The Song of our Past.
AN: SO, this was an assignment for my creative writing class, it will eventually be a one-shot but I wanted to post it, see what people think so far and make sure its not complete crap. I have a plot outlined and such and its due tomorrow so this one will actually get finished. Its pretty much, Years after their relationship came to a bitter crashing end Kagome and InuYasha a forced back together to finally discover what happened all those years ago. Obviously AU. Obviously InuXKag.
Part One.
The phone was ringing I realized as I looked over at the clock which read in bright red 1:30AM. I wondered who on earth would be calling at his hour.
"It's for you!" I called and turned over in my bed hoping someone would hear my words float from my bedroom to the rest of the apartment and pick up the obnoxiously loud phone.
"Turn that thing off!" Ayame's voice rang from her room down the hall, obviously she was not going to be the one to get up and answer.
"Hello?" Sango sounded sleepily from the living room "Oh, hey kid what's up?"
I let my hand fall off the edge of the bad and reached around for an object, the first think I came in contact with was a text book which I promptly threw at the door causing it to slam shut.
"I think she's asleep… what do you need?" Sango's voice was barely a hum as I drifted comfortably back to sleep.
"UP!" The lights went on in my room "Get up!"
"Wha-whats wrong?" I wined pulling a pillow over my head to block out the now flashing light in my room.
"THAT was Souta on the phone; you kind of need to get up … right now." Sango sounded mildly irritated as she continued to flick the light switch on and off.
"What did he want? Is everything ok? Is it grandpa?" Of course it had been Souta, my little brother only called when it was unreasonably late and only when he had a definite purpose in calling.
"Gosh no, everyone's fine … It's about … well it was about InuYasha." Sango's voice softened as if she was afraid of how the name might affect me. My heart jumped.
"What about him?" I tried to brush it off and sound calm but inside my heart was beating frantically and my mind was running around in a thousand different circles.
"Come on, I wanna watch a movie now that I'm up. I'll tell you out there." Sango yawned. I sighed and dragged myself out of bed taking my pillow and blanket with me. Once in the living room I threw myself into the recliner and watched Sango dig through our pile of ancient VHS's.
"He's teaching at Takahashi High School …" Sango told me as she put a tape in the VHS player.
"He's teaching." I took a deep breath. "What on earth is he teaching?" I asked simply for the sake of asking, I already knew the answer.
"Band." Sango replied shortly confirming my assumption.
"In the music hall where Souta practically lives." I sighed finally putting all the pieces together. I always knew InuYasha would end up teaching.
"Souta said it was majorly awkward, he wanted to know if you two had ever sorted things out and I told him not that I knew of so he asked if you would consider talking to InuYasha … for Souta's sake." Sango switched on the TV and pressed play.
"I don't want to deal with it." I knew where a comment like that would get me.
"You really don't have a choice; he's your brother Kagome. I know back then you wouldn't talk about it but … WHAT HAPPENED?" Sango sat on the floor gazing up at me expectantly.
"I… have no idea." I mumbled, which truth be told was only half a lie.
"Well don't you think you should find out?" Sango encouraged.
"I guess, the thing is… I don't really want to." I sighed "I just don't want to go there."
"You kind of owe it to Souta, and knowing InuYasha I'm sure he's sick and tiered of things being awkward."
"I know." I shook my head "but they'll get over it." I turned my eyes to the TV hoping that Sango would just drop the subject and leave it alone but knowing that there was no chance that would happen.
"You have to go back." Sango told me the words coming out as if she was instructing someone what to print on a grave stone.
"I can't." I defensively curled into a ball on the recliner and closed my eyes willing Sango to take that as my final answer.
"What about Souta?" She perused the subject even further knowing that I was close to giving in. "It's a bad thing when your little brother has to call and tell you to fix drama from FIVE YEARS AGO. You need to get in the car and drive yourself all the way back to that school and fix this. For everyone's sake."
"I don't even understand why it's awkward in the first place!" I groaned and bit my pillow.
"Souta is like living in the music hall! He's been that way since he was a freshman and now INUYASHA the guy who watched him grow up for four years from the time he was five is now the music teacher. Kagome neither of them even understands what happened between you two. Its been driving you crazy for years and the two of you are to plain stubborn to fix this!" Sango rolled her eyes and began humming along to the Lion King.
"Fine" I spoke through my teeth biting down harder on the pillow.
I grimaced as I pulled into the familiar parking lot. The old school was surrounded by cars and bikes that belonged to the over privileged teen population of Takahashi High School. For a second I lost myself in the memory of the last time I had pulled away from this place, momentarily I forgot why I had come back.
Reality of course hit me like a brick wall. I parked my car in the first open spot I see, not wanting to give anything much thought, and walked towards the side entrance which I knew led directly to the music hall. I was only half surprised when the security guard didn't comment on my obvious displacement.
Inside the school was like stepping through time. It seemed as if nothing had changed, the harsh lighting, the bleached out colors and the smell of chalk all stood unchanged. The hall way noisy, full of chatting and the sound of instruments being tuned and played. The sound of a piano drifted from the band room. I winced the way I always did when the sound greeted me unexpectedly, 'just some kids who think they know music' I told myself.
I wandered down the hall until I came to the auditorium doors which were unexpectedly closed but I decided it wouldn't hurt to see if they were unlocked. I wrapped my fingers around the cold metal handle and tugged on the door which surprisingly opens without much effort. I walked through the door leaving it hanging open behind me.
Inside the auditorium was painfully empty; the stage was bare for the most part with only the ancient grand piano sitting in the center. My mind wandered back to my own senior year in this place, I thought for a second about the folder InuYasha and I had kept taped to the bottom of the old piano but couldn't remember if either of us had ever taken it down. I walked over to the piano and bent down to find that the folder was still there barely hanging on. I took it down and opened it up to find all the notes and music InuYasha and I had shared still remained.
"Why can't we just put the folder in the music office?" InuYasha had complained. "Why do we need to do something as ridiculous as tape it to the bottom of the piano? Anybody could take it down; you do realize it might even throw off the tuning of the piano, there built in very specific ways."
"InuYasha, please just humor me." I giggled "I know about the tuning and all that but seriously, what if I want the folder and the office has already closed for the day, you don't see any shelf's or anywhere in here we could put it without some stupid ass of a kid being able to tear it to pieces or misplace it do you?"
"Alright, alright" He had just rolled his eyes and put his arms around me "only because it's so cute when you get like this."
"If you're going to pick another instrument you should defiantly consider piano." The familiar voice brought me back from my memories. 'I can't see him yet' the words ran through my mind repetitively for a couple of seconds, I took a deep breath and slid Chopin's Nocturne in E Minor out of the folder and sat down at the piano. I barely looked up at the music; the piece flowed from my memory through my fingers.
"The door was closed for a reason!" his voice brought me back to the empty auditorium.
"Like that's ever stopped me before!" I called back. InuYasha walked through the door with an aggravated expression on his face. I stood up pushing the bench back. The second his eyes met mine he stopped, frozen in place.
"I didn't think any of the students knew how to play that piece like that..." His confusion was obvious.
"Yah well I bet you didn't spend weeks correcting all there mistakes so it's understandable..." I shrugged wondering if my brother spent time playing the piano like InuYasha and I used to.
"I have a class in ..." he pulled up his sleeve to check his watch "five minutes, but its my last class."
"We'll talk after." I had stopped asking him questions years ago.
"INUYASHA! Mind if I use your guitar..." Souta appeared on the stage. "Whoa ... Déjà vu like ... six years later."
"Souta," I took a deep breath "what happened to things being 'majorly awkward'?!"
"This is for your own good?" Souta smiled nervously.
"Guitars under my desk in the music office, no using the amps today." InuYasha said laughing, most likely at me.
Souta waved and walked out of the room as the bell rang sounding the same as ever.
"Time for class." I spoke for the sake of filling the silence.
"You'll be around?" he asked me, I nodded.
We stood in silence for a moment; I took in all the changes to his appearance, besides the dress clothes there weren't many. All the things I used to find so attractive about him remained. When my vision focused on his lips I forced myself to take a deep breath and turn back to the piano afraid of what might happen if I stayed. His footsteps echoed in the emptiness of the auditorium as he left.
When the bell rang again I was prepared, I had been stopping to check the time every ten minutes since InuYasha had left. I hadn't stopped playing the piano since I had sat down at the bench. I ignored the two teens that had come in to listen and eat there lunch until the younger looking one walked over.
"Hey, you're really good." The young boy smiled sheepishly "You a new teacher or something?"
I laughed at this "No, I'm Kagome Higurashi. I'm just a friend of the band teacher."
"Higurashi? Do you have a brother in the school too?" The boy's eye's lit up.
"Yah, Souta." I nodded hoping I wouldn't be embarrassing my brother too much.
"Oh cool, I'm Shippo one of Souta's friends. First trumpet." Shippo grinned proud to have something to talk with me about.
"Shippo! OUT!" InuYasha had come back into the auditorium looking aggravated to find one of his students in the room as well.
"Aw come on InuYasha, I'm not even getting into any trouble!" Shippo wined.
"Shippo, you don't even have a free period right now, get to class." InuYasha stared impatiently.
"FINE!" Shippo called out upset; he turned back to me and smiled "It was really nice meeting you Kagome."
"Nice to meet you too Shippo." I smiled back at him, not without noting the irritated look on InuYasha's face had softened. Shippo and his silent friend picked up there things and made there way out of the auditorium.
"How was class?" I asked once again desperate to fill the silence that loomed over InuYasha and I.
"I have no patience for kids who are just there because they need a music credit..." InuYasha sighed.
"There have to be days that make it all worth while though, right?" It was mindless conversation; we skipped around why I was really there desperate for anything to talk about that kept us away from our past.
"Sure, I mean I would hope my teaching isn't a complete waist of time." He shrugged and leaned on the edge of the grand. I got lost in the fact that we were standing in the same room like nothing had happened after all this time, so of course the silence came back. "Why are you back here ... after all this time ...?"
"Closure." The answer came without thought and although I hadn't realized it before it was true, I needed closure.
Year number four was coming to a close I realized, four years of high school, graduation was already out of the way the senior class was just counting down the days until they ever free, and of course four years of being with InuYasha. I twirled the ring on my finger, 'our promise' I reminded myself with a smile. Books in hand I was headed towards the music hall, the one place I knew InuYasha would always show up. Outside the rain poured down so hard the parking lot was flooded with massive puddles, from the hallway you could see outside had been transformed into the ultimate rain storm.
I heard the piano before I even reached the music hall, I recognized the music right away, no one else could play a medley of Chopin's Nocturnes without brutally murdering them, not in this school anyways.
"InuYasha!" I heard her voice and shuttered, Kikyo "My heart always skips a beat when you start playing."
"UGH" The sound slipped out without my consent.
"Where's girlfriend?" Her tone changed with this comment, Kikyo never failed to express how she felt about me.
"Dunno, she'll be around eventually I guess." I could practically hear him shrug the question off, we weren't that type of couple who needed to know where each other was at all time, we had never been like that. Of course that had never meant that our feelings for each other weren't strong, we were in love, it had taken us two years to finally say it to each other but we were.
"Sounds like your real concerned." Kikyo giggled.
"You know how I feel about THAT, we've talked about this." This was news to me, I had been under the impression that InuYasha didn't talk to her unless she cornered him.
"I know I know, anyways were on for Saturday morning right?" Kikyo sounded bored, as if they had been over this many many times.
"Yah..." InuYasha stopped playing Chopin and began something I couldn't recognize, which didn't happen very often.
"Have you said anything about it to Kagome?" Kikyo said my name like she was talking about a rat poison. There was a pause in the conversation, most likely filled with InuYasha shaking his head no. "Are you going to?" Another pause came and Kikyo giggled from his reaction.
"Do you have to ask me the same questions over and over again, we've talked about all this, you know how I am with Kagome, and you know I'll be there Saturday." I did not like where the conversation had turned, I rolled my eyes as I reached the door of the music office, Kikyo was breathing down InuYasha's neck as he played. He stopped in what seemed to be aggravation and turned to face her. Very suddenly she placed both of her hands on his face and pressed her lips to his. I took a breath so deep it sounded like a hiss, the two broke away and glued there eyes on me.
Kikyo had a smug look on her face, as if to say 'that's what you get'. InuYasha however looked shocked and confused, not angry or upset that Kikyo would do something like that, just confused at how my presence had gone unnoticed. For a few seconds time seemed to stop, with the three of us just standing there, the second I felt the tears well up in my eyes I turned and I ran, leaving my books and my heart behind.
Next thing I knew I was standing in the rain mixing tears with raindrops. 'I love you' I heard his voice in my head; the words I had needed him to say 'I love only you'. This had to be a trick, some kind of joke...right? I sank to the ground waiting for InuYasha to burst through the doors after me, but he never came.
AN: Taa daa that's all for now folks. Please comment and let me know what you think ... I'd like to fix anything stupid before I hand it in to be graded you know :P