The Exterminator by Luna

The Exterminator

Standard disclaimer applies. I don’t own any of it.

Miss Kagura, this goes out to you! It’s not MA, but hopefully you’ll like it anyways! Short, sweet, and hopefully enough to please. Enjoy! 

The Exterminator

By: Luna

…

Sesshoumaru had a rodent infestation. Or, at least, he thought he did.

It started with the rat. He lived in the city, so rodents weren’t exactly nonexistent. The traps that he set up, however, did not seem to be working properly. It was either that or he had a very clever rat on his hands. When Rin started picking names for it, he decided that it might be time to call an exterminator.

“But why?” Rin asked him after she caught him on the phone with the company.

“This Sesshoumaru will certainly not catch it.”

Rin brightened at that. “So once it’s caught, we can keep it?”

His facial expression was answer to that, and so she slinked off, determined to hate this exterminator on sight.

Except that when she arrived, she wasn’t what either expected to see. An image of an overweight bald man in a gray jumpsuit had been Rin’s first guess, and since Sesshoumaru hadn’t cared either way at the time he didn’t really have an expectation. The girl standing on his front porch, however, wouldn’t have been his guess even if he’d had one.

She smiled brightly at him, looking ridiculously cute in a pair of baggie blue coveralls, a blue bandana tied (in Rin’s opinion) in a cute jaunty bow, which pulled back her bangs but let her long curling hair fall to her shoulders carelessly.

“Hi!” she chirped. “Someone call for an exterminator?”

Sesshoumaru only stared, but her announcement had Rin crossing her arms and looking defiantly at the potential murderer. “Fluffy doesn’t need an exterminator, and neither do we! Go away, pretty lady!”

Kagome blinked down at the little girl quizzically. When she offered to fill in for Sango, she just thought she had to go to some house, spray a few walls with poison, collect the cash and leave. But staring at this little girl made her start to feel guilty, all for a rat that most likely had rabies anyway.

Well, actually, if it was a rat… “Only one? That’s weird.”

Sesshoumaru seemed to have recovered, and he scowled at her. “I keep a clean house. Only having one rodent should be a blessing rather than having multiple rats running around.”

She slid her glance from the little girl to the dad, her brow raised. “Having a rodent period should show how clean your house is.” she winced, hearing Sango yell at her mentally about her manners. Wasn’t she always telling her she had to mind her tongue when talking to people? She coughed, looking contrite. “What I mean is, if there is one rat there are probably a whole lot more. Rats breed faster than rabbits, and that’s saying something if the rumors are true about those.”

Rin looked curious at this, and Sesshoumaru looked ready to murder her. She laughed nervously. “So, uh, my name is Higurashi Kagome. I take it you are Sesshoumaru Taisho?” she quickly turned to the little girl. “And who is this?”

“This is Rin.” she jutted out her chin again, remembering that she wasn’t supposed to like this lady. “We’re not friends.”

Smiling was becoming a chore, since both occupants didn’t seem to like her very much. She wondered if Sango ever got this much chalk, and decided right then and there that exterminating wasn’t her thing. She didn’t want to kill the fuzzy rodent either, but Sango would kill her if she turned away business just because she got a little squeamish.

Just then a little squeak was heard, and Rin paled. “No, you cant have him!” with that she took off running towards the back of the house.

Sesshoumaru sighed irritably. “I’ll show you where the cellar door is.”

“Right.” Kagome said, following him into the house.

She found Rin standing protectively over the sliding panel that led to the crawl space. “I just want to look,” Kagome said reassuringly. “If it’s just one, I’ll trap it and set it free in the wild.”

She turned to Sesshoumaru when Rin refused to move, and blinked when she saw him looking at her oddly. He said nothing to her, merely picked Rin up like a foot ball and moved aside, gesturing wordlessly.

What a gentleman, she thought wryly, and opened the panel to the crawl space herself. She pulled a flashlight from her back pocket, then stuck her head inside and looked around for the source of the squeaking.

Sesshoumaru considered her derriere for a minute, and being a man was able to appreciate how the baggy coveralls managed to stretch across it appealingly from her position, before he tapped the bottom of her foot with the toe of his house slipper. “Do you see it?”

“What?” She sat back up, her cheeks flushed and her hair disheveled. “Oh, no, I’m gonna have to crawl under there. I’ll be right back.”

With that, she disappeared into the dark hole without another word.

Sesshoumaru set Rin down so she could sulk on the floor, and considered the crawl space thoughtfully. The girl, Kagome, hadn’t been anything he had expected. She lacked certain manners, but some would say she made up for it in charm. He didn’t want to be charmed, so he turned away with the intention of going back to the living room when he heard the squeak, and it wasn’t from the rat.

The laughter, however, wasn’t what he had expected.

He turned back, and there she was, only her torso showing as she stood up in the hole, a seemingly dead rodent cradled in her arms. He was slightly perturbed at her smile, especially seeing as how she was holding a dead varmint, so he cautiously moved Rin away from her before asking, “What is that? Did you kill it already?”

Kagome laughed again, and offered him the rat like a baby. “It’s not a rat. See?”

She lifted her arms a bit more, as if he couldn’t see the rat laying belly up in her arms from where he was at. He curled his lip in disgust. “You will dispose of it, I assume.”

Kagome looked stunned for a moment before cradling the thing closer to her protectively. “Of course not! It’s an innocent creature. It was probably just lost, and didn’t know how to get out of the foundation. Poor little guy.”

Rin clutched at Sesshoumaru’s leg tearfully. “Fluffy is dead? But how? I heard it before you… before you… you’re a meanie!” she wailed, burrowing her face against Sesshoumaru’s legs.

“No, of course not!” Kagome protested. She lifted one hand and tickled the rats belly. As they watched, it’s pink nose started to twitch, and then it looked up at Kagome with its big beady eyes with a blink.

Then it squeaked, and promptly died again.

“See?” Kagome crooned down to it. “It’s just a baby possum. It’s no danger yet. When it gets older, though, watch out. These little guys can be vicious.” She crooned nonsense at it for a few moments, while the possum twitched and tried valiantly to play dead.

“And yet, you are holding it.” Sesshoumaru said dryly, watching as she tickled it’s belly again.

“Awe, he’s just a baby.” she looked down at Rin with a grin. “He just gets so scared, you see, and faints dead away. It’s a defense mechanism. I’ll just take him with me and let him go in the park.”

Rin brightened for a moment, but then drooped. “So I can’t keep Fluffy?”

“No,” Sesshoumaru said emphatically. “Now thank the lady and go wash up for dinner.”

Muttering a sullen thanks, Rin trudged off to the powder room.

Kagome looked quizzically at him for a moment before moving towards the front door. “Just write a check out to Exterminators R’ Us, or I’ll take cash, whatever works.”

Sesshoumaru held out a check after scrawling his signature on the bottom. “Take that thing away.” he ordered. He shut the door to her rolling her eyes.

The next time Sesshoumaru saw her it was at the office, and again it surprised him.

She wore wide red suspender straps over a tight white shirt that showed off breasts that had been hidden in the coveralls he had first seen her in. The suspenders were hooked into bright orange firefighting pants that hung dangerously low on surprisingly curvy hips. The white shirt she wore stopped just underneath her ribs, showing off a flat tummy and a bellybutton that held a sparkling ring that dangled silver stars, and scuffed boots adorned her small feet.

Her hair was falling down around her shoulders in the loose, sexy style she wore the week before, only her bangs had been styled into a sexy ruffle over her thickly lashed blue eyes, which sparkled mischievously back at him. Her smile was impish, as if she was trying to hold in laughter and wasn’t succeeding.

On top of the page, the calendar read “Japan’s Firefighters, March 2011”.

“Inuyasha,” Sesshoumaru started slowly. “what is that?”

Distracted, Inuyasha leaned back from his desk and looked to where Sesshoumaru pointed. Then he grinned. “Pretty fucking hot, isn’t she?”

Sesshoumaru didn’t say anything for a moment as he wondered why she showed up on his doorstep as an exterminator. “She’s not a firefighter.”

Inuyasha raised his brow. “Uh, yeah she is. Look here, I even got an autograph.”

When Sesshoumaru only looked at him, Inuyasha grinned again. “Hey, she was hot, it was an excuse to talk to her.”

“She was my exterminator.” he said blandly, once more staring at the photograph. She had been attractive before, but now seeing her in an outfit that left little to the imagination…

Inuyasha snorted. “Yeah, okay.”

When Inuyasha turned back to his desk, Sesshoumaru didn’t say anything, just went to his office and shut the door, trying to erase her from his mind.

However, he bumped into her again, this time in person, a few days after that.

She was cooing through the bars at a panda at Ueno Zoo in downtown Tokyo. Then, astonishingly, she turned to a group of people and started talking about the zoo, it’s different recreational activities and its role in wildlife conservation.

Rin was staring too, though in fascination. “Isn’t that the lady killer from the other day?”

Sesshoumaru didn’t say anything, too surprised and slightly suspicious. She was dressed as if she were on an African safari, wearing short khaki shorts and a snug khaki button up top, complete with a splashy red scarf tied around her throat. Her long, slim legs were tan, and this time her scuffed boots were khaki to match her outfit. Her hair was pulled back today, its pony tail pulled through a worn brown cap that looked as if it had seen better days. The outfit should have been bland, and probably was on other tour guides. On her, it looked almost… enticing.

They followed her on the tour, past the gorillas and tigers the zoo was famous for, until Sesshoumaru managed to corner her once the crowds dispersed.

“You are not an exterminator.” he accused, and watched as she blinked in surprise before smiling in delight.

“Well, hello!” she said. “Fancy seeing you here.”

When Sesshoumaru only glared at her, she rolled her eyes. “Of course I’m not. I only helped out a friend.”

“You’re not really a zoologist either, are you?”

Kagome stared at him, flabbergasted because, really, this guy was a stranger, and a rude one at that. It didn’t matter if he was drool worthy, he was too impolite. “What makes you say that?”

“I saw your calendar.” he told her, and watched as she blushed.

“What guy hasn’t?” she laughed, and huffed when he only continued to glare at her. “I do work here, if you must know. And I do work as a firefighter, but only two days out of the week.”

“To work here?”

“No, to work at my family’s shrine. I’m a miko, or are you going to accuse me of not being that, too?” she said, exasperated. “I work here two days of the week. The rest of the time I’m at home helping my grandpa.”

“Spreading yourself a little thin, don’t you think?” What else could she possibly be? He heard of women who volunteered, but this seemed ridiculous. An exterminator, a firefighter, zoologist, and a miko. What else could she possibly be?

She narrowed her eyes at his derisive words. “What do you care? You probably don’t remember my name.” She didn’t need to mention that she remembered his.

He sniffed. “That’s besides the point. This Sesshoumaru wanted to know if I paid the right person for the extermination, that is all.”

Rin, momentarily forgotten, stared back and forth between them in fascination. “Uncle Inuyasha said that daddy has the hots for you.”

When both adults looked at her incredulously, she scuffed her feet self-consciously. “Well, he did.”

“This Sesshoumaru seemed to be running into you, whether in person or not, and it was quite vexing.” he sniffed again, already planning a quiet murder for his younger brother.

Suddenly Kagome’s face lit mischievously, and she pulled a notebook from her back pocket. Once she scribbled something on it, she shoved in down the chest pocket of his shirt. “Here. Call this if you feel like running into me again, on purpose.”

With a jaunty wave, she turned and strutted out of sight, leaving a speechless Sesshoumaru and a grinning Rin.

“I like her.” Rin announced, previous enmity forgotten.

Sesshoumaru still didn’t say anything, feeling off balance and not liking it in the least.

He called her anyways, and wondered why even as he dialed the number.

When he picked her up for dinner, he was still wondering.

But when she stepped outside wearing a sheath of dark blue silk, her hair pinned up, her lips painted a shining pink, he stopped wondering, and started considering.

By the seventh date, he took her home and spent a quiet night with her and Rin.

By the eighth he found a babysitter, and made love to her for the first time.

By the sixtieth, he asked her to marry him.

She said yes.

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A/N:

Firefighters in Japan wear orange firefighting stuff, just in case you’re wondering. And Ueno Zoo really does exist in downtown Tokyo, and really do hold panda’s they imported from China, as well as gorillas and tigers they’ve imported from wherever it is that gorillas and tigers are found, and are very serious about trying to breed all three species, which are endangered. It’s the oldest zoo in Japan, and very well known for its interest in wildlife conservation and public education.