The Beach

By: Torrence E.

Just a short beginning ;)

Chapter 1: Threatened to Unravel

Musical inspiration: Passenger Seat – Death Cab for Cutie

She didn't know why of all the qualified tutors in the world, her mother had chosen him. She'd even paid to haul him all the way from Norway right to their doorstep. It wasn't as if he were an exceptional psychology tutor. What ticked her off most was the fact that her mother knew… she knew that he and Kagome hadn't been getting along for years. In fact that was why he had left. Yet she had chosen to bring him back for a whole two years just so Kagome could be taught Psychology.

She was beginning to regret ever showing interest in the subject. She had completely forgotten that Inuyasha had also chosen to pursue it years ago… when he left for Norway.

She hadn't understood why he left. He'd said it was because he couldn't stand her for one day longer. She'd said good riddance. But ever since then there'd been a feeling of loss, or almost betrayal within her.

But she still didn't understand why he left. Inuyasha was the son of one of Kagome's tutors and therefore lived in the same building as her. He'd moved in so early that he was practically a permanent resident of the household. Whenever her family took on a new tutor or cook, they moved them into their gigantic house for convenience. It was the most beautiful place she had ever known. It wasn't the house itself that she loved… but the beach beside it. She couldn't remember a day in her life when she hadn't gone to that beach. It was not a spectacular beach. It had beige sand and blue water. It was small and there were a few trees. But for her it was an escape.

As for Kagome, she was the daughter of the owner of a gift shop and a seamstress. But she'd long forgotten those people. Her parents, dead when she was three, had been replaced by her aunt and uncle. These last two had become the greatest people in her life, doing the very best for her as if she were their own. They had adopted Kagome and her brother in without hesitance and ever since been as loving as any parents could. They were very famous, wealthy people. They owned the very successful Higurashi Investment Company which had been around for years and years.

It was strange that no other member of her family or household had turned out as famed as herself. She liked to blame it on the agent that had come up to her when she was twelve. He had offered her a modeling job at his agency and she'd so quickly accepted, excited at the idea. And at twelve she became a rather popular, model. People liked her because she always had a smile on her face and a very innocent story behind her. It also helped that unlike her model friends, she didn't need to start up an eating disorder. That little job had gotten her to the place she was now: A well known, rich girl. She had quit after three years at age fifteen. And now she had just turned seventeen and had strangely only gotten more famous.

She knew why of course. It was all because of her friend Rei Chiara (Kagome didn't like to take responsibility). Rei was a gorgeous girl she had met four years earlier. They had hated each other at first. But gradually, Kagome seemed to become more and more like Rei: Daring, assertive, disobedient, fame crazed, immoral, careless and nearing infamous. And they started spending more and more time together

But nevertheless, she adored life. The fame that she had hated for the first three years, she had learned to love. Her life was like a book that everyone wanted to read. It was flattering and fun. She'd keep people on their toes with the "scandalous" things she'd do. Until about half a year ago she'd kept relatively tame, but ever since it had been a slow but steady descent.

It may have seemed that her suddenly changed life filed with chaos, scandal and gossip may have been unappealing or degrading. But Kagome's priorities had faded and she had definitely learned to love it. To her it was bliss, an undisturbed bliss. So far her parents had done nothing to intervene and so all was well.

But then today he was coming back.

Everything had changed when he left. All she could hope for was that it didn't change again when he returned. She was afraid of change.

Kagome smiled a very false smile when he walked in. She had chosen to be mature about it even though she was very unhappy to see him.

Her smile was stretched and the rest of her face was tense. He knew it was fake and she knew it was fake. They could both feel the others discomfort.

"You look different." She stated as greeting, her fingers curling in her yellow shorts. He seemed taller and looked stronger. His face seemed a little rougher too. He had been sixteen when he left. He was nearly twenty now, not quite three years older than she.

"You've changed." He replied with that half smirk she knew so well.

"Ah! So glad you've met!" Her mother barged through the kitchen door, a glass in hand.

"It's Inuyasha, Mom. I've known him all my life." She averted her eyes, a feeling of discomfort present in her stomach.

"Yes well now you get to know him even better!" she smiled as the phone rang, "Tomorrow at nine Kagome. Five days a week. I'm glad you'll finally be able to study it – you've always wanted to." She smiled at her daughter and then at Inuyasha before trotting upstairs to answer the phone.

Kagome pushed herself away from the counter rather angrily, giving him a dark look that intended to say "you've ruined my life". She walked as loudly as she could with her bare feet on the marble floor, out towards the beach.

Inuyasha clicked his tongue in annoyance. He rolled his eyes and walked up to his room where his suitcases where neatly stacked by one of the employees. He glanced around. Nothing had changed. Same bed, same colors, same view of the beach. Was that Kagome? It was. She was sitting on the beach just close enough to the water so that her toes were slightly wet. She'd always sat like that.

She hadn't needed to say it. The question was clear in her expression. Why have you come back now?

And the answer was simple.

For her.

Oh and for that rather delightful sum of money he would be paid to teach her.

But definitely, for her. At first he had been oblivious to her definite increase in fame and mischief. Norway didn't seem to be interested in what was going on in Japan all that much. But then her mother had subscribed him to that horrible gossip magazine. He assumed it was so that he could see what was going on with her or feel in touch. At first he didn't give the nasty titles a second glance assuming they were just blowing things way out of proportion. But then he started realizing that she seemed to grace the cover pretty much every week in some way or other. And the rather realistic pictures of her doing very not-Kagome-like things were getting harder to deny. She seemed to be falling to pieces. But that was just a minor detail in his life.

When Kagome's mother offered him a very well paid job to teach her everything he had learnt about psychology he decided to accept… for various reasons. One reason was the money, one was to see his old city and of course one was to see what was really going on with her. As of yet the things he had seen in the magazines weren't that insane, but for Kagome… they were out of this world. The normally subdued and smart girl seemed to have changed.

He was surprised to find that he cared much less than he had presumed. But he still cared…

And he was glad to be back.

A short introduction. What do you think? Hope it's easy to follow.

-Torrence E.