Il tempo della tua vita by Aeries

Il tempo della tua vita: Chapter One: Part One: Ordinary World

Il tempo della tua vita: Chapter One: Part One: Ordinary World

This story is dedicated to my best friend Lori, without her, this story would not exist: thanks for proofing and editing G, even though I know we missed a few, and thanks for helping me remember how to dream.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, I do this for pure fun and gain no monetary value from it.

Song: Ordinary World

Performed by: Duran Duran

Came in from a rainy Thursday on the avenue,

Thought I heard you talking softly.

I turned on the lights, the TV, and the radio

Still I can't escape the ghost of you.

What is happening to it all?

Crazy some say-

Where is the life that I recognize?

Gone away.

But I won't cry for yesterday.

There's an ordinary world somehow I have to find.

And as I try to make my way to the ordinary world

I will learn to survive.

Passion or coincidence once prompted me to say-

Pride will tear us both apart.

Well now pride's gone out the window, cross the rooftops, runaway.

Left me in the vacuum of my heart.

What is happening to me?

Crazy some say.

Where is my friend when I need you most?

Gone away.

But I won't cry for yesterday.

There's an ordinary world somehow I have to find.

And as I try to make my way to the ordinary world

I will learn to survive.

Papers in the roadside tell of suffering and greed,

Feared today; forgot tomorrow.

Here beside the news of holy war and holy need,

Ours is just a little sorrowed talk-

Blown away.

Just blowing away.

But I won't cry for yesterday.

There's an ordinary world somehow I have to find.

And as I try to make my way to the ordinary world

I will learn to survive.

Any world is my world

Every world is my world

  Il tempo della tua vita: Chapter One: Part One: Ordinary world

  It wasn’t the best decision she had made in her life, and it certainly wasn’t the worst. She supposed it fell into that gray area where the pros and the cons equaled each other out. It was one of those decisions that left you scratching your head going, ‘hmm’. If asked she would say that she still loved him, and a part of her still did, but her answer now was more out of habit than anything else. When and how things changed she did not know. All she knew was that her feelings were not the same as they had been the day they were wed. Divorce was out of the question; maybe it was because of the security he offered her or maybe it was because of the small shred of love she still held for him. Whatever it was leaving never crossed her mind. Even when the 'what if's' crossed her mind, she quickly pushed them aside. Hearts changed, but maybe hers could be changed back, maybe.   

 Her life was about as ‘stable’ as an ordinary life could be for a thirty year old woman. To the outside world she lived a completely normal life. She lived in an average neighborhood, in an average house, and she drove an average car. She worked an average job with average pay. Nothing about her life was the best and yet nothing was the worst. While she would be the first to say that things were normal, for they were as normal as an average life could get, she would also be the first to admit that she was bored. When she said she was bored, she literally meant bored, not to be confused with ungrateful. She may have been conflicted on her feelings for her husband, but she fully appreciated all his efforts and though he never gave her the moon as promised, he still tried and that was more than enough. Or so she continuously told herself.

Recently she had found herself wanting more out of him. She didn’t want him to work harder, he worked hard enough. She didn’t want a castle in the sky with a luxury car in the driveway, no what she had was fine. He had promised to take care of her and he had fulfilled his promise. It wasn’t sex, while he wasn’t Casanova he got her there, sometimes, and that was better than nothing, right? No, what she wanted he couldn’t give her because she didn’t know what she wanted. It was the most troubling feeling in the world because she could feel in her heart that she wanted something, but the message was getting lost on the way to her brain. As of late she had found herself sitting by the living room window wanting something she couldn’t comprehend.

With a sigh she stood and headed towards the kitchen. She opened the fridge and then slowly closed it again. Sitting down on the counter she watched the clock. The autopilot that had run her life these last ten years seemed to have crashed, because now she couldn’t even keep her days straight. It was Friday, there was no point in fixing dinner as he wouldn’t be home until sometime Sunday morning. Her schedule hadn’t changed in years; Monday, Tuesday, Thursday: get up, go to work, come home, make dinner, eat, wash dishes, listen to him talk about his day, and go to bed. The only difference on Wednesday was that she went to the market on her way home from work. Saturday: Mow lawn, work in garden, visit mother, watch TV, take a bath, and go to sleep. Sunday’s: hand him an aspirin and a glass of water as he stumbled in the door. Then spend the rest of the day trying not to wake him, he could be a grouch nursing a hangover. 

Yep, this ordinary life of hers was boring. She couldn’t believe how much had changed in the twelve years since she met him. He had been her first true love and she had fought so hard to get him. When she finally had, all she could think of was how great life was going to be. Perhaps she had imagined it as one of those fairytales she had read as a child; however the fairytales always finished with ‘and they lived happily-ever-after’. Reality, however, had shown her that while Cinderella might not have had a ‘tomorrow’, she did and when the passion faded you had better have something else to talk about. Unfortunately for her, they didn't.  

A sad smile appeared on her face as she looked at a picture of them taken a few months ago. Inuyasha, he had been her everything. They had learned to rely on each other so much that now she didn’t think they could live without each other. Her liberated friends said she was crazy and needed to leave, but, again, she knew she couldn't. She would always rationalize her way around the topic and be done with it. Her friends couldn't truly understand her connection with Inuyasha unless she told them how they met and she doubted that would go over well. Recently, however, fighting off their arguments was getting harder. The nagging (doubt) was starting to make itself known in every reply she had. "You're a glorified house cleaner", they would complain. True, but he appreciated her efforts (maybe). "He leaves you for days at a time", was another of their common complaints. True, but she never asked him to stay (she already knew his answer without asking). All of these arguments she could get around despite her doubt. No, the hardest issue by far was the one they pushed the most on and the one she feared the most.

 Whether her bed was the only one he visited was a subject she tried to avoid like the plaque. On the few occasions that she had thought about it, her answer was always no; however, he was discrete and even if she had brought the subject to his attention there was little she could do because she couldn’t prove it either way. Therefore, despite her friends’ complaints, she let the situation be. To her, there was no point in opening a complex issue when she couldn’t prove it anyway.

The sound of her cell phone ringing knocked her out of her daze and brought her back to the present. Sliding off the counter, she ran to her purse. After some digging, she found her phone and answered it.

“Kagome”, a loud and very recognizable voice screeched from the phone. Kagome flinched, at the sound. “Eri”, she said slowly. Eri was one of her closest friends, but she could be so pushy at times, and Kagome had a sinking feeling that this was going to be one of those times. “Kagome, I know you are sitting around at home watching the wall; so, why don’t you get up and come out with us”?

Kagome groaned at the thought of going out, mainly because she knew her friends would be going to a bar. Bars and her did not agree as she didn’t drink and watching her friends get plastered and flirt with men was not what she would consider the highlight of the night. “I’m sorry Eri, but I really have”… was as far as Kagome got before Eri interrupted her. “Stop giving me those ridiculous excuses, Kagome. I know for a fact that you are not doing anything of importance this evening”, Eri snapped.

Despite her constant denials, Eri wouldn’t let up until she agreed to meet her. Therefore, half an hour later Kagome found herself driving toward downtown. Fortunately, the one bright spot was that her friends had decided to go to a dance club instead of an all out bar. While she knew her friends were going to be hammered, at least she could get a good laugh at them trying to dance.

After a little searching, she finally located the club and pulled into the parking lot. She then spent the next ten minutes trying to find a place to park. By the time she had finally succeeded she was ready to say ‘the hell with it’ and go back home. A bath and a book sounded a hell of a lot more entertaining than going into the club, but she had promised Eri so she got out of her car before she could change her mind. She quickly locked her car and made her way to the door of the club. Eri and her other friends were waiting for her and they quickly made their way into the club. From the outside, it appeared to be just another building on the roadside; however, once inside there was no mistaking that it was a techno club. The flashing lights and heavy thud of synthesized music made Kagome's forming migraine worsen as she followed her friends through the club.

As expected, their first stop was to the bar. While her friends quickly ordered Patron, Kagome was satisfied with an ice water. Once their bar trip was concluded, they pushed their way through the crowd to one of the few open tables just off the dance floor. No sooner than they had sat down did her friends begin to drill her about her relationship. Despite her annoyance, she calmly answered their questions and rebuffed their efforts to encourage her to leave her marriage. Finally they decided that her opinions had not changed since the last time they drilled her and they turned their attention to the alcohol. Slower than Kagome would have liked, the night progressed and as it progressed so did the inhibitions of her companions.

They grew louder, bolder, and more annoying as far as she was concerned. She watched in marked amusement as her friends proceeded to grind, clumsily, against just about any male they could get near. While she found the situation extremely humorous and a little embarrassing, she did envy them. She wished she could throw her cares to the world and enjoy the same frolicking they did. Unfortunately, for her, she was just not bold enough to follow them. Perhaps it was the way she was raised, or it could have been all the years of listening to Inuyasha complain about how loose the women of this time were, or maybe it was both, but she simply couldn’t bring herself to let go the way they did.

As the night continued to drag on so did her boredom, something that she seemed to be experiencing a lot of recently. Finally, she reached the point where she finally had enough. Her friends weren't paying any attention to her anyway, so she saw no point in staying. Retrieving her purse, she stood and headed for the exit. She had just reached the bar, when a commotion at the door caught her attention. Several people, mostly women, had gathered around someone who had just entered the club. Voices began to rise and while the name they were using to address the person meant nothing to her, it apparently did to them and people began to push forward towards the entrance.

In the fray, she was pushed roughly up against the bar and nearly knocked off of her feet. She groaned in annoyance as she struggled to straighten herself. Whoever could cause such a commotion was beyond her and she really didn't care. She wanted to go home and take a bath, not get trampled in a club. Her patients finally snapped and she pushed forward through the crowd. She had just about made it through the thickest part of the crowd when they suddenly parted and she got her first good look at the cause of all the commotion. In an instant she was stopped dead in her tracks. Unable to help herself, her eyes widened and her jaw dropped as disbelief, shock, and confusion left her staring back at him like all the other wide-eyed idiots in the room.   

He had changed much from the last time she had seen him. From his lack of facial markings to the modern clothing that was now molding a body that she hadn't noticed before, but was noticing now. She felt as if she was looking through his clothing and seeing the muscle that she knew he possessed beneath. He still sported his long thick hair, but it was now gathered at the nape of his neck in a lose pony tail, something she couldn’t help but feel was a sacrilege; his eyes, however, were the biggest difference of all. They were still the same gold that they had always been, but the coldness that had been in them the last time she had seen him was gone. As hard as it was for her to admit, his eyes looked almost…friendly. This small fact alone was enough to send her world reeling. This was not the same man she had known.

It was at that moment that he turned his head and took notice of her. If he was surprised to see her, he didn’t show it. In fact, it was not until he came up beside her as he made his way along the room, did he even show any signs of recognizing her. “Kagome”, he stated simply, before returning his attention to his admirers. Kagome remained rooted to her spot as she turned to watch him walk past her. Of all the years that she and Inuyasha had been married, she had only seen him one other time and that had been the day they were reunited, some eleven years ago, and even then she hadn't really gotten a good look at him. She had been so caught up in seeing Inuyasha again, that she had paid little attention to the person who had been with him. In fact, it hadn't been until later that night that she had even bothered to ask who it had been.

Kagome continued to watch him until he disappeared into the crowd. Slowly she slid into a nearby chair and put her hand over her rapidly beating heart. She hadn't given much thought to him over the years and she certainly never thought she would see him again. Now, however, he was right in front of her demanding her acknowledgment and he easily had it.

“Sesshoumaru”, she whispered quietly to herself.    

 To be continued…