Chapter 2
Inuyasha wiped his hands on his smock, which didn't exactly help his paint covered hands, and walked over to the door, having heard someone knock. He pocketed the paintbrushes in his hand in his back pocket and swung open the door, nearly groaning as Kagome pushed her way inside, not even asking if she could come in.
"No, please, I'm not busy at all. Come in, allow me to make you something because I have nothing better to do." He rolled his eyes and shut the door, following his friend over to his latest painting, "It's for my interview with a gallery...I don't know it's not done yet."
"Well it looks great, Mr. Sarcasm, but maybe you should..um...stop painting people we both know." Kagome winked, gesturing to the painting which resembled their friend, Sesshomaru.
"He has good features for this, okay?" The hanyou growled taking his gear off and dumping the paint brushes into a cup of water, "And what does it matter to you? He isn't going to see it."
Kagome giggled and tapped Inuyasha's nose with a wink, "What if I said we were going to have an old fashioned, high school style sleep over with you, me and Sesshomaru? What would you say about your painting now?"
If there was one person who was aware of Inuyasha's long time crush on his best friend, it was Kagome Higurashi, who was known throughout middle school and high school as the official matchmaker of the school. It was like she had some power to just know who you liked and why, and when it came to her hanyou friend, it was beyond any spiritual power. She had noticed the first time they met, seeing as Inuyasha was not at all subtle in his affairs.
He remembered when she had first pointed it out to him, how she knew that he was in love with the demon, and that it would such a great match she just had to get them together; as if this was some sort of cheesy romance film. The hanyou had spent nearly a month avoiding Sesshomaru and Kagome both because of her and then hesitantly came back when he noticed that she was purposely flirting with him so that he could spare himself any more heart break.
"I'd say that isn't happening, and you're dead to me." He growled, crossing his arms.
"Well...what if I said he would be here in five minutes to meet up with us before we go and buy pizza and snacks?" The girl smiled and went off to the kitchen, "You should probably hide that painting like you hide your creepy stalker sketchbook in the top drawer of your desk."
"How the hell do you even know these things!?" Inuyasha cried, grabbing the half-finished painting and running off to his den, setting it down so he could shove a bunch of other canvases aside to hide the embarrassing painting.
"I'm your best friend, I just know these things!" She laughed and began to rummage through his fridge, "Inuyasha, you need to stock up on more than chinese take-out. You work at a grocery store in your spare time, you can't afford this much junk food."
"God, you're really annoying, you know that?" He growled, shutting the fridge door in her face and crossing his arms.
"I do, and that's why we're having a sleep over, then I can be even more annoying and finally get you love birds together."
"It isn't going to happen. He doesn't like me like that, and I think you're insane..." Inuyasha sighed and went over to his bedroom to change, "If Sesshomaru liked me we'd be together already."
"Inuyasha, do you understand people at all, or are you really such a recluse that you're actually completely naive about emotions?" Kagome crossed her arms and shook her head, "Ugh, nevermind. You're being as stubborn as ever. Just don't start showing signs of heartache while he's over or you know he's going to ask questions."
The hanyou looked over his shoulder, wondering why this was such a big deal to her. As much as he wanted Sesshomaru to be his, it wasn't like it would ever happen. Sure he was never someone to interact with people, and he spent most of his time alone, that was if he wasn't with Kagome and Sesshomaru though. And even when he painted, or went to work, or went for dinner and drinks, it was always on his own. He didn't understand people, and people didn't understand. He preferred it that way.
"I have to change, just let him in if he comes..." He sighed and shut the door.
If he thought hard enough, Inuyasha could pinpoint the exact point in which he fell in love with Sesshomaru. It had first started back when they had been in grade five, when Sesshomaru had peeked behind him as he was painting. The demon had then snuck around him and wrapped his arms around him like friends usually did if they were close, and he told him it was beautiful.
Inuyasha remembered turning red and spurting about how it wasn't that great and that he wished he was better, and all the demon did was shake his head and force the hanyou to look up at him.
"You're amazing already. The best. I promise."
Shaking the memory away, Inuyasha stripped down, revealing a quite battered body. It wasn't like he hurt himself on purpose, often, or purposely picked out fights at bars when he was drunk. The scars on his body were from early bullying days. Not like he'd put up with it anymore, and even back then he didn't, though leaving high school and coming home with a black eye and some fresh scars wasn't completely uncommon. It was just because of who he was. People were still a little weary on the half-breed thing, and then you add in the fact that his school named him a prodigy of art and nearly put him in an art school the moment they discovered him only added fuel to the fire the losers started.
It was part of life, and it wasn't like he was ever bullied after Sesshomaru started to step in and fight his battles(though he hated it with a passion).
Pulling on fresh clothes, donning a v-neck and a baggy sweater, along with some better jeans, jeans that weren't paint splattered, Inuyasha walked back out just as Kagome had opened the door for Sesshomaru. He stopped, mouth agape as he watched the demon step into his house, perfect smile, perfect hair, and extremely perfect features all there for the taking. He watched his friend look down the hall at him and the smile only grew as he waved.
"Well look who it is, my best friend and famous artist." Sesshomaru held out his arms as Inuyasha finally managed to push himself to walk down the hall and hug the demon.
"Not yet I'm not. Though you idiots being here is going to put me behind on my portfolio." He glowered at Kagome and pulled away from the demon before he got too attached.
"Well, we could always leave, but I haven't seen you in a while, so how about we go get some food and catch up tonight, hn?" There it was again, that perfect smile, and Inuyasha nearly melted as he nodded in agreement.
Ushering his friends out, Inuyasha grabbed up his keys and wallet, locking his house up and jogging over to Sesshomaru's car. It was going to be a long night, and he could feel it in his bones. The way they ached and stiffened, the way his chest was already hurting, it was just going to be horrible. He had refused to sleep over with Kagome and Sesshomaru once they hit high school just because it would have been too much, though that never stopped them from staying at his house uninvited on many occasions.
All Inuyasha wanted, as he stared out the window of the car, was for Sesshomaru to realize what he did to him. Just for once, the hanyou wanted the demon to look at him and hold him and be with him beyond their friendship bonds. But as they drove off, Kagome demanding they stop fiddling with the CD player and just put it on a radio station, Inuyasha was positive that this would never happen and he'd have to live with a piece missing from his heart until it killed him.
"Stop shoving pizza in my face, damnit!"
"Oh come on! You barely eat as it is! A growing artist needs his daily dose of cheese and grease."
"That's just fucking disgusting. Can we just throw it in the fridge and deal with it later?"
"There are three slices left, Inuyasha. We'll all eat one, it's not worth saving."
He didn't want the damn pizza, he just wanted them both to leave so he could curl up in bed and deal with his emotions then. They had somehow ended up on his bed, Kagome in her tank top and fuzzy pajama bottoms, while Sesshomaru opted for giving Inuyasha a heart attack by wearing a pair of low rise bottoms that had the hanyou nearly tearing them off. The artist on the other hand decided to just wear his boxers and a large shirt, something that would be comfortable to sleep in, if he did actually sleep.
Taking the piece of pizza reluctantly, Inuyasha ate it with an unamused expression on his face, glaring at his friends, "I hate you both."
"You don't hate us," Kagome pointed out, downing her pizza far too fast for a normal woman.
"If you hated us you wouldn't have come to get pizza and drinks." Sesshomaru said, giving Inuyasha a crooked smile, making his heart race faster than it already was.
Huffing, Inuyasha waved them off and finished off his piece. He checked the clock on his bedside table, sighing as he saw how late it was, "Hey, we should go to bed...I have a shift tomorrow later in the day, and I'd like to get some sleep."
"Skip it, and come hang out with me and Sesshomaru," Kagome laughed, "We were going to go shopping at the mall. I got him hooked on a really amazing manga."
"You're twenty-fucking-three years old and you're making a grown man read manga? Please tell me it's something a little manly."
"Oh shut up, Inuyasha. You're just jealous because you restrict yourself from everything and don't know the joys of cartoons and fantasy."
"I paint cartoons and fantasies all the time, I don't have to read anything to give me that." Inuyasha crossed his arms, his ears pulling back as he narrowed his eyes.
"Calm down, Inuyasha. Have some fun for once. It's been forever since we've all gotten together," Sesshomaru said, wrapping his arm around the hanyou's shoulders, yanking him closer, "You'll hang out with us a little tomorrow, right?"
"God, don't you have a job? Shouldn't you be going to that or like school to become all rich and shit?" Inuyasha frowned, his cheeks turning pink.
"Father gave me a few days off to go catch up with people. He misses seeing you around you know," The demon leaned over the hanyou's head, staring down at him with a smile, "You feeling okay, by the way? You're cheeks are a little flushed..."
Pushing the demon away, Inuyasha growled, "I'm fine, don't be stupid..." looking away, he sighed and scratched behind his ear, "I would come over more often, but I've been busy...I haven't seen my mom and dad in a while either. I'll get around to it."
He looked over in time to catch Sesshomaru looking at him suspiciously, only to catch the hanyou's gaze and quickly mask his emotions on the subject.
It was strange how it was always like this, and it gave Inuyasha the impression that Sesshomaru actually loved him too. What if it was that they were too scared to admit it? What if his best friend had been in love with him this whole time and he didn't even know it? But it was such a low chance, Inuyasha decided to just push the thought out of his mind. Who knew how long he'd have to keep feeling this way, and he hoped it either changed to a less painful love or just disappeared completely, though with the way he looked at him, the hanyou wasn't sure that would ever be the case. He would feel like this forever, and it would kill him. He could feel it, it would be his end and he didn't know how he really felt about it.
"Alright! How are we going to do this?" Kagome clapped her hands together and smiled, "Who sleeps where on the bed?"
"I'll take the middle," Sesshomaru shrugged and tossed the pizza box off the bed so he could crawl over to the centre spot of the queen bed.
"Inuyasha, which side do you want?" The girl asked, winking at him again.
"...Closest to the en suite..." He whispered and got up to turn the lights off and get the room better prepared. He flicked the switch, watching the room get consumed by the darkness of the night before he slowly made his way over to the bed and crawled in next to his friend.
He rolled onto his side so his back was to Sesshomaru. Inuyasha could feel the demon shift a little closer and roll to face the same way and the hanyou wanted to curse out loud and scream. The demon shifted even closer and poked the back of his head gently.
"I'm glad you're okay with this last minute thing...It was nice to hang out with you without you being engrossed in your art..." The demon whispered right into his ear, making the hanyou's heart threaten to burst from his chest.
"It..It's no problem...It was nice to hang out again...like old times..." Exactly like old times, the emotions and fear and all the other things that came along with this torture.
He felt Sesshomaru move away again, and he listened carefully to his two friends until he was sure that they were both sound asleep. Inuyasha put a hand on his face and tried to breathe in deeply, anything to force the feeling of dread out of him. But it didn't work, especially once Sesshomaru rolled over again and threw his arm over him as if they were actually spooning.
The hanyou bite back a whimper and he curled in on himself, his ears flattening against his skull. Why did he have to do this? Why did he have to be so affectionate but be totally oblivious to what he was doing to him? Inuyasha pushed himself back into the demon, listening to him grunt and then felt the arm around him tighten. Sesshomaru probably didn't even know what he was doing, but Inuyasha cherished the feeling nonetheless as he fought back the sadness again, as he did every other night. He prayed for morning to come soon, and kept his eyes squeezed shut though his body had no intention of letting him sleep. It was just another thing to add to the list of all the ways the demon was slowly killing him.