Away From The Well
Chapter Four

by KikyouCommitsSuicide

Disclaimer: If I had a djinni (or genie, whichever you prefer) and I was granted three wishes, my first wish would be that I'm rich, so I can pay off these damn bills. My second wish would be for Inuyasha to be real. My third wish would be to set the djinni free, so he'd serve me in gratitude the rest of my life. ;) Hm... maybe Inu, too...

J

Author's note: Wow! It's my birthday today (well, it's only been my birthday for two minutes, but play along here)! So give me a present and review! I'm eating Nerds right now. You know, the little sour candy. I've eaten (well, really, sucked. I like to suck on Nerds. They're so SOUR...) so many that my tongue is starting to sting...

Ooooh, Mom's gonna kill me when she finds out I was up this late... But then again, it's my birthday!

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Kagome sighed as she put away her clothes. When she had gone to the administrative office to ask what to do with Inuyasha, they didn't know. It wasn't right to stick him into a mob of foreign boys when he didn't even know English. So, believing the story that Inuyasha was her cousin, they'd put her into a hut with him. There was a small common room, two bedrooms, and a bathroom. They'd asked permission, of course, but there was no alternative, really, since they were the only ones who spoke Japanese besides the one Japanese teacher, and she only came every other day to campus.

He was, of course, learning English, and once in a while, would have a short, stilted conversation to test out his abilities. She was rather amazed at how quickly he learned the new language - it had taken her years what he was doing in days. Maybe it was because he had nothing better to do than read through quite a few Japanese textbooks that he had gotten from the library to learn English with. Once in a while, she wondered how much he actually knew, because the whole day, he just shadowed her, listening to her conversations and talking to her, and her alone.

Em even joked once that 'He follows you around like a dog', which had quite startled Kagome. And, though no one saw, Inuyasha, too.

In class, she got many notes from people - being the new girl, she was a curiosity to the girls, and, being far from ugly, she was an object of attraction to the guys. Not that they would say so anywhere but their notes, because Inuyasha could somehow tell who was interested in her, and shot them looks that could kill - and sometimes probably did.

Back at the dorm, they were the hot topic of everyone.

Even the guys.

"Whoa. He's, like, way too overprotective. You'd think she was, like, his daughter, or something."

"Or maybe his girlfriend."

"Urgh! But they're cousins, man!"

"But they're living together! Even in school! Maybe they're... married cause they... threatened a priest to perform the ceremony, or something! And the reason they came here was so that her mother/his aunt could raise their triplets in peace."

"Yeah! And then the priest started to tell someone that he had married, and he died of mysterious circumstances..."

"And... and they're not really cousins! They're both from rich families and it was an arranged marriage, but they didn't want that, so they eloped and got married in America!"

"Yeah!"

"That's, like, so romantic, it's practically from a romance novel, dude!"

"Totally."

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And so suddenly, the guys stopped asking Kagome out, much to her surprise, and, she hated to admit, chagrin. What, did she get a pimple, or something?

"Hey, Inuyasha? Do I look any different from a week ago?"

"Uh, iie. Why?"

"Oh, I dunno."

"Whatever." And he returned to his book. With his book to constantly read and memorize, or, as she liked to say, mesmerize, he hadn't even needed Tetsusaiga. Maybe the scholar in him was struggling to emerge.

Or he just needed something mindless to do to take his mind off whatever was bothering him.

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"Hey," an unfamiliar voice said, rather gruffly. "Can I sit here?"

Normally at lunch, Kagome sat with only Inuyasha and Em, so there were plenty of free seats. Without even looking up from her Science textbook, in which there was a test next period, she said, "Sure".

The normal school tray slid in next to her, and a delicate-looking brown-haired girl with gray eyes unceremoniously plopped down next to her. Inuyasha looked up from his book for a moment, then returned to it. A girl wasn't worth his attention when he could be eavesdropping on everyone. "Yo. I'm Kati. Kati Shae. Who're you?"

Her name seems familiar, Kagome thought. Where had she heard it before?

"I'm Kagome Higurashi, and this is my cousin, Inuyasha. We're from Japan."

"Oh. So you're the new kids." Her rough voice didn't really fit her very feminine appearance. Noticing her look, Kati said, "Yeah, I know. My voice doesn't sound like it should belong to me. I would dye my hair a vivid blue and wear heavy black eyeliner, but then my mom would kill me and I'd have to go to public school. Damn conservationist."

She really looked like she would, too. And if you did dye her hair and put heavy black eyeliner on her, she'd look right at home leaning on a motorcycle, making out with a guy in a leather jacket in a dark alley.

But then again, wouldn't anyone?

Em's nervous glances at Kati suddenly made Kagome remember who she was.

'And here's a little piece of advice: don't go near Kati Shae. She's really violent...'

Oops.

Kati looked at her mortified face with amusement. "Suddenly remember my rep, huh?"

"Uhm..."

"That's okay, I know what they say about me. But I like you. Dunno why. But don't worry - I won't be too violent around you. Especially with him," she consoled Kagome, glancing at Inuyasha. "You don't look like cousins - is that just a story?"

How could she just see through that? "Um, no, we're not really cousins. But don't tell anyone, okay?"

"So what are you, then, lovers?"

"No..."

"Is he taken?"

"Uhm..."

"Good. Then he's mine."

Oh, dear. What if Inuyasha understood? From the impassive look on his face, she didn't think so. He was reading his book. Just as usual.

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"So what was with that girl? She was smirking at you, and you looked pretty uncomfortable," Inuyasha commented on their way back to their mini-dorm. "What were you talking about? Anything interesting?"

'Hmmm... well, you're interesting,' Kagome thought. "Iie. She was just saying that she didn't like her parents, and I thought about how terrible that was."

"Oh."

"Hey...?"

"Nani?"

"Sit." Nothing happened. "Osuwari." Inuyasha plummeted to the ground. "Hmm... it doesn't work in English. Interesting."

"OWWW!" Inuyasha yelled, and two girls came running out of the shadows to help him up. Had they been spying on him?

"Daishobu?" Kagome asked quickly. "Sorry," she said to the girls. "He must've tripped on something." They nodded and started walking the other way, but not without a second glance at the handsome boy on the ground.

"Kami, looks like you've got yourselves some stalkers," Kagome joked as she pulled him up. "Lucky you."

"Hai, and you must be pretty lucky, too, with all those notes that guys give you."

"You know about those?" Kagome asked, mortified. "Did you read them?" 'They kinda contained really personal things...'

"Uh... iie, but I wanted to. Those guys shouldn't be asking you to be their mate all the time. It isn't right. They don't even know you! Are people in this time all like Kouga? Is that why you put up with him??"

"They don't ask me to be their mate!" Kagome protested, her face turning red. She wasn't yelling, but soon she'd be saying the word again.

"Then what, do they ask you to help them with their Japanese?"

"Actually, some of them did!"

"Feh. And I'll bet you did help them, too. You're too charitable, Kagome! It's gonna get you in trouble." Then he wouldn't say anything else.

'Is he... jealous of all the attention I get? Hmmm... that sounds familiar...' (a/n: She said this to herself in volume 14 after the Kouga incident. Maybe other times, too. I actually haven't read all of them yet. I'm so ashamed.)

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Yeah, I know, it's shorter than the other chapters, but my hands (not to mention my brain) are hurting from typing all this. Anyway, I need to get ready for my grandmother - she's coming over. She's sort of the words 'prissy' and 'pissy' melded together and taken (partially) human form. She's a real trip to be related to. Oh, joy. Oh, rapture. Oh, kami, save me from her wrath!!!!

Recomendation:

"When You Love Someone"

It's a tiny Rin x Sesshy-chan fic. It's a finished one.

If you want me to recomend your fic, tell me so in your review! I'll read it and see if I should! Unfortunately, I don't know who wrote most of these because I only have 20 minutes online, so I cut and paste the stories onto Word and save it by the name. So the name's right at least.

Hmm. Nothing really else to say. But if you don't know the Japanese words, I'll start putting the definitions in parentheses. Kk, minna-san, toodles!

Or should I say:

Ja ne!

(Hey, that rhymed!! )