Only Words Can Say
Prologue
Kagome Higurashi chewed absently on the end of her pencil, eyes ponderously scanning over the flowing, loopy handwriting covering the piece of pink stationary on her desk. Her gray eyes narrowed as she re-read one particular stanza before she slowly drew a single, neat line threw it and wrote something in the margin to its right. Setting the pencil down, she lifted the flimsy paper away from her, squinted critically at it and finally allowed a satisfied smile grace her lips.
"Finally! Done. It may not win the contest, but it's definitely worthy of an A from Ms. Kaede," she announced, referring to the teacher of her second period literature class. Her whole name was actually Ms. Kaede Miko, but she insisted all her students call her Ms. Kaede instead of Ms. Miko; it apparently made her feel younger.
'Ms. Kaede's interesting like that,' she smiled to herself, stuffing the pink paper into a binder, which she took with her as she headed down the stairs. She sunk into the soft cushions of the family's sofa and flicked on the television,
"I mean, she has to be pretty interesting to hold a poetry contest between her two classes, and even more so if she allows pen names," she explained to the fat cat that had just leapt onto her lap.
The feline looked up at her in momentary curiosity before deeming her unworthy of interest and proceeding to wash its face.
"Speaking of which," her gaze landed on the binder that held her poem, and her face paled at the thought of her classmates hearing the rather personal contents of the poem. "I really need to find myself a pen name. That means you need to get off Buyo."
The aforementioned cat was pushed off her lap so she could lean forward and grab her sickeningly cute, collaged binder. Her fingertips froze against its spine when the annoying toothpaste saleswoman had left the TV screen and a deep voice said:
"And now we return to Casablanca."
Kagome squealed and swept the binder up to hug to her chest in delight. She couldn't believe that her favorite movie was actually on. They never played good movies like Casablanca on TV!
Bubbling with excitement, she leapt back onto the couch, abruptly quieting when Ingrid Bergman's beautiful face flickered onto the screen. What part of the move was this? Oh yeah! Ilsa had just entered the bat with her husband.
Unconsciously squeezing the binder even closer to her chest, she gave a content sigh as Ilsa coaxed,
"Play it once, Sam…For old time's sake."
Her fingers convulsively curled about the binder's edges as an idea suddenly struck her. Eyes shining triumphantly she looked around before she whispered, the time weary tune Sam was beginning to play her only witness,
"I just found my pen name."
He was hunched over the coffee table, scribbling furiously onto what might have been a piece of computer paper earlier, but was now a torn, crumpled, ink-saturated mess. How he could see what he was writing was a mystery, but then again, messes and mystery seemed to be constantly linked to the name Inu Yasha. One such mystery was why he was even doing the homework for his fourth period class in the first place. After all, slacker was another adjective linked to his name. Not that he really was; he just didn't think homework was necessary and was a waste of precious time. Like school in general. So why was he wasting even more time writing some dumb poem, for an even dumber competition his ancient teacher assigned?
He, honest to the gods, didn't know.
Wait, no. Apologies to the gods, he did know. Though he would rather die than admit it, but he really needed to vent. Usually he would've called up Kikyo and talked with her about it, but that was just it. Kikyo.
The name caused him to press down harder on the pen he clutched, creating yet another rip in the paper.
He didn't know what was wrong with him. Obviously it was HE who was fucked up because Kikyo wasn't doing any thing wrong. But maybe that was it. She was doing nothing wrong, but nothing right either she was just…being. Was he growing bored with her? Was he really that fickle? Impossible! He loved Kikyo since the fourth grade. Nothing could change that…right?
He scratched out one last word before slamming his pen down and holding the paper out in front of him. Squinting critically at the crumpled mess, he scrunched up his nose and rolled his eyes. Okay, maybe he should re-copy the poem before turning it in.
His eyes slid over to the remote control sticking out from under the ratty couch.
…He could re-copy it later.
Smirking, he grabbed the remote and flopped onto the couch, ears flattening at the way the rusty springs groaned with the added weight.
"Damn couch, he muttered, turning on the television and glaring the passionately kissing couple that popped onto the screen. Changing the channel sounded good right about then. He redirected his glare as he did so, focusing on the piece of paper lying harmlessly on the coffee table in front of him.
Stupid class.
Stupid teacher.
Stupid assignment.
His glare turned suddenly accusing. Shit. He could NOT turn that poem in. Kikyo was in that class. Cursing under his breath, he reached for the paper, about to tear it apart—but wait!
He paused then sniffed and lay back down onto the couch. That Kaede fogey, old lady, chic, person, thing…whatever, said something about pen names. Yeah. He'd use a pen name when he turned it in.
Feeling quite proud of himself, he picked up the remote he had dropped in his haste to rip his poem to pieces and changed the channel. A man jumped into view. He seemed to be in a restaurant or something, but Inu Yasha could tell little else because it was one of those black and white movies. He snorted and was about to change the channel, but then the guy spoke up and his words captivated him,
"I stick my neck out for nobody."
Inu Yasha gazed at the man with new respect. Those were definitely words to live by, if he was one to judge…which he was. They were the words he lived by, any way.
"Well shit," he spoke up suddenly, "I just found my new pen name."
A/N: Oooh, I cringe as I post this. That has got to be the worse beginning I've created so far. Don't worry, I promise it gets better. Or, at least it should. Any way, next chapter for Age of the White Dawn should be up in a week or so as for this story…well, this is just one of those light stories I'm doing for kicks. You know, give myself a break from the "intense drama" of my main story. Toot a loo, ya'll! Review if you want, oh and Inu Yasha and all them character's don't belong to me. ^_^