Just Grin and Bear it by Himura Asami

Just Grin and Bear it

Hello, everybody!

This is a story based on the prompt given to me by a friend of mine.

Prompt: BEAR.

Enjoy!

Kagome’s POV

                  “Come on, Kagome, just grin and bear it.”

                  I was talking to myself, sad, but true. I had to, in order to get through this. I mean, hear I was, 23 years old, fairly attractive, and with an MBA, standing in the middle of a mall, wearing a short, princess-like, green skirt with an equally short, princess-sleeved, skin-tight, red and white shirt. I had on bold striped tights that made my legs look like candy canes, and green slippers.

                  Why, do you ask?

                  Because I- Kagome Higurashi, miko in training- was in debt. Not to a credit company, or the yakuza, but to someone infinitely worse.

                  My cousin, Sango Himura.

                  Normally, we got along great. She was only 2 years older than I was and she had an amiable personality and we had the same values; destroy all perverts, for example. We were like sisters.

                  Well, we were, before this.

                  As I was saying earlier, I was in debt to my cousin, who I had discovered was more ruthless than her youkai slayer ancestry belied. She had done me a favor by chasing off my ex-boyfriend/stalker, Koga, a wolf youkai. I had promised to pay her back but I hadn’t thought she’d actually hold me to it!

                  “Hey, sweet thing. You busy after you get off work?”

                  I turned around and looked in front of me. There was a guy who looked like he was trying to be a delinquent leering at me.

                  I cringed inwardly, but put on what I hoped was a seductive smile. “I have to work my second job at this gift shop a few stores down, but you can come and meet me later. How about 5 o’clock?”

                  His leer got bigger and he walked off with a flier I handed him, but not before giving me a wink.

                  I almost threw up.

                  “I am so going to kill her,” I whispered under my breath.

                  “Nice outfit, elf girl!” a shout cried in my direction in a voice that was definitely female.

                  I could feel my eye twitch as I handed out a flier to another future customer, male, of course.

                  In case you haven’t guessed, I was dressed up in a… provocative, elf costume, advertising for my future cousin-in-law’s store.

                  I snorted. So much for destroy all perverts. My cousin’s fiancé was the biggest pervert of all time. Hence my ensemble.

                  I sighed and looked at my watch. Only 15 minutes left and I would no longer be indebted to my despicable cousin, who I planned to disown.

                  “Eek!”

                  I let out a shriek and jumped as I felt a tug on my skirt. I looked down and felt a blush rising before I saw what had pulled at me.

                  Standing at my feet looking up at me was the cutest little girl I had ever seen.

                  “Excuse me,” she said quietly. “Can you help me Miss Elf?”

                  I felt like I was about to burst! She was so adorable! I knelt down and cocked my head. “Sure thing, Sweet pea. What’s your name? My name’s Kagome.”

                  The girl smiled and I almost melted. “My name is Rin.”

                  “Well, Rin, what can I help you with?”

                  “You know Santa right? Because you’re an elf.”

                  I froze in my position. I didn’t want to lie but I didn’t want to burst her bubble either. I went the safest route. If something bad happened I could always blame Sango for dressing me up like this.

                  “I do know Santa. Why?”

                  Her smile got bigger and I was glad I had chosen to lie.

                  That sounded really bad.

                  I blinked as she spoke. “Well Santa knows everything, right? Because he’s always watching everybody, especially now because it’s winter, right?”

                  I could feel my eye twitching. I hated that stupid song. I could blame the song for getting me into this situation! And, of course my cousin, and probably Koga,

                  “Of course dear,” I ground out. Why?”

                  “Well, I need to find my daddy. I lost him.”

                  Stupid Koga. Stupid cousin, Stupid song.

                  “Can you ask Santa where he is?” she said, her head tilted endearingly.

                  I opened my mouth and closed it again. “Santa’s busy dear,” her face fell and I instantly regretted saying that. I quickly covered my tracks. “But, I can help you find him.”

                  She looked up at me with big brown eyes and smiled largely. “Thank you Miss Kagome!”

                  She hugged me tightly and I almost squealed. She was too cute!

                  I looked at my watch. I still had 10 minutes on duty, but I was sure Sango would probably forgive me. The kid was adorable.

                  “Let’s get going, Rin.”

                  I grabbed her hand and together the two of us walked through the mall. All the while I ignored the second and third glances practically all the males in the store were giving me. Perverts. They were almost-but not quite- as bad as Sango’s fiancé.

                  I looked down at Rin. “So, what does your daddy look like?”

                  Rin stopped and I did as well. “He’s really pretty! He’s the prettiest daddy ever!”

                  “That’s nice. Maybe some details, Rin?”

                  “Umm… He has gold eyes and silvery hair and he’s really tall and his hair is super long and he’s got color stripe things on his face and a moon on his forehead!”

                  I blinked and stared down at her. “Is your daddy a youkai by any chance?”

                  She nodded furiously.

                  I stared at her harder. I used my power to sense her aura. There was absolutely no youki in her, anywhere. In fact, she had a miko’s aura. Definitely not youkai. So she was adopted. That was absolutely adorable! A youkai had adopted a human child. And from the sounds of it, he was a daiyoukai, too. How cute!

                  “Well, Rin, that should make things easier.”

                  “It should?”

                  “Yeah! Youkai are so much easier to find after all, and by the way you described him, he really stands out. All I have to do is search for a really powerful youkai aura that’s panicking. It’ll be a snap!”

                  “That’s great!”

                  We walked in silence for a while and I stretched my aura out to see if I could find what I was looking for.  Most auras that were even slightly noteworthy recoiled as soon as my power hit them. I was starting to wonder if her father was even still here.

                  “Rin?”

                  “Yes, Miss Kagome?”

                  “How’d you lose your daddy?”

                  “Oh, he was at home and in his office and I said that I wanted to go out and play. He said that was fine and he took me outside to play in the park. Some ladies came up to him and I ran to go look at the flowers. I went through the field and saw that he was still talking to the ladies and I got bored so I went farther. I kept going and I kept walking and walking and I had so much fun, but then I came here and I remembered that I wasn’t with daddy. I wanted to go back but I didn’t know how, so I came to you to ask if you could help me find daddy.”

                  I looked at her. She had to be kidding me. She left her dad after walking through a field of flowers and a city filled with random people. I wanted to correct her and tell her how horrible that was, to have left her daddy because she got bored, but I looked at her and lost my nerve. Sometimes I really hated cute people.

                  I let out a sigh. “Well, let’s go then. We aren’t going to find him in the mall.”

                  Rin nodded and together we walked out of the mall.

                  “You said you were in a park near a flower field right? So, let me think for a second.”

                  And think I did. What sort of park had a flower field? That was insane. That’s like a park for rich kids. Like, really, really rich kids.

                  Then it suddenly dawned on me.

                  A few blocks away from the mall there was this super fancy neighborhood (for rich people) and it was bound to have a park like that. All we had to do was go there and we would definitely find her father.

                  I relayed my plan to Rin. “That’s sounds like a good idea!” she agreed.

                  Together, we walked down the street until we arrived in the aforementioned neighborhood.

                  “I live here!”

                  I turned to her. “Really?”

                  She nodded excitedly.

                  “Good! Now all we have to do-“

                  My statement was cut off as an overwhelming amount youki surged forward. I felt like I was suffocating under the strength, the sheer size, of the aura. And then there was the panic, accompanied by rage.

                  I gulped. “I think your daddy’s on his way Rin.”

                  She nodded excitedly, seemingly unperturbed by the youki. I wondered if I really sensed the undeveloped power earlier.

                  I turned to Rin to ask if she wanted me to just let her meet her father by herself-I really didn’t want to meet the owner of such power-when suddenly, her hand was ripped from mine and I had to take a few steps back to balance myself.

                  “Rin.”

                  I froze as a voice-distinctly male-said the child’s name. I looked to my left.

                  Standing there was the exact embodiment of Rin’s description. He was standing next to his daughter, whom he had swept out of my reach, with a hand on her head. He was the epitome of calm, but only ostensibly. I could still feel his youki surging angrily, though that was an understatement.

                  “Daddy!”

                  I watched warily as Rin hugged the youkai’s legs. His expression hadn’t changed, but his aura calmed down, that is, until he looked at me.

                  His youki felt like it doubled in size and in rage, something I wasn’t completely comfortable with.

                  I swallowed. “Umm… I think I’m just going to go…” I trailed off and turned around when Rin’s father spoke again.

                  “Stop.”

                  I froze. His command was one of those commands where if you ignored it, you would totally die. I should know; I gave them out 5 times a day.

                  I squared my shoulders, and turned around.

                  He was glaring at me with one of those glares you gave to someone you were hoping would instantaneously combust. Again, I should know.

                  I shifted and was a bit more than offended when all he did was draw out his cell phone. I could feel my own power grow in outrage. How dare this guy?

                  In response to my growth in power, his youki rose and I nearly squawked at the idea of this guy trying to overpower me when I wasn’t even outright challenging him. At least, I wasn’t yet.

                  “Jaken,” he said to whoever he was talking to on his phone, stupid youkai.

                  “Come and pick up Rin.”

                  I vaguely registered Rin’s protests and her father giving the street name to the person he was talking to, but mostly I was caught up in my shock.

                  He was sending Rin away. Why wasn’t he taking her home himself? Obviously he wanted to talk to me, but why? What did he think had happened? Unless he was sending her away because when my power rose he thought I was preparing to try and purify him. But he had already pulled out his phone by then! Maybe he was going to try and kill me! What gave him the right to do that?!

                  He closed his phone and stared at me. It wasn’t a glare. His eyes seemed completely indifferent, like he could care less what was going on, but his youki was still trying to smother me.

                  A few minutes of passed. All was silent except for Rin’s low, but continuous stream of “I’m so happy I found you!”’s and her “I don’t want to go with Jaken-sama!”’s. 

                  “Sesshomaru-sama!” a screeching voice shouted out of nowhere.

                  A small, impish, green, toad like youkai arrived on the scene.

                  “Jaken,” said Rin’s father, most likely the Sesshomaru-sama the little youkai was calling. “Take Rin.”

                  The little youkai did this while managing to bow repeatedly, and Rin merely shrugged, waved, and walked after him.

                  After that, I turned to stare at Rin’s father and gulped as his eyes tinged red.

                  “Woman, you will die for kidnapping her.”

                  My mouth dropped open. The woman thing was totally uncalled for and I would have yelled at him for it, but he had just suggested I had kidnapped his daughter.

                  “What?” I shrieked. “I did not kidnap Rin! How dare you suggest that? I was bringing her back here, so don’t go around accusing me of taking your child, thank you very much!”

                  His eyes narrowed slightly. “You are lying.”

                  “I am not!”

                  I took the opportunity to tell-scream-him the story of how I had ended up bringing Rin here.

                  “So, I didn’t take your kid! Will you just calm down and stop unjustly accusing me?”

                  His face became impassive and the glare disappeared. His aura reigned in slowly and I couldn’t feel much anger any more, though, from his posture, he still looked like he was ready to kill me. Probably just for the fun of it.

                  I cleared my throat. “Well?”

                  “Well, what?” he asked, an eyebrow raised.

                  I scoffed indignantly. The nerve! “Clearly you owe me a thank you and an apology.”

                  “I do not. I would have found her without your… interference, and I had every right to believe you had kidnapped her.”

                  “What gave you the right?!”

                  He ran a cursory glance up and down my body. His gaze wasn’t leering, more like it was disgusted in the same way older ladies were disgusted when they passed me in the mall.

                  “Judging by your lack of clothing I assumed that you had kidnapped her for ransom.”

                  I was speechless. I really didn’t like either of the implications in his tone or his words, especially since they weren’t completely unfounded.

                  I opened my mouth to tell him off before closing it.

                  “Just grin and bear it, Kagome,” I told myself for the 2nd time today, forcing a smile. “At least he no longer looks like he wants to kill you.”

                  I cleared my throat. “Well, since you aren’t going to apologize, or thank me, I think I’ll get going. I do have somewhere to be.”

                  “Of course.”

                  With that he walked away and I could feel my jaw dropping. Really? Seriously? Honestly?

                  I shook my head and walked back to the mall slowly. At least Rin had made it home.

                  All’s well that ends well. I guess.

                  When I walked into my future cousin-in-law’s shop, I was tackled to the ground.

                  “Omph!”

                  “Kagome! I can’t believe you ditched like that! You didn’t even come at 5:00 and everyone wanted to see you. Do you know what you did? We almost lost everyone thanks to you!”

                  I blinked and wasn’t very surprised to see Sango fuming on top of me.

                  “Sango! Calm down!”

                  She opened her mouth, but thankfully, before she could start yelling, her fiancé spoke up.

                  “Sango, dearest, why don’t you get off of Kagome and give her a chance to explain herself?”

                  She looked at me sharply but got up anyway.

                  “Thanks Miroku,” I said.

                  He nodded.

                  “Well,” Sango said angrily. “Explain yourself.”

                  I told them the story, but l glossed over my near death confrontation with Rin’s father.

                  “And that’s why I wasn’t here.”

                  The two of them shared a look that made me nervous.

                  “Well,” Sango started, “since you were helping someone, I’ll go easy on you.”

                  I could feel my eye twitching. That statement was not as reassuring as I’m sure she meant it to be.

                  “You’ll just have to go out and advertise again tomorrow, only this time, you’ll only have to go out for one hour instead of two.”

                  She smiled like she was giving me a good deal, but the undertone of malevolence was clear to me.

                  “I’ll go and get you a different costume. I’m sure I have one in storage,” Miroku said.

                  “Why would you have one of those in storage?” Sango asked him suspiciously.

                  “No reason!”

                  “Come back here and answer me!”

                  I watched as they ran off. I thought about going after them to protest but stopped myself. “Just grin and bear it Kagome,” I said to myself for the 3rd time, “Things could be worse. Probably.”

...

What do you think?

All I could think was poor Kagome.

 

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