turns very quickly to look at me.
“That is right.”
Kagome grins that special happy grin, at me. “Thank you! I’d hug you but I don’t want to be impaled.” She points to the curving spikes on my chest.
“Worry not.” The feeling I get when I get what I want comes over me. So I pull her into my arms. Face against my armor and hands around me she sighs. It is pleasant, both her sigh and being held by her.
“Sesshoumaru?”
“Hmn?”
“Who exactly are we supposed to be?”
“I am my ancestor from the feudal era of Japan. He was rumored to be a demon lord, son of the great dog general. In any case he was a feudal lord who fought and won most all his battles. I was named for him.”
“You are his mate, his bride.” I lead her out into the chill air.
Kagome’s face heats up rapidly.
“His father was told by a great grandmother with the abilities of a seer that his son would meet a powerful priestess when he was older.” I pause my story as I help Kagome into my car. I continue when I settle into my seat, “He would be able to tell by her scent that they would become mates. Sesshoumaru’s father was delighted that his son would woo someone who should hate and try to destroy him. Lord Inu no Taisho commissioned the armor you are wearing for his son’s future bride. This angered Sesshoumaru’s mother so much she abandoned her pup and mate.”
“No! She didn’t!” cries Kagome.
“She did indeed. Sesshoumaru spent many days polishing the armor, several times a year. While he polished he wondered and dreamed about his future mate. As he grew older and passed the age lordlings usually find a mate he began to get discouraged but still he cleaned and kept the armor in good repair in case he ever found her.
“Then one day his half-brother brought home a priestess who knew nothing about being a priestess and thinks that demons like himself are fairy stories to scare children. Yet her scent drives him to distraction. He fights the allure, the power she does not know she holds over him but it is no use. He knows in his heart and in his head that his great great grandmother’s prophesy has come to life in this little woman. Yet he puts her through one test to be sure, he tricks her in such a way as to steal a kiss. That kiss wipes out his remaining resistance to mating, marrying, a human, especially one who does not know her own powers.”
He pauses knowing that what he was about to say might give him away. “So he gives her the armor, but not knowing about demons and their customs she did not understand the gift. Even knowing that she did not understand, he displayed her before his kin wearing the armor that told them they were betrothed.” I stop my tale, my honor nagging me over the deceitful thing I am doing.
“And? What happened? Was she mad when she learned what he had done?”
“When he took her to meet his family he promised himself he would tell her the truth about everything when he had wooed her. I do not know if she was angry when he told her the truth. If she was she forgave him. For eventually they mated and she bore him pups.”
Kagome sighs “That’s a very romantic story. If I were her I'd be mad. But I’d eventually forgive him.” She starts to laugh. “I can almost see you, as a little boy, polishing this armor and hoping that you’d never marry.”
“Hmn.” ‘I actually did go through a phase of that when I was small.’
“For some reason I can’t see you without the stripes and moon though. Strange, I see you normally often enough but the way you look now seems right, more true somehow. In a totally dangerous, not right way that is.” She giggles in embarrassment as I park. “If that make sense.”
“It does, if I were actually a demon and you were actually a priestess...” After helping her out I can not help adding, “I believe you are.”
Kagome nudges me. Then she playfully says, “I believe you are a demon.” Grinning impishly she asks, “Do I need to worry I'll be devoured?”
I lean forward playing her game. “Only if you continue to look so tasty.” I whisper to her.
Kagome shivers in response. “I’ll try not to.”
Silently I think, ‘Impossible.’
Minutes later Inuyasha sees us. I can feel the unhappy, anger inspired death he wishes on me. Yet there is nothing he can do about it. Kagome is publicly wearing my gift, my betrothal armor and clothing.
As we dance to a slow song I spot Father, the principal, observing us. The approval is flowing from him is tangible waves. I get the feeling he has expected me to seek Kagome since Inuyasha brought her home with him when she was eight. She was lost. Inuyasha was upset that he was told he couldn’t keep the little girl, even if she was not claimed, like people could with lost puppies. Which explains why we have a dog.
It turned out that she had just moved in with her grandparents and didn’t know the area or phone number well. She had just joined Inuyasha’s class at school.
I send a questioning glance at father. ‘How did you know?’ Father just grins and taps his nose three times.
“Sesshoumaru...” She blushes but continues, “I wish you could hold me closer.” I look at Kagome and see she is looking at my Father and misinterpreted his nose taps.
“Who says I can not?”
“But we’ll get in trouble.”
“So? As Miroku would say...” I trail off.
“It’s worth it.” she finishes.
As we are in agreement I pull her to me and she willingly comes. Her head reaching about an inch above the top of my armor. Her hand slips from my shoulder to wrap around the back of my neck.
Already Father is making his way to us to return us to the proper distance apart. Thankfully he has chosen to walk slowly.
I close my eyes and bury my nose in Kagome’s hair for a few moments of bliss, being completely engulfed in the scent of my future mate.
The End
Oct. 31 2016
I wrote this story by hand a few years ago and always meant to put it up, but I had misplaced it. I remembered where I had put it this time a few days ago. I was sick and hiding in my bedroom when I got this idea.
To any who may be wondering why I haven’t written anything in so long, it is because I overheard my dad basically blame his ill treatment of me on my writing, he’s never even read any of my work. I’ve been trying to get back into writing but it is hard.
Thanks for reading! Please review!