Another of the many stories by AnimeGirls and No Name, thank you for reading Lovely Mask and I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha

"Kagome, can you come over here and help?"

"Sure, just wait a mo," said a girl, appearing from behind the thick bushes of pink and white hydrangeas.

She was a young teenage girl of sixteen years of age holding a pair of dirty gloves to her chest. She was beautiful with a slim but curved figure, clad in a skirt that fell to her knees designed with the intricate patterns of tree branches woven together and adorned with sakura blossoms. Her top consisted of a short-sleeved shirt, collars separated by the unbuttoned divide in her shirt to reveal the white tank-top beneath.

But her face only added to her beauty and body with her unmarred peach skin that darkened to cherry red at her lips and pale pink at her cheeks. She had wide, shining hazel eyes full of youth and life, and she had thick, wavy dark hair that fell half-way down her back. This was Kagome Higurashi.

Kagome tossed her dirty gloves into a wicker basket laid atop the loamy soil and said, "What do you need help with, Kikyo?"

"Oh," said Kikyo, releasing a strained breath as she clutched a bouquet of colorful flowers bursting in her arms, "Can you get these gladioli and convolvuli into a vase? I can't hold onto them any longer."

"Sure," said Kagome and hurried over. Her sandals sank into the soft soil like bare feet into wet sand as she walked across the garden over to her twin sister.

Kagome hurriedly took the bunch of flowers from Kikyo's arms and hugged them to her as Kikyo let out a sigh of relief, saying, "thanks," and softly smiled.

Kikyo was as, if not more, beautiful when she smiled. Because they were twins, Kikyo and Kagome both shared one another's beauty, although they differed; Kikyo had the beauty of an elegant, lovely woman's rather than Kagome's of a blooming young girls.

Kikyo wore a loose tank-top the color of spring green that held true to her soft hazel eyes. She wore a light skirt that fell half-way down her knees and molded into the shape of her round hips and long, graceful legs.

But her face, like Kagome's, completed her beauty with unblemished, pale skin in the exception of her plum-colored lips and tinted cheeks. Over her eyes fell even, dark bangs and dark hair that fell to her waist, shimmering and straight as it was streaked by the sunlight midnight blue.

Kagome placed the bouquet in a vase of icy cold water and ran a dirty hand over her brow as a sign of exhaustion, succeeding in streaking her forehead in a long, brown smudge.

"Is it always this hot during autumn?" She complained, sitting down on a stone step.

Kikyo smiled at Kagome's weariness and answered, "When you're working like this, yeah."

"Then why are we working like this?" Kagome asked her sister beneath the hydrangea bushes' shade on top of one of the uncovered stone slabs.

Kikyo looked at Kagome for a moment and then stood up, letting her skirt fall down her legs after hitching it up her knees to avoid smudging it.

"Well," she said, "we need to sell flowers at the shop, remember? How else are we supposed to earn money?"

"But in autumn?" said Kagome wearily.

"Yes, in autumn too," said Kikyo, laughing at her sister's mocking three-year-old-ness.

"But it's just too darn hot to work today," she said, throwing her hair off of her neck glistening with sweat and onto her shoulder. "How can it be this warm in autumn, for god's sake?"

"The thing is, Kagome, it's not that warm," said Kikyo, "You just get hot easily. And if this weather bothers you nearly sleeveless, how do you go around school in that thick, woolen sweater all the time?"

Kagome froze at Kikyo's sentence, looking at her sister's disbelieving look. Then she said, stammering and tripping on her words, "W-well, it's—it's always so cold a-at school."

When Kikyo's look persisted, Kagome added unconvincingly, "Well, i-it is! The air conditioning is always below zero there or something…and don't look at me like that!"

"'Like' what?" Kikyo asked.

"'Like' that!" said Kagome and mirrored Kikyo's look by pursing her lips as they edged towards the right, crossing her arms loosely and her eyes as if an artist looking at an unsatisfactory painting.

Kikyo, after looking at her sister's flawless impersonation, couldn't help but let loose a light giggle and drop her look.

"Okay… but you'd look like that too if your sister said it was too hot in autumn, yet wears two pounds of wool on her body in a heated building."

Kagome had to admit she would have but she wouldn't tell Kikyo that and instead lied, saying, "I would not!"

Then Kikyo's 'look' reappeared as she heard Kagome and she said sarcastically, "Sure you wouldn't."

"Yes, I wouldn't!' Kagome unsuccessfully insisted and said, "Look, you're doing it again!"

"What am I doing?" Kikyo asked mockingly innocent.

"Your 'look', the one you're wearing right now!" said Kagome determinedly.

"I'm not wearing any look," said Kikyo as she turned on her heel.

Kikyo wore this look a lot, especially when she heard her twin sister Kagome, six-year-old sister Kaede, eight-year-old brother Sota, or anybody close to her lie….or when she was putting the finishing touches on a bouquet in the shop. It was this look Kikyo wore and Kagome saw most of when her twin sister when school was discussed. Kagome always hated this look; it never failed to penetrate her lies and insecure thoughts.

"Don't lie to me, just because I don't use the 'look' doesn't mean I can't tell when you're lying either!" said Kagome as she looked at her sister's back.

And this as well was true. Even though it wasn't as affective as the 'look', Kagome could tell through the long bond she and Kikyo shared when her twin sister was lying or uncomfortable. Kikyo could tell this as well, which made Kagome especially annoyed because she also had the affective 'look'.

Kagome, after receiving no answer, firmly crossed her arms and said, "I know you're doing it, Kikyo, I can tell!"

"Really?" said Kikyo, turning her head over her shoulder to eye Kagome.

"Yes," said Kagome forcefully, "even when you're not wearing it, I know when you're thinking it."

"Well, can you?" said Kikyo mockingly.

"Yes, I can," said Kagome mockingly back.

"Like when?" Kikyo asked her sister, facing her with her arms akimbo and her lips pursed.

Kagome had the perfect example, "like during school," she said to her, "whenever you turn to face me, that look plays across your face."

"And for that there is a good reason!" said Kikyo, "You'd look like that too if you saw me like that, silently avoiding people and sitting with your thick sweater and messily strewn hair."

Kagome only looked at Kikyo and knew she was yet again correct…but… "You wouldn't do that!" said Kagome. "I know you wouldn't!"

"Even if I don't, you'd look at your sister like that too." said Kikyo insistently.

"Well…" said Kagome, searching for words and items she could use against her sister. She racked her brain and memory, searching while her sister looked at her patiently. Then she thought of something she could remember only vaguely as she silently watched Kikyo at school from afar, alone as Kikyo smiled at the many people surrounding her and she said, "There are moments where I would but don't look at you like that, even though you would yourself!"

Kikyo looked at Kagome curiously for a moment and then asked, "Really? When would I?"

"When you're surrounded by all those people!" said Kagome, looking at her sister as her expression suddenly changed, "All the time when you where that smile and when you're with Inuyasha."

Kagome felt the words leave her lips and observed Kikyo's expression suddenly change from mocking curiosity to blankness and Kagome knew what had been done.

Kagome and Kikyo said nothing more as they blankly stared at one another, thinking the same thoughts. School…

They rarely talked about it amongst one another with the exception of homework and drastic changes, but beyond that they said nothing about it. And the reason was that for both Higurashi twins, the subject was not painful, not extremely if, but it brought up nothing but a pregnant silence that would measurably last and both twins, only the two twins Kagome and Kikyo, knew why.

…

Kagome stared out of the window, looking through the glass pane to gaze at the cherry blossom tree branch rubbing against it its dying petals and blossoms. The autumn season put her in a dream-like state, during the time she would pursue a faint daze. But she never minded it or noticed the brief stares of her classmates; for the only one who would awake her would be Kikyo.

"Now," said Kagura, cutting into Kagome's dreamy state with her sharp, feminine tones, "your assignment will be to read all of Lady Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji by Saturday, the class later that day discussing the novel afterwards."

Then, closing her hand on the novel's thick spine and lifting it before the class, said, "Now, that's all for Literature. Class dismissed."

Kagome's daze was shattered by the bell resonating through her thoughts, the class ending. Sailor-suit clad and black-suit clad students rose noisily from their desks as the bell's ring ended and lunch began.

She could hear chatter emerge between classmates as they walked outside of the classroom, grouping together.

Kagome and Kikyo had left the garden when the morning was still fresh with the scent of dewy grass and dying plants and had left the house in their uniforms and bags slung over their shoulders. Their house existed on the edge of the small city by an old ancestral shrine and a vast garden, not a long distance from the school building and grounds as the city shone before it. Kikyo and Kagome had to race across the asphalt roads and cement streets beneath the breaking shadows of the autumn trees to barely make it through the closing gates of the school and the opened door of class as school began.

Kagome could remember their conversation in the garden before they had raced through the streets and sat in their desks in the school. She could recall it as she could vaguely see the class leave the classroom, together in groups, laughing amongst them, leaving her alone in the room. She could remember as the vision of her sister Kikyo appeared in her sight at the front of the classroom, smiling softly and barely visible within the crowd of people surrounding her and talking to her, being with her.

And Kagome could remember it as she rose from her seat, without a word or someone to greet her and as she made her way to the opened door, alone.

School…it was a subject the Higurashi twins did not like to bring up and Kagome could remember why as people passed her by, together and smiling, without her, passing her, and leaving her in solitude.

She wore her usually wavy, long hair into a tangled bun at the back of her head, her bangs strewn across her face and her hair falling from the elastic band in which it was kept, looking as if it had been arranged in the wind and was tangled and tousled. Her face was unmoving or smiling as she passed through the hall with her bag bouncing dully at her side. She wore a thick, plain green sweater over her top that fell reached half-way down her green, plaited skirt. She could hear her school shoes padding on the floor over her long, black socks that climbed up to her knees as she made her way without anybody or wanting anybody.

As she reached the school grounds and the soft, green grass, Kagome saw people eating their food together, often sharing of trading a piece of bread or an onigiri. Kagome knew why school was rarely talked about between herself and Kikyo and was reminded numbly as she sat and withdrew her lunch from her bag alone.

At their peaceful shrine home, Kikyo and Kagome were always close, always together and always regarded as the same twin daughters of Kira Higurashi, but at school they were as far apart as could be.

Kikyo was everything: she was beautiful with her heavenly being, she was wise and she was gentle and kind. Everybody loved her, the perfect daughter, classmate and student. Kagome knew this, she was reminded of her sister's perfection everyday as crowds of schoolgirls and male class mates grouped around her and admired her. Kikyo was flawless as she was adored by them. She was perfect as her parents complimented and congratulated her. She was everything Kagome wanted to be, but feared to try to become.

And then there was Kagome. As Kagome looked down on herself she was reminded of who and what she was. While Kikyo was kind, beautiful, and wise, Kagome was just there. Kikyo's younger sister, who looked vaguely like Kikyo, but couldn't live up to her older sister's reputation.

Kagome lived as the secluded, unnoticed schoolgirl ever since school had begun from kindergarten to high school, shy, quite while Kikyo bloomed to anyone and was the social butterfly. And ever since then, Kikyo's popularity had flourished, as did Kagome's secluded state. The perfect Kikyo's imperfect double. Kikyo's extra, the defective extra. She was just the imperfect double, Kagome Higurashi, of her perfect sister, Kikyo.

Kagome thought of this as she drew a rice ball form her backpack and sat on the green grass, surrounded by smiling, laughing, talking groups of people, while she ate and remained alone.

…

"Oh, you're lucky, you've got yakisoba!"

"Well, I can't help that you've got standard issue slop."

"All I've got is sweet bean jam and bread."

"What about you, Kikyo?"

"Oh," said Kikyo, sitting back against the railing as she drew her lunch from her pale green backpack, "I've got some onigiri and a juice box."

Kikyo was sitting on the school rooftop, a popular place for students to eat lunch and look at the view of the school grounds and other students below. She was surrounded by people, a group of girls around her and talking amongst one another as they ate their lunch. Kikyo could feel the plastic wrapping around her rice ball clutch its sticky texture and slide against the smoothness of her palm.

"Well," said a girl with long, dark brown hair pulled back into a high ponytail, with the exception of the short locks of hair framing her face and sitting on her legs folded beneath her, "its better than what I've got."

"I wish I had rice balls," said another girl whiney and wistfully, with bright red hair pulled into two pigtails and shining green eyes as she clutched the rectangular, paper box holding her fried noodles with her chopsticks poking out of her mouth as she held their tips between her teeth.

"I wish I had what you have!" said another girl, her voice young but strong with dark hair falling to her shoulders. "I've got…slop, just slop."

"Well, Rin," said the dark-haired girl with the ponytail, tearing a chunk of her bread in her hands and looking at the other girl she had just addressed, "How about you have some of my bread and Kikyo gives you a rice ball? Then you'll have at least something decent to eat."

"Can I, Sango?" said the girl, Rin, turning wide, pleading eyes to the dark-haired girl.

"If Kikyo lets you, sure," said the girl, Sango, and she handed a chunk of bread to Rin.

"Of course," said Kikyo warmly and gave Rin two rice balls into her lap as she held the thick chunk of soft bread in her hands.

Rin's eyes widened graciously and she said, deeply bowing her head to Kikyo and Sango, "Thanks you so much, Kikyo-sama and Sango-sama!"

Kikyo smiled softly at Rin while Sango put her hand on her shoulder, saying, "its okay, Rin. You don't need to do that, just eat before you starve yourself."

Rin was more than happy to oblige as she tore a chunk of the thick bread in her mouth and sunk her teeth into the rice ball in her hand.

Kikyo watched, smiling, as the girls around her ate and spoke to one another and felt her heart sink as she observed them. Her smile, so kind and gentle…yet so false and deceiving as she closed her eyes so kindly at them. Everything about her smile, her appearance was like a disguise, her face like a mask, a mask of gentle kindness with a warm smile, gently closed eyes, and a soft face.

"Hey, Kikyo," said the dark-haired girl, Rin, taking Kikyo out of her thoughts with her teasing voice, saying, "look, over there."

And Kikyo's eyes followed the pointing finger of Rin as it led her to a group of students clad in black uniforms, some sitting and others standing against the railing, discussing something as they ate. But Rin's finger was pointing to something in the crowd…or someone. And Kikyo knew, as her eyes found their way past Rin's fingertip, what was being directed to.

A boy who looked about eighteen years of age, with a strong face set with unusually golden eyes partially covered by his wild, silvery bangs. His long white-blonde hair fell down his back to his black pant-clad waist, his figure leaning against the rooftop's railing. Kikyo knew, with numb recognition, who this boy was and felt her face suddenly drop its mask at his sight.

"It's your boyfriend, Inuuu----Yaaa-----shaaa," said Rin, emphasizing the boy's being as she elongated the syllables of his name. "He's over there with Koga and the others. I didn't know that he ate lunch on the rooftop."

"Do you want to eat with him, Kikyo?" asked the red-haired girl, Ayame, as she watched Kikyo's face.

Kikyo, realizing she had dropped it, concealed her face once again in the mask she always wore in school and around her superiors, saying as she did so, "…no, its fine, Ayame."

"Are you sure?" Ayame asked, slightly concernedly, "after all, he is your boyfriend. We can wait to talk to you later if you wa—"

"Kikyo said its fine, Ayaa," said Rin, cutting into her friends permission, "I mean, Inuyasha is her boyfriend, he shouldn't make Kikyo come over there; he should come over here!"

"I guess you're right," said Ayame, twisting her yakisoba around her chopsticks like spaghetti around a fork.

Rin chewed the rice of her rice ball, saying assertively, "Of course I am. Kikyo shouldn't need to be surrounded by all those…guys! Inuyasha should come over here to eat with her."

"Its fine, Rin," said Kikyo, smiling softly. "Inuyasha…I mean its fine."

"Are you sure?" said Rin, chewing on her lump of bread. "I mean, you guys are still together, right?"

Kikyo was silent for a moment, and then said, "Yes, but its fine. Really, don't worry about it."

"Kikyo…" said Sango silently, collecting the attention of her friends surrounding her. Then, as she caught the gazes of Rin and Ayame, she said, "…never mind, its nothing…you're right, it's fine, I mean, Inuyasha can eat with whom he pleases."

Rin laid her down food, saying as she did so, "Fine, if Kikyo says so." Then she turned to Kikyo, saying a bit huffily, "but still, he is your boyfriend."

"It's fine," said Kikyo, smiling gently, "It really is, Rin, you don't have to worry about it."

"Yeah…I guess so," said Rin, rather disappointedly as her friend softly smiled. And she tucked her legs, folded close to her chest, in her arms as she looked into the sky above her, pale blue and painted with the smudgy clouds swirling with its depths. Then she whipped her head around back to the group of girls around her, saying loudly, "Well, if Inuyasha doesn't come, than at least Koga should!"

Sango looked rather surprised at Rin's next sentence, Kikyo's eyes opened as she leaned back, and the group merely looked at their hyper friend.

"W-why…why d-do you say that?" said Ayame, stammering as her face turned steadily red and her voice became small and frantic.

"Well," said Rin, in an all knowing voice as she turned to her red-haired friend, "Isn't it obvious? If Kikyo's Inuyasha won't come, than at least Ayaa's Koga should! I mean, aren't boyfriends supposed to follow their girlfriends wherever they go, right?"

"Rin!" Ayame yelled, shrilly, as her face redden close to the color of her dark hair and she looked more frantic than ever.

"Well," said Rin indignantly, "It's true! If Inuyasha's not here than Koga should be!"

Then, to Ayame's horror and the surprise of Sango and Kikyo, Rin stood up suddenly and turned towards the boys, and all the girls knew what she was preparing to do. Rin determinedly lifted her hand to her mouth and, taking in a deep breath that caused her chest to drastically puff out, and began to shout out, "HEY, GUYS—"

But before Rin could finish, Ayame leapt on her and forced her to the ground, her hand firmly placed over her mouth as she began to desperately squirm. Sango watched nervously as Ayame disabled Rin and then cast a look to the black-clad boys, also nervously watching as the two girls struggled against one another.

The girls stopped kicking each other as Ayame breathed, her face still flushed, "What did you think you were doing?!"

Rin struggled to remove Ayame's hand firmly clasped over her mouth, saying as she breathed heavily, "What do you think I was doing? I was calling the guys over here, especially my Ayaa's Kog—"

But as these words greeted Ayame's ears, her face deeply reddened and she slapped another hand over her friend's mouth, hissing desperately and frantically as she did so, "Shut up, and shut up! He is not 'Ayaa's' Koga, do you understand? He is just Koga, not my Koga!"

But Rin didn't seem to have heard these words as she strained her hand over Ayame's again and desperately removed the pale palm from over her lips. Ayame fell back and Rin kneeled on the ground, her hands clutching the floor as she barely said, "I…can't bre-breathe…!"

Ayame, after tumbling to the ground, clutched the back of her throbbing head with tears in her eyes. She could feel her skull ache beneath her skin. Then she straightened up to see Rin, still on her hands and knees as he desperately gulped in the air. Then Rin shot up, jabbing her finger at Ayame an inch away from her nose and saying to her teary-eyed friend, "What…what did you do that for?! I almost suffocated!"

Ayame, examining through streaming eyes her own friends streaming eyes, deeply rising and falling chest, and her raspy speaking said, blushing and quietly, "…sorry, Rin…but…but I—"

"But what?" said Rin, still looking as if she were recovering from near suffocation, "you don't want your boyfriend over? God, Ayame, and I thought Sango was cruel—"

"But Koga's not my boyfriend!" said Ayame, not allowing her voice to become loud enough so that the boys could hear and then said, looking flustered and flushed, "He is not my boyfriend, Rin."

"Well," said Rin, composing herself so that she looked as calm as she could reach, "not yet, my redhead Ayaa. Not yet. But soon, he will very soon be your man, which I know, believe me."

But Ayame continued to look flustered and said, "Why do you say that?"

Rin turned to Ayame, looking stunned and offended as she put her hand over her chest and said, "Well, I'm not blind, first of all!"

"Please, tell us Rin," asked Sango courteously, encouraging Rin to breath deeply in as if about to tell a long and rather tedious tale.

"Well, isn't it obvious?" said Rin boastingly, "you and Koga have known one another since you were kids, you're two childhood sweethearts!"

But Rin didn't listen as Ayame blushingly whimpered, "Rin!" and continued with her love-life explanation, saying, "And its obvious to anyone that you two have the hot's for each other. You'll definitely end up together."

"I think it's a bit early to make assumptions, Rin," said Sango indifferently as she tore the soft dough of her loaf of bread.

"It's not an assumption!" said Rin indignantly, "it's a true prediction!"

"Of course it is," said Sango quietly to Kikyo and Ayame as Rin finished haughtily.

"Well, I'm sorry you have no interest in love affairs—" Rin started, but at this point Ayame eagerly closed her hand over her mouth and kept it shut.

As Rin's mouth was clamped shut of any speaking (or breathing, at that), Ayame was thrown over her as she toppled back. Rin desperately kicked at her as she grabbed Ayame's wrists ands tried to pry her hands free of her lower face, but Ayame firmly kept her hands down. Both Sango and Kikyo watched as the two girls tousled, Sango saying without attempt, "stop, you two, you don't want me to have to explain this situation at the nurses office."

Kikyo watched silently as her friends spoke, laughed, and played around, Ayame and Rin still struggling and beginning to giggle and Sango watching nervously from the sidelines. Kikyo leaned back against the railing, smiling so softly.

Friends, her friends, smiling with them, speaking with them, being with them.

A lie in the form of a mask.

The smile she wore as soft as velvet, her eyes closed in playful bliss, and her silken voice, Kikyo knew they were all a lie. The people around her knew her…and yet they didn't. They knew the Kikyo that portrayed herself at school, around all other than Kagome. Only her twin sister knew the true her.

But Kikyo still thought of these people as her true friends, unafraid to be themselves around her; act themselves; give themselves to her. If only I could be a true friend to you, she thought sadly. But that wouldn't be her…yet it would.

Kikyo was perfect, flawless with her beauty, kindness, lightness, bliss, happiness, lenience, and nature. Or at least she appeared. Kikyo had grown to form herself in the nature those around her wanted her to be. She became everything they wanted from her. She had to be the perfect friend, the perfect daughter, the perfect sibling, the perfect relative, and the perfect lover.

She lived beneath that mask of perfection, never lifting it to show her true, ugly, grotesque form.

"You're lucky Kagome,"

Kagome turned to her, curious and surprised as she planted the narcissi into the soft soil that spring before.

"What do you mean, Kikyo?" Kagome had asked, tilting her head so that it lay on her shoulder.

"I mean, you're naturally beautiful," Kikyo had said wistfully as she sadly smiled, "you're naturally beautiful the way you are, not the way people want you to be."

Kagome watched as Kikyo put her head down as she sat on the rippled grass-top table, saying sadly, "I'm…not beautiful like you are. Beneath this mask of flawlessness…is an ugly face, afraid of revealing itself to those around it, afraid to be unwanted, afraid to be uncared for, afraid to be feared of."

Kagome had listened and had heard the tears in Kikyo's voice as she continued, "I'm…just a grotesque form hidden beneath a mask of perfection," then Kikyo had lifted her opened hand before her downcast face and, feeling a wetness cross her cheek, saw through blurred vision, a diamond-like tear fleck her soft palm.

Kagome watched painfully as Kikyo said, shoulders shaking, "I just don't get it…I-I re-really don't. I don't ge-get why you and Inuyasha…wou-would stay around me, the ugly me."

Then she turned to face Kagome, saying, "Aren't you…repelled by me, the real me? The one…be-beneath this mask?"

Kikyo began to softly cry and hugged her shoulders to herself, small tears rolling down her cheeks as she said, "I-I just don't get it."

Then, from the corner of her eye, Kikyo saw Kagome beside her, face smeared with dirt as she looked at her sister and then felt her hand fall on her shoulder.

"That's where you're wrong, Kikyo," said Kagome as she clasped Kikyo's shoulder. "You are beautiful beneath the mask you where…more beautiful than the veil that hides you. You just can't see it."

Kikyo's tears stopped as she struggled to pull herself back together with Kagome's hand on her and heard her say, "…You just can't see it. Not yet. But people can see it…Inuyasha and I can. And I'm sure others will think you're beautiful too…if you just lift the mask."

And, to her surprise, Kikyo felt a wet droplet fleck her raven-hair in the form of Kagome's own tear. She didn't lift her head to see her sister's face as she faintly heard her say, "You're much more beautiful than you think, Kikyo. You just can't see it…but I can. There's a reason Inuyasha loves you…why he opened up his heart to you and why he still does. And I can see it…because I'm nowhere near as beautiful as you truly are, nowhere near."

Kikyo listened to Kagome's words softly, felt her only tear fade away in her touch, and felt herself fade away.

And she thought; Kagome…you say I'm beautiful…but you are, much more than you think. And only I can see it. But you'll see it. Not yet, but soon.

Kikyo remembered that day when she and Kagome where in the garden that spring as she watched the girls around her playfully fight, laugh, bond, and be themselves. And she was reminded of her own inferiority to these girls as she watched them, still smiling ever so gently and her face soft.

And she remembered her thought that March day, as Kagome held her and spoke to her kind words, and she felt it was truer than ever before as the girls laughed with her, her 'friends'.

Your kind words…I wish they were true and not this beautiful lie.

True…and not this beautiful lie.

Kikyo was awakened from her daze as she heard Sango say aloud as Ayame and Rin stopped fighting, "Hey, it's the bell! C'mon, we got to get to class!"

"What's next?" asked Ayame as she got up, patting her plait skirt.

Rin shuffled in her bag, pulling out small organizer and flipping through it. She stopped as she found a sheet and said, "Next is… Algebra and Math with Sesshomaru Takahashi-sensei,"

"You mean, 'Sesshomaru's class', don't you?" Ayame corrected her, laughing.

"No, I mean 'Sesshomaru-sensei's class'," said Rin firmly, turning to face Ayame as all of the girls stood up and turned to the small box in the center of the rooftop with its door ajar leading to long set of stairs leading into the school building.

"Why would you say that?" asked Rin as she placed the planner back into her bag swung beneath her shoulder and gently bouncing against her waist.

Ayame held the strap of her pale red notebook, touching her small, sailor-suit outfit clad uniform and said, "Well, why wouldn't I? You have known Takahashi-sensei since you were seven years old, yet you still call him Sesshomaru-sensei, even outside of school. Why?"

Rin was silent for a moment, looking slightly surprised and curiously at Ayame.

But Sango's interest was piqued as well as she asked, "Yes, Rin, you've been under Sesshomaru's roof since you were a young child, why do you still call him that?"

Rin paused for a moment as she was observed curiously by her friends, all staring at her with mildly interested expressions. Then she said, throwing back her thick, dark hair, "Well…its not that I don't think of him like someone close to me, I mean I do, but… he saved me as a young child from everything… loneliness, depression, death…there's no other way I can convey my respect for him."

Then Rin gently shut her eyes and said, the slight wind moving her dark tresses and the plaits of her deep green skirt, "I can't…thank him enough for what he did for me. He's done everything for me without asking for anything in return…"

And she opened her eyes and smiled and said brightly, "In a way…he is my sensei. I can't really explain it well, but that's how I feel for him. So to me he is Sesshomaru-sensei, here, outside of school…anywhere!"

And as Rin smiled, Kikyo could feel her own understanding of what she had said.

"Yeah," said Sango as the girls made their way towards the stairs into the school building. "I think I understand."

Rin smiled in reply and Kikyo could see the inside of the staircase as they approached the opened door.

"C'mon, we've lingered long enough!" said Sango and raced through the door, "If we don't hurry, we'll be late."

Sango disappeared behind the door and the girls could hear her footsteps padding against the stairs, running down.

"Wait for us, San!" said Rin and took Ayame's and Kikyo's wrists. Tugging them firmly, she pushed aside the door and the girls raced down the dark staircase leading into the school. But Kikyo was still deep in her won musings.

Takahashi…

Sesshomaru Takahashi…………………and Inuyasha Takahashi.

Kikyo felt a sudden plunge in her stomach as the name sped through her thoughts. Inuyasha… the very thought of his name brought a stab of emotion down on her. Why was she thinking of this now? Why would she continue…but why would she stop?

Kikyo numbly felt the surge of the moments as she registered insensibly the burst of light as they made their way down the stairs and into the hall. She could only vaguely spot the surroundings of closed class doors as Sango rushed ahead and Ayame and Rin commanded her slow down and wait for them. And the emotion all crashed down on her as she met a certain someone in the hall way, someone in a group of boys, clad in a black uniform with his white-blond hair falling un-kept down his shoulders and back.

But Inuyasha and Kikyo said nothing as their shoulders met in the form of a slight brush, rubbing gently against one another, and said nothing as they disconnected as Kikyo was tugged by her friends to make it into the algebra class on time.

Disconnected…

Why did she numbly feel running through the halls and hurriedly down the stairs, but feel every bit of his touch as she brushed against him? The folded texture of the dark uniform on his arm and shoulder, the slight space between it and the skin on his shoulder, why did she feel every bit of it when she numbly registered everything else around her? And why could she feel the emotions of loneliness, humanity, and love as she pulled away?

Kikyo and Inuyasha had been going out for half a year now, but they had liked each other for half a year before they had begun dating and were labeled as 'boyfriend' and 'girlfriend'.

Kikyo had loved him and he had loved her as they looked at one another, spoke to one another, touched on another, held each other, kissed—

At these words, why did Kikyo feel a rush of emotions overwhelm her and consume her like a flood of water overwhelming the land blow and utterly deluging it? Kikyo unconsciously held out her hand and clenched the fabric over the place of her heart, her fingers tightening over the light cloth. And she remembered.

Both she and Inuyasha had been running from something, running from something and taking shelter under a shell of falseness. They had both been running from humanity, all too human emotions and that was how they met. By lifting the masks they wore and revealing their true forms. And that was how they fell in love…

That was how they had fallen in love. But she remembered their shoulders brushing, their beings connecting…and disconnecting.

Kikyo had loved Inuyasha, but what remained of the love she didn't know. What was the feeling of love? Kikyo didn't know for sure, but she could recall the feelings of bliss as she was near Inuyasha, calling out his name, being called for by him, talking with him, and being with him. Those feelings of bliss she remembered as love…but the feelings she shared with him now were not the same. They did not strike her with the same bliss and joy she felt before, but a numb sensation of reminiscence and faint happiness… and pain.

Why had the feelings of joy when being around him fade, replaced by that of pain and loneliness…and lose? What was left?

What was love, Kikyo didn't know, but the ugly emotions that welled up inside her only left her with an empty sensation of loneliness she tried to hide and run away from. They kept on pretending, hoping that it wasn't true, and convincing themselves that it still existed.

The love before they shared.

But they both weren't sure what was left. What was first a loving embrace and a seldom but passionate kiss was now a dull touch and an insensible caress. What was first joy…was loneliness and pain. What was first love…they both didn't know what was left.

Kikyo tried to run away from those emotions, avoid the love that was now lost between them, and pretend to smile.

She ran away from those emotions and kept on telling herself that the love still glowed. But she didn't know anymore, whether it was lost waiting to be rediscovered or that it was no more. What was left in her hands?

And then they felt one another's touch and saw each other, knowing at their both connected hazel eyes what one another was thinking at the crowded door of the classroom.

Kikyo and Kagome both realized what was racing through their minds as they sat in their seats and the masks were set in place.

…

The bell rang at last as the day ended at Shikon High School. Kikyo hitched her backpack over her shoulder and reached the school grounds, the brilliant sunlight bleeding over her and the other school kids as well as the classmates surrounding her. Then she felt someone touch her shoulder, a warm and familiar touch and turned her head to see Sango's palms on her.

"Oh," she said and smiled, "hello. Are Rin or Ayame here with you?"

"Not yet," said Sango and adjusted the strap of her pack, "I think they're still fighting in the school over something. I guess I'll just beat Ayame home today and make dinner."

"Oh, yeah, you still live with Ayame and her family, don't you?" said Kikyo.

"Yeah," said Sango quietly and she turned her head slightly away from Kikyo.

Kikyo knew numbly, why this was so. These emotions of pain and loneliness, a bittersweet ending all filled her. Sango had loving parents and a gentle younger brother. They were all one happy family, in peace and bliss. Or at least, she once had all these things. Kikyo knew only vaguely in memory from the first and last time she had asked why Sango always accompanied Ayame home and arrived at school with her and from her house.

It was late that night, four years ago when the Ikehara family had been driving out from the city after eleven, nigh midnight. The children had been sleeping at this late night in the car, 12-year-old Sango beneath the restraints of her seatbelt and 8-year-old Kohaku in with his face pressed against the window. There were barely any cars in that late night as they rode through the darkness pinpricked with headlights, heading back into the near suburbs.

Then, a drunken truck driver had skidded through the rode and lost control of the vehicle, smashing into the Ikehara family car and killing the two parents as a result. Only the two children survived the truck smashed hard against the car roof, breaking through the metal, shattering the glass asunder as the children watched in horror their parents bloody bodies before them, the broken headlights sending shafts of light scattered everywhere and illuminating the diamond-like glass and rich, pooling blood. Sango was the only one who survived the crash when Kohaku died in the hospital from injuries and she was decided to live with Ayame's family for the rest of her childhood.

Kikyo remembered this but it only numbly hit her, as did everything sad and bitter. Than she was awoken from her thoughts as Rin's voice came, saying, "Hey, you two, over here!"

Sango and Kikyo saw Rin and Ayame heading towards them with their packs flying everywhere and hair bouncing.

"Oh, hello," said Kikyo, smiling as the two friends approached, "you two are back?"

"Yes," said Ayame, looking flushed and a bit flustered and Sango and Kikyo could tell what Rin and she had been arguing about.

"So, we going home or what?" said Rin and took Sango's and Kikyo's hands, swinging them wildly back and forth at their sides.

"I guess," said Sango, holding her pack strap. "We've been for over fifteen minutes."

Kikyo looked at her watch and figured that Kagome would be at home by now and in the garden tending the plants in her tank-top and short-jeans.

"Well, c'mon then," said Rin brightly, taking Ayame's and Kikyo's wrists as Sango hurriedly headed won the stairs before them. "We have to hurr—"

"Hey," said a voice.

Then the girls turned in order to see someone behind them, someone standing in a black suit with silver hair spilling behind him and golden eyes fierce.

"Can I…talk to Kikyo?" Inuyasha asked, his hands in his pockets and backpack straps hanging from his shoulders to his arms.

"Oh," said Rin and a mischievous smile spread across her face. She quickly let go of Kikyo's wrist and shoved her towards Inuyasha, saying, "Sure, of course."

And as Rin and Ayame head down the stairs, the dark-haired girl quickly leaned beside Kikyo and whispered, "good luck," before whipping her head back and hurrying into the streets with Ayame and Sango.

Kikyo watched them go for a moment and then turned her head to Inuyasha, who was looking straight at her.

"Can I…walk you home?" He asked her, an earnest look in his amber eyes.

"Oh…! Sure," said Kikyo and she and Inuyasha raced down the stairs and left the school grounds.

Soon they had wound themselves through the city in the cool autumn day and made it over to the shrine, the garden showing in its colorful brilliance and the scent of the plants wafting through the air. Inuyasha turned to Kikyo, whose eyes were upon him. And she was hit with the same emotions again. Emotions of love…and loss, of beginning…and end, of concatenation…and disconnection, they all hit her.

"Kikyo," said Inuyasha softly and he drew his hand into his back pack in the crook of his elbow, opening it to draw a small box from inside. Kikyo watched as Inuyasha opened the box and in it appeared on a mattress of cotton a small golden bouquet, a small bouquet of flowers. Bellflowers.

Inuyasha drew the silvery chain holding the small, but intricate bouquet and lifted Kikyo's thick hair beneath his arms, connecting the necklace in his hands and then drawing them back. Kikyo looked in numb astonishment at the small necklace laid on her neck and held with her careful fingers the small bouquet of golden flower. Every detail carved into it made the golden bouquet appear real, the flower's petals delicately etched, the ventricular veins of the leaves barely visible in the small etchings and the flowers in themselves.

Kikyo lifted the small pendant in her hands from her collar and bosom and looked up to Inuyasha.

He whipped his head around, turning anywhere but Kikyo with his eyes narrowed and his face slightly red.

"I thought…since you like flowers so much and your name means a flower, I would get you that. If you don't want it, though…"

Inuyasha stopped hear, waiting for Kikyo to say something. Kikyo only stared down at the necklace, finally dropping it onto her breast and reaching Inuyasha's lips with her own as she leaned against him on the tips of her toes.

Inuyasha looked a bit surprised as she kissed him and pulled away, her mask dropping as she said truthfully, "No, I want it Inuyasha, thank you so much."

Kikyo smiled gently, feeling an emotion of happiness she hadn't felt for a while. "Thank you," she said again.

Inuyasha faced her and said, his expression now softening, "It…was nothing."

And as Inuyasha turned to leave, Kikyo caught his shoulder and wheeled him around, sweeping her lips across his one last time, and running into the house.

As Kikyo made it into the house and Inuyasha walked away, continuing down the cement sidewalk he saw something stir to life in the garden that he hadn't noticed there before. He leaned his head back, uninterestedly looking for a better view. And then he saw someone rise from behind the bush of pink-and-purple hydrangeas, flower petal wafting around her.

It was a girl in the garden with long dark hair falling elegantly past her shoulders and hazel eyes shining bright. She brought a water bottle to her mouth, not a drop of the clear liquid seeping past her pale red lips. For the mild weather today, she wore a sleeveless, white tank-top and long, flowery skirt that molded into the figure of her round hips that narrowed into her small stomach and bloomed into her bosom. But this beautiful figure wasn't Kikyo Inuyasha noticed.

And their eyes met as he walked on past the house, slowing his pace to get a good look at the person in the garden. She looked straight into his golden eyes, and Inuyasha Takahashi and Kagome Higurashi could feel their eyes meet.

…

"So, Inuyasha was here today?" asked Kagome, settling beside her sister in the rich garden as she took a break.

Kikyo looked up from planting at Kagome, rather surprised as she curiously asked, "Why do you ask?"

"I saw him leave the garden today when you got inside the house," said Kagome as she threw down her muddy gloves and a pair of scissors.

Kikyo rose from the soil to join Kagome by the steps of the house and said, unconsciously touching the pendant she had received from her earlier beneath the clothing over her chest, "…yeah, he walked me home today."

"…He did?" asked Kagome curiously, "but…I thought you were avoiding him…that you guys weren't around each other so much anymore?"

Kikyo paused after Kagome's sentence. She could feel her sister's eyes upon her, melting her with her stare.

"Well," she said and she paused again, reminiscing the feeling…the touch… "I'm… truthfully not sure anymore what we're doing, who we are. When he…when he gave me this pendant," Kikyo lifted the chain from her neck and showed Kagome the small pendant hanging from it in her hands, "it…it bloomed again. The old emotions of joy and happiness with him and it continued to bloom when we shared that kiss. But…something's still missing; something about him fills me with joy…and fills me with loneliness. I can't really explain. I don't know if I love him anymore…or what's happened to us."

Kagome didn't say anything after she had listened to Kikyo and let her finish.

"Something's still there," said Kikyo, leaning back and letting the wind carry the thin strands of hair from her thick cascade of midnight black, "something is left…I don't know what, but in my heart I still love him and somewhere else…something is fading. Some of the happiness and joy I felt with him, I think its beginning to fade into nothingness and loneliness."

"But you still love him?" said Kagome.

"I think so and yet I also start to think something's fading and disappearing." And Kikyo placed a hand to her lips. The kiss they shared had left her with the feelings of joy and loneliness, two very different emotions that filled her to the brim at his very sight and being.

"Well, maybe it's just been hidden, somewhere, waiting to be uncovered again," said Kagome.

"Or maybe it's gone, never to be found," said Kikyo sadly as she sat.

"You can't really know, Kikyo, not yet at least," Kagome said as she pulled up her skirt over her knees. But as she said this she remembered something so faint and vague she wondered why she remembered it at all.

She remembered seeing Inuyasha in the garden as he passed the house, his golden eyes fierce but soft, his silvery hair shining against the sunlight and his figure clad in a black uniform. She didn't know why, but when she saw him an emotion hit her and her mask dropped from over her face for that single moment. She couldn't explain the emotion that hit her, but her heart suddenly deeply thudded beneath her chest, her stomach plunged and her true face appeared for that. Every true and real part of her felt exposed: her true nature, her true appearance and her true thoughts.

And he looked back at her and the sight of one another pulled away. Why…had she felt like that for that moment, why had he captured her emotions and feelings that way?

How come her heart beat so fast and everything vanished from her thoughts except the feeling of falling?

"I don't know anymore…" said Kikyo softly, "I don't know what I feel for him anymore."

"But…" Kagome started and she felt something roil in her blood. Her face, soft and blank, filled her thoughts and emotions, but why? "But…" she started again, "But how long do you plan to continue to run from him, run from your emotions?"

"What…?" said Kikyo, surprised by Kagome's sentence, "what do you mean?"

"I mean, how long do you plan to continue to run?" said Kagome and an unaware passion flared in her voice, "how long do you continue to run from him and your emotions, how long do you plan to continue to hide?"

"I don't understand," said Kikyo as she looked surprised at Kagome.

Kagome didn't know why she said this; she could only feel her blood roil with her emotions. "You know what I mean," And Kagome felt herself question her own state of being. "How long do you intend on running, hiding, shunning your own being from them, from him? Running away from him, hiding?"

Kikyo looked somewhat stunned at Kagome as she finished, feeling her breath barely leave her lips.

"You can't run away forever, Kikyo," said Kagome quietly, "at some point the end reaches its own end, and forever won't last. You can't continue to run."

Kikyo looked at her silently, stunned and blank. She could feel her heart steadily beat and her breath barely audible.

And then she said, unknowing of her own words, "…you two, Kagome."

And then she felt the words naturally flow from her mouth, as if she had thought of them and memorized them through time, staring straight at Kagome. "Yes," she said, her voice growing stronger, "it's not just me who doesn't know her emotions…it's you as well…and you can't run forever Kagome, not just me."

"……I'm not running…from anything," said Kagome quietly to her sister, not looking at her but her own clasped hands.

"What do you mean?" said Kikyo and emotion filled her voice now. "'You're not running from anything'? Than why do you hide yourself beneath a mask and avoid people, shun yourself from the world and from everybody? Why do you close up in your shell if you're not running? Why do you hide yourself and wear a mask—"

"I don't," said Kagome, her voice now rising, and she could feel her thoughts and feelings stir. "I'm not running and I'm not wearing a mask, and I'm not hiding."

Now Kikyo looked indignant. "Really?" she said and the 'look' spread onto her features.

"Yes!" said Kagome firmly and she rose from where she sat. She could feel her thoughts and emotions cloud her words and her heart savagely beat. "I'm not running or hiding from anything or anyone! It's just—"

"It's just what?" Kikyo demanded, voice steadily rising. "You can't tell me that you seclude yourself at school and always remain alone because you aren't running from something!"

"I'm not!" said Kagome, her fists clenched at her sides. She whipped her head down, facing the ground and her shoes with her narrowed, strained eyes. "It's…its just…"

"Its just that's who you really are? The true you hides herself beneath a mask and shuns herself away from others? Is that the true you?" said Kikyo, exasperatedly and desperately.

"It… it is me," said Kagome softly, her voice barely reaching her sisters hearing.

"If that's the true you," said Kikyo, her voice desperately raised, "then who is the Kagome I know, the one talking and saying with me now? Is that your true form or the mask you wear?"

"They're both…me…" said Kagome weakly, trying not to allow her true emotions to seep through her words.

"But which one is the true you?" said Kikyo, facing Kagome as her sister's head was cast down.

Then Kagome's head whipped up and she said, loudly and fiercely, "You ask me who is the true one of myself, you don't know that about yourself!"

Kikyo's look dropped and her face weakened.

And Kagome felt the words rise with her voice, as if they had been hidden in her heart for some time, memorized with passion. And they flowed out, as she said, nearly shouting with her eyes nearly closed and her voice choked, "You don't know the true form of yourself either! Around him, with him, even just thinking about him…who is your true form, the one that still loves Inuyasha or the one who can't feel her way through her own feelings?"

"That…this…!" said Kikyo, tripping, "this has nothing to do with..!"

"Yes it does!" said Kagome loudly, "It does! Who is the real one Kikyo, who is it? Who is the true you, the one who still loves Inuyasha…or the one who feels loneliness at his touch?"

"And who is the true you?" said Kikyo, just as loudly as her twin sister. "Who is the true you, the one who secludes herself at school…or the 'you' that's speaking with me, the one I've known all these years?"

"Then…" said Kagome, her eyes opening to see Kikyo and her and her fists unfurling themselves to reveal the cuts on her palms and the blood on her nails, "we'll find out."

And both sisters knew what the other was thinking as they looked at each other. Kagome lifted her hand before Kikyo, her pale limb at her chest.

Then Kikyo raised her own hand, marked with the dirt she attempted to wipe away and she said, "Okay then."

And she said, "You will have to show your true colors at school, the true self I know and have always known, to become the person you truly are. You will have to become yourself."

"Fine," said Kagome and then said, "but you will have to finally come to realize and confront your true feelings for Inuyasha, whether to uncover the love that's been hidden away or admit the love that's been lost."

The sun had set early on this autumn afternoon, painting the skies in the pale colors of Chinese red, brilliant oranges and pale crimson. The soft zephyrs gently pulled the plants in the garden, causing them to sway like reflections in rippling waters as the two Higurashi twins clasped hands and the deals to become 'popular' and to recover or realize lost love were made.

Okay, so this is the end of the first chapter and I hope you enjoyed! And sorry if the next chapter appears within the time span of 1-3 weeks. This has been NoName and Ai (with the help of Stage Hand). Please review, for I need at least 5 reviews before the next chapter!