Disclaimer: Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahasi and its respective owners.
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there.
-Rumi
It was a pleasant, cool afternoon, the sun's soft beams obscured behind the slow-moving clouds. Once in a while the orange-tinted trees would sway, and the breeze would reach him with the peculiar, melancholic smell of autumn.
Sesshoumaru squished his cigarette at the ashtray of the dustbin. He slipped his hands into his coat pockets and made his way to the foot of the tori gate, which beared the Higurashi' surname plate. He dallied with every step on the old cobbled staircase. He was a bit early today. As much as he was a stickler for punctuality, 30 minutes was a bit too much even for his standards. Instead of parking his Toyota Prius within the house's premises as usual, he had chosen a public parking space and walked to the house for about 10 minutes, where he finished the last sticks of his cigarettes.
He looked up to the vast, muted sky as the chilly breeze ruffled his hair. The traditional song Momiji suddenly came into his mind.
"Autumn colors on the mountain lit by the sunset, Deep colours and pale ones…"
"Sesshoumaru-sensei!" came a faraway voice from behind. Sesshoumaru glanced over his shoulder. It was the Higurashi girl, pattering up the steps. He had assumed she was at home, so he was mildly surprised to see her outside. She stopped when she reached him, doubled over as she collected her breath. "You're awfully early today!"
He gave her a light once-over. His student wore a pair of Onitsuka running shoes, knee-length tights with a lightweight jacket. A small towel draped from behind her neck. Her long hair was pulled up in a high ponytail, her perspiring face flushed, as a few stray strands of hair stuck to the sides of her face. Exactly what she looked like when he was done with her, a careless thought weaved into him.
He caught a whiff of her deodorant that lingered with a trace of her sweat. "Went jogging?" he asked as they walked together to the entrance. "Didn't expect you to be the active type."
"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, clutching the sides of her hips in mock annoyance. "I do exercise once and then. Especially when there's an annoying flab on my stomach I absolutely need to get rid of."
"But I like it," he said quietly.
"What?"
"Nothing."
Kagome unlocked the main door and they crossed the threshold, removing their shoes. "I need to wash up for a while. Can you wait?" she asked him, once inside the house.
"I'll just wait here," he said, eyeing the large living-room.
"Alright then, please make yourself at home. As usual, Sota is out with his club activities, and Mama's at the hospital visiting Grandpa. Hold on, let me just get you a cup of tea. You are a guest, after all."
She went to the kitchen, and Sesshoumaru sank slowly into the couch. The house was quiet, dimmer than usual. The sun did not illuminate it as much through the open windows, although the weather provided a good draft. His eyes finally settled on the grand piano at the corner of the room, almost hidden from plain sight, like a giant creature deep in slumber. He had seen it a few times and thought nothing of it. But at that precise, quiet moment, time seemed to have taken a pause, and he suddenly felt drawn towards it.
He rested his bag on the couch then sauntered towards the piano, transfixed rather than hesitant. His fingers lightly rested on the cool, gleaming fall that roofed over the keys. It was a Yamaha piano, a beautiful and magnificent work combining both handmade and modern manufacturing.
The lids were closed; and a light cover of dust seemed to shroud the piano. It had not been used—or maintained for that matter—for quite some time. Sesshoumaru allowed himself to sit on the bench. He lifted the fall carefully, appreciating the familiar hefty weight in his hands.
The pristine ivory keys shone back at him even in the darkness, sleek and inviting. He hesitated at first, then thought what the hell. How long had it been? he asked himself. The way his wrists bended knowingly over the keys, he hadn't felt that sensation in his joints in an incredibly long time.
Kagome stirred the sugar into his tea. The first few piano strains floated into her ear. She brushed it off. Then she heard it again, and this time the hairs on her body stood straight and a wave of goosebumps washed over her. She froze for a second. Along with the tray of tea, she strode to the living-room. So she hadn't imagined it at all—Sesshoumaru-sensei was really playing on the piano!
She set the tray on the coffee table and watched as he sat hunched over the piano, his fingers dancing, eyes closed, lost in his own senses. The lid at the back of the piano had been opened slightly, propped with a stand. Every note he produced was inexplicably beautiful, its tempo muted and vehement at the same time. The seamless melody reverberated within the house walls, striking peculiar stirrings in her chest. She felt as if she had slipped into a different world, a gentle world where music fell like rain.
She waited for him to finish, then walked to his side.
"Please excuse me. For playing without prior permission," Sesshoumaru said. He had not realized she had been standing there, listening. "Chopin's Nocturne, Op. 9, No. 2. I hope you enjoyed that."
"I thought it was breath-taking, and uplifting. And I love how your fingers moved. Like flickering of flames." Kagome glanced to the piano and sighed. "This piano actually belongs to my late dad. He used to perform in the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. Mama says it's too bad none of us followed his musical traits." And then she added in a wistful whisper, "Prior to you, no one in the house has ever played on it."
"I see."
"Yeah, I didn't even know it was capable of making such wonderful music. It's been sitting at the corner of the living-room for as long as I remember." She paused and looked at him. "I didn't know you have a passion for music. Your performance was impeccable."
"Not necessarily. When I was younger, every child from a respectable background was supposed to know how to play the piano. That's all."
Kagome nodded. She wondered what kind of childhood Sesshoumaru had, if he had a big family or a small one. He was an extremely private person who had never spoke about his personal life.
"By the way, didn't you use to be a university lecturer yourself? What happened?"
Sesshoumaru folded his hands and released a long breath. "That was a long time ago. The management and I couldn't gel. That was pretty much it."
"Eh? Sounds like an interesting story."
He raised his eyebrows at her odd curiosity towards his past. It was a particular period in his lifetime that he did not wish to revisit, and one that he had never related to anyone.
"Interesting? Quite the opposite, it was mundane and hellish at the same time."
"Mundane, and hellish," Kagome repeated, as if it was an important keyword.
"I taught at an elite private university somewhere in Kyoto. If you ever drive by the school, you wouldn't even know it was a university, you would think it was a type of museum. The building was originally a monastery in the last century, with heavy French-influenced architecture. You get the picture. Anyway, the students who attend this school are a whole different species altogether. The headmistress nurtured them as perfect role models for society, however I saw them as a collective of potential sociopaths, who lacked a shred of E.Q."
"Hmm… So they're smart but…"
"Have you ever threw a chair across the room because you didn't meet your desired GPA? That happened frequently, and it wasn't just one student."
"Good heavens! No they didn't!"
"But that wasn't the real problem. The real issue lay with the parents. If you think the kids were bad enough, remember who raised them. Unfortunately, these people were the same ones funding the school, and the headmistress would bend her back over just to please them. It was appalling to watch. The amount of kowtowing and bootlicking we were required to perform was unlike anything I've ever experienced. Lecturers were expected to spend more time organizing activities for the parents, rather than for the students themselves. It had become a norm, like a part of you that stays and grows. I felt like I had been sucked head-first into a cult."
"Couldn't they just get funding from other people?"
"Of course they did. They had a list of directors and shareholders who regularly pumped money into the school—the real show-runners. They wielded the power to decree what stayed in the school and what would not. The school equestrian club for example, whilst ridiculously expensive to maintain, was the university's pride and joy. I however, detested it."
Sesshoumaru-sensei, Kagome noted, seemed to have slipped into a semi-conscious realm of his memories, as his voice droned on and on. It was the first time he had spoken such a long piece. Kagome smiled widely, and he stopped talking upon seeing it.
He looked away. "I must be boring you now. Just an old man recounting his past events. I told you it was nothing interesting."
"No it isn't. I swear. Please go on."
"There's nothing else. I left the school after spending 8 years of my life there. After that I packed my bags and moved back to Tokyo, where I've been a freelance private tutor ever since."
"On your own terms."
He nodded. "On my own terms."
"But don't you miss teaching in a school environment though? It must be totally different."
"I have my own principles now that I need to adhere to. Working with other people might challenge that."
She pouted her lips. "Are you married, Sesshoumaru-sensei?" she asked suddenly. "Or have a girlfriend at least?"
"What?" Sesshoumaru went, sitting ram-rod straight at the abrupt change of subject. "No."
"I mean, I'm just asking because...if you're in a relationship then you'll know you need to compromise on certain things, and that may be against your principles, whatever they are."
He gave a dry humourless laugh. "What's the point being with someone who doesn't allow you to be yourself?"
"Oh. Then I guess you've never fallen in love. If you're saying things like that."
He squinted at her. The cheek of this girl, dishing out advice when she was still in high school. What did she know that he didn't, really?
"Is that so?" He shut close the keyboard, and stood up. Suddenly he grabbed her body and lifted her bridal-style, to sit on top of the piano. "What say I love you right now?"
Kagome squealed for her life, as her back fell backwards, an arm propping her up just in time. "Oh God, Sensei, not on my dad's piano!"
His arm hooked around her back, and he lifted her to face him in one breathless swoop. His eyes roved all over her face, as if to imprint her features into his memory, her half-lidded gaze, her tempting mouth.
"Just joking," he whispered so close, she could feel his breath on her lips.
Her heart started thumping wildly, like a bird thrashing in its cage. She wasn't sure at that moment what was going on, the energy surrounding him didn't match the previous "warming-up" sessions, and the air felt constricted with a kind of tension that made her tremble. Something clouded over his eyes, an abstruse fog she couldn't decipher.
Sesshoumaru tugged on her hairband, releasing her pony tail. Her thick long hair fell onto her shoulders, and his fingers slowly combed through the sides of her head, then relaxed at her nape. His face tilted slightly and his eyes lowered. At first she thought something had caught his attention. Instead, he kissed her.
And just like that, within a blink of an eye, the world changed. Her breath was stolen, her heartbeat skipped. Sesshoumaru-sensei had bestowed to Kagome, her first kiss.
Her body grew limp, her arms at her sides like deadweight. She couldn't move as his lips continued to brush against hers, light and gentle at first and then it grew determined, passionate even. She felt the tip of his tongue tease her. She closed her eyes. He was so tender, so nice. Her mind was lost.
When she opened her eyes, Sesshoumaru was staring back at her. The kiss had long ended, and the strange fog in his eyes had disappeared.
"Did that completely overwhelm you?" he asked.
"I…" Kagome stammered, peering down to her hands. She had been floating in the blue skies, swimming through fluffy clouds, and had just touched land.
He shook his head. "A schoolgirl like you who is unable to even handle a simple kiss, shouldn't even speak about being in a romantic relationship." He smoothed down his coat and strode back to the couch, taking his bag. He glanced at Kagome, still sitting atop the piano. "I'll see you upstairs."
She watched as he calmly made his way up to her room, speechless.
She touched her lips. They were still tingling, a few hours after her teacher had kissed her. Nothing was ever right, then. She couldn't explain to herself how that act contributed towards any of his so-called "experimental investigations. Didn't he know a kiss was a sacred act of love? How could he just abuse that, and take away her first kiss forever? Just because he disagreed with what she said? He didn't even like her that way. He was just playing with her.
The worst part was that I actually enjoyed it. It was different from his usual advances. His kiss was so soft and warm, and it excited me. Just like the way he had played that piano piece…
She let out an anguished cry and slammed her pillow onto her bed. Curse him for flooding her heart with a myriad of conflicting emotions!
"I hate you, Sesshoumaru-sensei!"
End of chapter, for now!
