Hello everyone! So this is the first chapter of the sequel of my story « in the elevator », which I decided to name « In the office ». I know, really original! >.< Oh, well. As I said before, if you have ideas or opinion for the sequel, don’t hesitate, feel free to inform me! ^^ Well, now here is the chapter 1! :D Thanks to Ryuumahou for her corrections! :) Disclaimer: I don’t own InuYasha. *sigh* 888888888888888888888888888888 ………………………… Chapter 1: I don’t want to go, part 1 ………………………… Birds were chirping, happily announcing the morning. The sun was filtering through the pink curtains of her bedroom’s window, making it difficult to ignore. The ‘lump’ under the sheets groaned and rolled over, trying desperately to block out all the sound and the light from her warm cocoon. That way, she had the illusion, albeit ephemeral, that it wasn’t Monday morning and that she didn’t have to go back to that...place...and face all the employees who knew what happened in that little elevator; or even worst, to have to face ‘Him’, her new boss. She buried her head more firmly in her pillow, wishing with all her might that morning wasn’t already there and that everything was just a dream. She couldn’t even think about that place without thinking of Him and then of what happened between them in this elevator from his very own building, turning beet red at the thought. Then come the mortification and the nagging doubt crawled up in her, making her even more ready to just burry herself deep in her warm sheets until the end of her life. But apparently a Kami up there wasn’t agreeing with her new choice of life as a knock could be head against her door. “Kagome, wake up, dear, or you will be late for your first day of work,” came the gentle voice of Mrs. Higurashi from the other side of the door. The ‘lump’ under the covers, known as Kagome, groaned her misery. It was loud enough to be heard from the other side of the pink door of her all pink bedroom. The bedroom hadn’t changed one a bit from when she was just a little girl, thus explaining the pink. Her friend, Sango, often laughed at her, pointing out that it seemed as if the time had frozen inside those pink walls. Sango couldn’t understand why she hadn’t changed at least the color, but just the thought of having to push out all her furniture and all the work to just change her ‘wall’s clothes’, as she used to say when she was little, was enough to convince her that the pink would stay where it was. But in fact, it was more because she still had the images of her father when he had put the wallpaper on, when she had been old enough to have a ‘grow up’ bed. It was one of the rare vivid memories of her father being alive that she still had and she wasn’t ready to risk losing it. Kagome had the feeling that her mother knew that she wasn’t ready to abandon her childhood bedroom as of yet. Maybe, it was the reason behind the fact that her mother hadn’t, even once, tried to convince her to change something in her bedroom for something more suited for a young woman. The room was her little sanctuary and she still wasn’t ready to put it behind her. At the other side of the door, Mrs. Higurashi took the groan of her daughter as a ‘yes,’ but she sighed as she turned around and went back downstairs. Her daughter had been acting really strange since her return that early Saturday’s morning. She was really worried for her. She had been worried sick when her daughter hadn’t come back or at least given her a call to tell her that she wasn’t coming home. It wasn’t like her daughter at all. In the end, late than night, or early in the morning depending of how you see that, several hours before the rising of the sun, she had called the police saying that her daughter hadn’t come back from her job’s interview in town. After more persuasion and a phone call at every person who knew her daughter that she was aware of, the cops then finally went towards the Takahashi’s building from more information. …………………………………… A strange big man had taken the night shift at his post after Shippo day’s shift. At a moment in the early morning, he received a call from the police. He informed them that he’d just arrived but that he hadn’t any proof that she had effectively really left the building, the register been sign for her entry but not when she was supposed to leave. The security’s men then were called in and with the cops they went to look at every level. During this time, the big man was viewing the videos of the security cameras to try to find any trace of the missing woman. That was how, after a couple of hours of viewing, he finally had seen the moment of when she entered the little elevator from the right. Most of the time, this elevator was only used by their boss and the oldest employees, used to its ‘simplicity’. The strange occurrence was that she had never walked out of it. Pushed only by pure curiosity, he looked for the last time the door had opened to see if someone else could be in with her. That’s when he saw that just before Kagome walked in, to his surprise and mortification, he saw Sesshoumaru Takahashi, his boss entering the elevator. That meant that he had let his boss be trapped all night in a little elevator. He was dead. “Fuck!” He immediately reached for the walky-talky to call the security guards back. “Abe? Abe, can you hear me?” The man had difficulties to stop his hands from shaking. “Yeah, what’s up, man? Do you know where the girl is?” Came the deep voice of ‘Abe’ through the device. The big man gulped. Saying it out loud will make it all the more reality, something that he would prefer not. “H-Hai, I know where the girl is. Contact the others teams and tell them to come down.” “Ok. Hey man, are you sure you are ok? You sound funny.” “I…it’s just that the girl had been blocked in the elevator all night along…and she isn’t alone.” “In the elevator?! Isn’t there supposed to be something to prevent that kind of things? Poor girl. To stay inside this small metallic cage all night long must have been Hell. And you said that she isn’t alone? Do you know who is in there with her?” ‘Unfortunately,’ the big man thought grimly. But he didn’t answer, not trusting his voice at the moment. “Ok, my brother had called the others teams, they are coming down. So who is with the girl? Do I know her or him?” the voice of Abe said after a moment. “H-hai, everyone knows him.” “Oh come on man, tell me who it is! I’m dying here!” The man gulped again. Perspiration was running down his back. “It’s…it’s Takahashi.” From the sound, Abe must have let the talky-walky fell from the shock. “You are kidding, right?” he asked, his voice quavering, a lot less sulfuring and deep. “No, I’m not.” The line went dead for a moment. Then, “Ok. I will inform the others. Over.” The big man inhaled sharply and then phoned the company responsible of the maintenance of the elevators. They had to get their boss—and the girl—out of that elevator as soon as possible. ……………………. That was then, around 8 o’clock as the first employees were starting to arrive that the two poor trapped people were finally released. The big man had been scared to death, like all the security’s squad when they were waiting for the door to be opened by the maintenance team. Their boss was a frightening man...err Daiyoukai...and his anger was legendary. They knew of his less than friendly feelings towards the human community, and even if it had gotten better during the last years, they didn’t wish to have to face him after he had to spend a whole night trapped in a limited space with a human female. They were literally pissing their pants. They were frightened beyond imagination at the idea of what Sesshoumaru would do to them for not having found him and released him sooner. The Daiyoukai was renowned for not being very forgiving. So imagine everyone surprise when their boss walked out calmly and didn’t go feral while threatening their life. Even more incredible, he seemed, dare they think, in a fairly good mood, like no one had saw him in ages—if ever. On top of it, he was shockingly openly flirting with the human girl he had been trapped with in front of everyone. It was really a first for them to witness his actions when he was usually more likely to be shaking off women who were clutching at him. When Sesshoumaru had passed him, eyes twinkling, the big man had been shocked further when he unconsciously took a sniff of the air; a sweet feminine scent was covering and hanging onto his boss’s body. That was when he turned his head dumbfound as the girl, owner of said feminine scent, was walking out. She seemed a little lost; the sweet little thing. He had seen that she was rather cute on the security’s cameras but seeing her in real, he understood immediately why his boss hadn’t passed on the opportunity to get a taste of the delicious looking female, even if she was human. From the look of it, Sesshoumaru had done more than just taste the young irresistible body, but had literally ravaged it. That was when the girl had learned who her elevator companion of the night really was. Apparently, the sweet little thing didn’t know who she was with and who had done her as she just promptly fell unconscious. The scent of his master and employer was clutching at her form like a second skin, making it obvious to every youkai, even the ones with a weak sense of smell, of what occurred between the two during the night. But beyond that, the raccoon youkai could smell her beautiful scent and even detect something shocking; the purity in it. She was a Miko. He had heard others talking about a new human in the building when he had taken his shift that seemed to have turned the heads of most of the building’s male population who had crossed her path. So from the gossip, Hachi, the big man, had deduced that she was the new assistant of his boss, and it was confirmed by Sesshoumaru, making her the second Miko working inside their walls. Funny, when you know that almost all the employees here were youkai. Even now, as he looked around, it seemed as if she was drawing all the unmated’s—though some mated’s too—attention to her without even doing anything. Then, there were the evil looks that some demonesses present were sending to her unconscious form; as if she had stolen the bread from their months or so to speak. Hachi was sad for the girl because she would have to stay on her toes and be cautious around those bitches. Then there were the males. They would soon try to get what Sesshomaru had had. They knew that once the demon Lord had had his ‘fill,’ he didn’t even glance towards the woman again. It had been like that with every demoness. The bitches were still trying to get their claws back on the young rich bachelor because of his social statue and money and of course without forgetting his looks. But that was all. Sesshoumaru knew that and that was why, even when he graced one of those greedy bitches in heat with a moment of his attentions, it never exceeded a couple of days. However, from the way he had acted around her in front of everyone, Hachi doubted that his Lord would let any of those males anywhere close to her anytime soon. It wasn’t a lot, but the almost playful words of the usually stoic male had really surprised him to the core. Hachi walked towards the fallen form of the Miko, that way, keeping everyone away from her for the time being. While looking at her, he could understand his Lord though. She wasn’t like any of those girls that were usually turning around him and she didn’t seem like the type to run after him as if she was permanently in heat for his wealth! Hachi had always been gifted to be able to analyze one character only by observing him or her for a moment. She was a pure little thing that had no idea of what Hell would befall her because of what had transpired between her and Sesshoumaru. The poor girl… ……………………. However, that wasn’t exactly what was said to Mrs. Higurashi to explain her daughter’s disappearance. In fact, they didn’t say a lot to her. They just told her that the girl, her daughter, was fine and had been trapped in an elevator all the night. Nothing more was said and the cops had left the shrine. When Mrs. Higurashi had seen her daughter, she immediately felt that something wasn’t right. Her suspicion was confirmed by her behavior during the weekend and this morning wasn’t an exception. It wasn’t uncommon or strange for her daughter to have difficulties in getting out of bed, but today it seemed different. It was as if…as if she really didn’t want to go to work at that place. She had been so excited before her interview and nervous about it. Then, she had acted weirdly during all the weekend. Had her being trapped in one of the elevators all night long at her new work place make her rethink about working at that place altogether? Her poor baby must have been so frightened inside of the cold metal box all the night alone. Then Mrs. Higurashi thought about something that hadn’t come to her mind before: was she truly alone or had one of the employees been there with her? Maybe something went wrong with that person and that’s why she refused to speak about it? It already had been difficult to make Kagome say where she passed the night…if it hadn’t been for the officer, she wouldn’t have known. Mrs. Higurashi then sighed; suddenly feeling tired and went back in the kitchen. She found her son, Souta, there, already up and about, silently finishing his breakfast. “Where is Kagome?” he asked softly while looking up from his corn flakes. He looked as his mother turned to him and tried to smile. “She will be down soon,” she answered simply. Souta too was suspicious. His sister was acting really weird…well like all older sibling he guessed but, even if he would never admit it out loud, he was somewhat proud to have her as his sister. It was just so strange to have her act that way. He gulped down his orange juice and walked upstairs to see if she was really getting up. As he expected, she was still sleeping, or at least she was under her sheets when he walked in. He sighed. Something was definitely wrong. It was the only explanation for the fact that she wasn’t already screaming at him for coming in her bedroom without knocking. Souta bit his bottom lip, a nervous trait that every member of the family seemed to possess. He didn't know what to do or say to make her feel better. Instinctively, he knew that something wasn't right with her. She was his big sister after all. For him, she wasn’t excessively difficult to read most of the time, like he was an open book for her. Today was one of these days were he could see that something was wrong with her, but he didn’t know what. He looked towards the door to make sure that their mother hadn't followed him upstairs. He would be really embarrassed if someone were to see what he was about to do. He would deny it with all he had that he had never done anything like what he was about to do in his whole life. It was just too...embarrassing. She was his older sister for Kami’s sake and a boy shouldn’t do something as 'girly' as to try to comfort his older sibling, or at least not with any witness. He was just not too comfortable with someone seeing him act too caring with his sister. When he was sure that no one was around, he then sat down on the bed. "What's wrong, sis'?” he whispered, letting one of his hands fall on the bed where he could see the shape of her leg under the sheets. He felt her move a little and he heard her sigh then turning under the sheets to face him. What was shocking for Souta was that she seemed already really awaken...or like she hadn't sleep at all. Any other day, she would be groaning, her eyes closed or unfocused and her mind fuzzy from sleep. Their eyes clashed for a moment then Kagome looked away. If Souta didn't know better, he would have said that his sister looked somewhat...guilty? Ashamed? He blinked. "It's nothing, squirt. Hm, are you ready for school?" she answered quietly, trying to take his attention away from the subject in the same breath. But Souta didn’t buy it one a bit. “Can’t you tell me? You look like you have something on your conscience or something. You barely ate the entire weekend and slept very little. Everyone knows that you eat a lot, even if you aren’t fat at all. For you, to not eating means that something is wrong. You can’t fool me so easily. Even Mom is upset and doesn’t know what to do to make you feel better since no one knows where the problem lays. Did something happen? When you were at the company, perhaps? That would explain why you look like someone who had stolen a cookie from a famish kid.” Kagome didn’t moved or speak. “Kagome?” “I will be down in a minute. Don’t worry so much, squirt. You should go or you will be late for school,” she told him quietly, still not looking at him. Understanding that he won’t be able to get more out of her, Souta resolved himself to let it go, for now. “Ok. See you after work?” He saw her nodded her head and left her alone. 888888888888888888888888888 End of the chapter 1. Well, hope to have satisfied you all. My other story "captured and trapped" is still continuing and we are closing to the end of the first part. A small one-shot, "betrayal" had been posted a few days ago. Oh and a new story, co-authored with chante-chan will be on really really soon too. :D Much love, Sweetest angel