A/N: Ok, just like in the series, Kagome and Koga will not be an official couple in this fic, however they will be good friends. And while Koga may have a sort of "thing" for Kagome in later chapters, Kagome will never return the crush (her feelings will mostly be centered around Inuyasha) OK? OK.
Disclaimer: Inuyasha characters are not mine. :p
The Project
"Oh God, I've got major butterflies." Kagome said nervously, pushing her messenger bag to the other side of her body so that she could walk more closely to Rin (Sango's currently in the bathroom due to Kagome's driving). "Please tell me that one of you has first period with me." She begged, looking down over her friend's shoulder as Rin pulled her schedule out of a little, brown puppy-backpack.
"Oh, um… let's see. Sango's got Algebra II first period… so that's right by the bathroom; she'll probably just go straight to class once she's done throwing – uh" Rin caught herself quickly, casting a nervous glance at Kagome. "Throwing the rest of her make up on."
Rin never wore makeup. Usually she didn't need it; she was very pretty, a cute girl with dark black hair that shone and was layered to fall around her shoulders and into her remarkably bright hazel eyes. Usually she wore the top half of her hair up in a high sideways ponytail, a look that added to her own bouncy personality, but today she wore it down. It was more formal she had explained, for her first day of school and all. She was by far the tiniest of her two other friends, but she made up for her size by somehow always managing to make herself the center of attention when it came to everything.
Rin was unquestionably the most energetic and enthusiastic of both Sango and Kagome combined. She always was ready to do fun things, tackle adventures, and she was always ready to talk, the last quality making her an excellent gossip. She clung to rumors like the adults clung to the news, always on top of it, always listening, always talking. In fact, Rin even had a habit of talking all the time. To herself, with her friends, strangers… it didn't matter who it was, she never stopped.
"I just hate the silence…" She had explained to Sango and Kagome a couple years ago. "It freaks me out. So I just start talking, its like I can't even help it."
She was also an earth loving, tree hugging, save-the-little-animal-on-the-side-of-the-road kind of girl… to an extreme. A complete vegetarian and strict recycler. Nothing got between Rin and her recycling. All these things you would be able to tell after spending about five minutes with her, and the chances were you'd love her for it, no matter how annoying she seemed to be at first. But what you wouldn't be able to tell from spending a day with Rin Otanachi was that she was an orphan.
In fact, you could probably spend a year with friendly, chatter-box Rin and never once suspect that she was a foster child. She never brought it up. It was the only thing she didn't talk about. Kagome often wondered at her friend's happy-go-lucky attitude that no one, no matter how mean and insulting their verbal bullets might be, seemed to be able to deflate. If she hadn't known Rin when it had happened Kagome would have never been able to tell that Rin's first family had been murdered brutally by a serial killer seven years ago.
Rin had once had two brothers, older, goofy, fun-loving type of guys. Both with great sense of humor, and a fun, easy-going outlook on their lives… or at least the lives they had had before they were murdered. Their names had been Seito and Krin, one of which a much younger Kagome had had a major crush on, right up until it happened.
The three girls had been in the fourth grade together at the time, and Rin rode bus home alone. Kagome still remembered the way her mother had shaken her awake in the middle of the night and told her in a low voice to get up. The lights weren't on, and it was very dark. Her mother told her that they were going to go see Rin at the hospital. They had to leave right now.
Kagome hadn't known what was going on, but she could tell her mother was scared, and it was because her mom was scared that Kagome was terrified. So she had done what she was told and gotten out of her bed quietly, as if afraid of making any kind of noise in silent darkness. She hadn't asked any questions, she was too scared to open her mouth. Scared by the look on her own mother's face, by the darkness of the room… by the very way her mother was moving. And mostly by that feeling that something much bigger and more important than herself had just taken place. But she didn't understand it.
A few hours later Sango's mom had pulled up beside the Higurashi car in Tokyo hospital's parking lot. A tall woman with long black hair emerged from the driver's seat, looking pale and sick with worry. Just like Ms. Higurashi.
Sango was asleep in the back, a sandy brown teddy bear crossed tightly beneath her arms, his black button eyes looking lifelessly out the window at Kagome's reflection. When Kagome opened the back door to the car, she shook her friend till Sango's soft brown eyes opened and stared at her. She hadn't wanted to be the only child awake when the grown-ups were acting so strangely. At least this way she wasn't alone.
"Alright, now listen…" Kagome's mother had said, her brown eyes weary and tired, so different from the ones that Kagome was used to seeing. "Rin's inside the hospital." Kagome's stomach dropped, instinctively she reached out for her best friend's hand. "She's ok, but something very bad as just happened to her and she told the doctors that she wanted to see you two." Mrs. Higurashi made a point of looking directly at the two little girls', making sure that they were keeping eye contact with her; making sure that they were listening. "She's going to be a little frightened, ok? So both of you make sure to be extra, extra nice."
Kagome nodded, her stomach starting to move around as she grew more nervous.
Sango spoke up now, her young voice was so quiet Kagome had barely been able to hear. "What happened?" It was a tone of mild wonder, of seriousness. It was a tone that was a little too old for Sango's young voice.
Mrs. Higurashi got that look in her eyes again, that look of tired sadness… of sickness… and it was so unnerving for her that Kagome didn't even want to know the answer to Sango's question. Apparently, Mrs. Higurashi didn't think they wanted to know either. "We'll tell you that… later." The tired woman said, looking up at Sango's mother, who was standing on the other side of the car, her eyes cast down on the pavement, just as weary…just as worn.
"Ok…"
"Now, Rin says she wants to be with you, but she doesn't want to play with you. She may not want to be touched right now ok? No pushing, no shoving, no rough housing… or screaming." She directed a look to Sango, who was more of a Tomboy than Kagome was and had a tendency for "rough housing". "She's tired. And she doesn't want to be alone, but she doesn't want to play either… do you understand?"
Kagome frowned, slightly disturbed. Rin didn't want to play? But Rin always wanted to play…
"She may want to talk about what happened, and she may not. But whatever she wants to do you just let her do it ok?"
"Ok…"
"Remember, 'extra, extra nice'."
Rin hadn't wanted to talk. When the two pairs of mother and daughter had finally reached the correct hospital ward, the mothers rushed off to talk to tall men in white suits. May of them with clip boards… one of them with a pair of lemon yellow glasses. Leaving the three children standing together in a ring in the corner.
"Hi, Rin." Kagome said quietly, nervous around the smaller girl for the first time in the entire year that they had known each other. It was obvious that something had happened, but she didn't know what it was… she was afraid she'd make a mistake, or that she'd say something wrong. She just didn't know how to react. And apparently neither did Rin. The little girl just stared quietly at her friends. Silent. Her hazel eyes were strangely unreadable… they were almost blank… but distinctly not. Emotion was pooling just underneath the surface. An emotion that was frighteningly strong… an emotion that Kagome had never encountered before. It made her nervous.
Eventually Rin looked down to the white linoleum floor beneath her, and she didn't look up at them again.
"Rin… you're still in your school clothes…" Sango noticed, examining the smaller girl carefully, as if looking for some hints that would tell her what had happened to her friend. And she found one. She just didn't recognize it. "What's that on your collar?" The little hand had reached out, going to touch a dirty red splatter-shaped stain on Rin's shirt. "What is this… blood? Did you have a nose bleed?" Sango had asked curiously. "I get those all the time."
Nothing.
"You wanna hold my teddy?"
No response. Rin wasn't talking. She wasn't moving for Teddy. Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong. Kagome knew it. She could feel it. And Sango could too. They knew Rin too well to not be afraid of her behavior. Just today she had been a bouncing ball of energy, pulling on their pigtails and jumping off the swings with them… but now… she was so different. She was so strange. It was like she was all… all locked up inside. She wasn't talking to them. She wouldn't be talking to anyone for a very long time.
But even if Rin had felt like telling them about what had happened to her that night in the hospital, Kagome realized now, as she stood in the hall with her engrossed friend, neither Sango or Kagome would have been old enough to even begin to understand.
"Um well… from the looks of it I have science for the first period with Ms. Dubose…" Rin stared at her schedule for a while, frowning. "Ew." Suddenly a look of horror crossed over her face. "Oh my God, I hope we're not doing anything horrible like dissecting frogs." A look of desperation crossed over the little-animal-on-the-side-of-the-road-saving-girl's face. "That would be so mean! I so hate scie-"
"We don't dissect frogs." Someone said suddenly from behind them.
Both girls whipped around to see a tall, horsy looking woman standing just above their shoulders, small frail glasses perched on the tip of her incredibly long nose.
"Ms. Dubose!" Rin squeaked, her face going pale. "Umm… what I meant was… I… I don't like cyber… food." She finished lamely.
"Nice to see you again, Rin." The woman said peering at the flustered girl from over the top of her spectacles before scribbling something down on her clipboard. "As I was saying, we don't dissect frogs."
Rin let out a little sigh of relief. "Oh… that's so good to hear, because my friend Jaken, you had him in your class last year, told me that he had to dissect a poor defenseless bullfrog in your class."
Ms. Dubose shook her head quickly back and forth, reminding Kagome of a bobble head stuck in and earthquake. Her red-brown hair was tied up in a tight bun at the back of her head, every single strand staying tightly locked in place. "Well, he was quite mistaken, then, dear." Ms. Dubose said, surprising Kagome with the informal nickname.
'"Dear?" …' Kagome gave Rin a funny look, but she didn't seem to notice. Kagome decided to shake it off. 'She probably uses the same nickname with everyone else.' She reasoned. 'But then again… if there's a student out there who can break through a teacher's icy, formal behaviors it would be Rin.'
"You can go to websites for simulations of frog dissections." Ms. Dubose said reasonably.
Rin brightened. "I know! I've been trying to tell everybod-"
"We dissect kittens."
Kagome watched slowly as Rin's face turned an ashy white color, her hazel eyes widening in shock. "E-excuse me?" She whispered, her hand gripping her puppy-backpack so tightly that Kagome thought it was going to burst. Although this time Kagome could understand, even she was a little disturbed by the thought of what Ms. Dubose had just said.
The woman looked up from her clipboard and gazed hard at Rin through her spectacles, moving them up the bridge of her long thin nose so as to see her better. "Kittens, dear, kittens!" Ms. Dubose repeated, her voice sounding harsh and cutting, as if she were trying to snap Rin out of a daydream. "We dissect kittens!"
Rin's face was practically green by now. All the color had drained away… leaving the poor girl stuttering for air and gripping the puppy-backpack to the point that Kagome noticed a little bit of stuffing starting to poke its way out from between the sewing. Rin opened her mouth, and then shut it again, looking as if she were torn between being sick, fainting, and screaming. As it was, Kagome thought that maybe she would be buying a certain someone a new puppy dog-backpack for Christmas.
And then the bell rang.
"Oh, come along then." Ms. Dubose said, promptly tucking the clipboard to her side and grabbing Rin's elbow. "Let's get along to class, we shouldn't be late on our first day of school now should we, dear?"
"Kittens?" Rin whispered hoarsely as she was dragged backwards down the hall.
"Wait!" Kagome called after them. "Whose going to show me the way to my first class?"
Ms. Dubose ignored her.
"Kittens?" Rin's tone was turning slightly desperate as Ms. Dubose hauled her around the corner and into the science lab.
Kagome chased after them and stopped when she practically ran to the closed door, her black sandals scuffing the white tile badly. For a moment, Kagome wondered if she should walk in and ask to have Rin back, explaining of course that she was new and didn't know her way around.
"KITTENS!" Came a slightly frantic screech from inside the lab. Kagome's shoulders sagged. Judging from the sound of that scream, even if she did try and get Rin out she didn't think the girl would be in any state to be able to show Kagome to her first class. So it was with a tired sigh that Kagome fished in her messenger bag and pulled out a folded piece of paper, reading carefully.
"Monday… first period… English…room 206. Ok, no problem." She said, looking back up. "I should be able to find room 206 on my own… in a huge high school… that I've never been in before… without anyone else to help me… Yeah."
She was lost within the next three minutes. She was somewhere between room 127 and 222, and she had no idea where she was going. 'Great…' she thought to herself as she looked helplessly at the whitewashed halls that all looked the same. 'My first day and the teacher already thinks I'm too stupid to get to class on time.' Slowly, as she stared at her schedule, contemplating it, she became aware of a certain noise. What was that? She lifted her head from the schedule to listen. It was getting louder. It sounded like… jingling.
She carefully turned around and frowned at the source of the noise. Then slowly she retraced her steps and rounded the corner she had just taken a second ago, coming face to face with a boy.
"Oh… hi." She said, struck immediately by his stunning golden colored eyes. He was about a head and a half taller than her, with long, silver hair and a face that made her heart lurch in her chest… he was "really hot" as Rin would have declared shamelessly. Stunningly so. And from the looks of it he worked out too… She couldn't help herself as she looked him up and down, tracing the muscles in his arms, the abs under his muscle shirt… and then she hit his black cargo pants. So that's where the noise was coming from. The thud most likely from the combat boots… the jingling from the chains… and the spikes? What kind of guy wore spikes on his cargo pants?
Suddenly she became aware that she had been staring. "Oh um… hi." She said again, looking up at him, trying to keep her stomach from coming up her throat as she spoke. Why was he looking at her that way? Like he was in… shock or something. His eyes were so… intense. And there was a cigarette hanging limply from the corner of his mouth, his lips parted in shock as he stared at her, not even blinking.
"Um, I'm new here." She said nervously, smiling as best she could, trying not to cringe as the smoke from the smoldering cigarette hit her nose. "And I'm lost too." She said with a bit of an embarrassed laugh. "Do you think you could tell me where room 206 is?" She asked hopefully.
He just stared at her.
And she waited.
But nothing else happened.
Shifting nervously she cleared her throat. "Um… could you show me where…" She trailed as she noticed something about him that she hadn't seen before… his ears. They were dog-ears… perched on top of his head. Were they real? As she stared at them they flicked slightly forwards and she practically yelped. They were real.
And now both teenagers were hopelessly lost in their staring at one another. His eyes locked on her face. Her eyes locked on his ears… and neither of them moving. Barely breathing.
He was stunned. A flood of emotions immediately welled up inside of him when he saw that face… it was her… but at the same time it wasn't. The bad feelings resurfaced and threatened to tear him up inside as he wondered how it was possible. 'No…'
'His ears… they're so fuzzy looking…so soft… I… I just want to… to touch them.' So she did. Not even realizing what she was doing, Kagome gently reached up, her elegant pencil smudged hand moving slowly until finally, barely, the tips of her fingers brushed against his ear.
And with that their private world was shattered.
"Oh!" Kagome said, retracting her hand quickly as the boy jerked away from her. Both of them surprised at what she had done. "I'm sorry." She said, incredibly embarrassed and thoroughly confused. "I don't know why I did that."
He gave her a funny look, the cigarette no longer threatening to fall out from his mouth as he closed his lips together again.
Trying desperately to wrench herself away from his gaze she turned back to her schedule. But it was hard for her even then to forget about those eyes and they way they had looked at her. He had amazing eyes… smoldering with emotion… with feeling. They made her feel. It was a shame that she would probably never get to know him well enough to be able to draw a picture of him. Mentally she slapped herself. 'Focus on the classes!' "Ummm… I'm looking for room 206." She said for the third time, this time hoping that he would finally tell her where it was.
The ear touching seemed to have pulled him out of whatever trance that he had been trapped in earlier. A nasty look spread on his face, as if he were disgusted that she were talking to him. "Feh." He said casually, shrugging his shoulders. "So?"
She blinked, taken aback. "So… could you tell me where it is? Or show me?"
He seemed to consider it for a while before finally taking a drag from his cigarette and walking past her, jerking his head as an indication for her to follow. She gave a grateful sigh before falling in step beside him. "Thanks so much." She said, relieved. "I have no idea what I'd have done if I didn't run into you."
She didn't notice the look that he was giving her. The way he was staring at her out of the corner of his eye. She didn't know that her just being near him made him feel on edge. Firstly because she looked so much like Kikyo… and secondly because it had been so long since anyone had actually walked beside him. He could hardly remember the last time anyone had ever walked that closely to him since the shooting. It felt… weird. To be walking with someone. To be next to them… particularly this girl… He had forgotten the feeling. And the sound of her sandals shuffling in rhythm with his combat boots… it was an alien sound. Her scent was so gentle… it was clean. And it made his heart jerk.
As soon as she saw room 206 she bolted for it. Turning around when her hand hit the doorknob and smiled gratefully at him, "Thanks so much again! You're a total life-saver."
He flinched. Ironic that she should call him that…
The strange girl went to turn the doorknob in her hand before stopping and looking back at him. "Oh and, I was just wondering, what's your name?"
He raised an eyebrow at her, forgetting that she had told him she was new. Everyone in Tokyo high knew that he was Inuyasha. And even if they didn't, they usually had already been warned about him by the time they had hit first period. Well that explained why she had asked him about the classroom…
He turned around without answering, heading down the hall and blatantly ignoring her question. Kagome frowned, about to call after him when he suddenly seemed to change his mind. He stopped dead in the hall and didn't move for a while. Then he sighed, as if giving in, and took the cigarette out of his mouth, turning around again to face her, saying that it his name was Hanyouri, Inuyasha, and not to bother to remember it before he started off again.
Kagome stared after him for a while before running into the English room. That was kind of weird…
"This project will count for fifty percent of your term grade, and I will not be lenient just because this is your first project of the school year, nor will I tolerate any complaining of what I feel is your justly deserved grade. It's time you learned your place in this high scho-"
Kagome chose that inopportune moment to burst rather unceremoniously into the man's classroom, jerk to a halt, and engage in yet another staring contest. This time with the teacher. The first thought that entered her mind was 'Whoa… he's… really… cute.' It felt weird to think of a teacher that way, but soon those thoughts were soon lost when another one hit her: 'And he's so totally gonna kill me.'
"Higurashi, Kagome." She announced herself, bowing respectfully. "I'm so sorry I'm late sensei-san. I got lost and I-"
"I don't need your excuses."
Kagome blinked and looked up. The man was staring coldly at her, his eyes were gold, and penetrating. Just like Inuyasha's. In fact he looked a lot like Inuyasha. The same long silver hair, he same colored eyes… some of the same shape of his face. But this man's appearance was more elegant, more refined. And he was obviously older. But not that much older, he might have been twenty or twenty-one. And also… his eyes were the same color as the boy's she had just met in the hall but… they didn't quite effect her as much. They didn't inspire her to whip out a sketchpad and pencil like Inuyasha's had. The boy Inuyasha's were burning with emotion… with feeling. But the Sensei's eyes were… cold. Cold like ice. Enough to physically make her shiver.
Next Kagome noted, with surprise, the half-moon tattooed on the Sensei's forehead, which made Kagome blink. He didn't come across as a tattoo-kind-of-guy. (A/N: as for the red stripes on his face? They're not there. I'm just going to say that those are like war paint or something similar and can be washed off in the Feudal Era. I'm not going to have him walking around modern Japan with stripe things plastered on his face, he's just too cute for that. Sorry red stripe fans /)
"Class," The man started, his voice cold and emotionless. "Higurashi has just demonstrated something else which I will not allow in my classroom." The teacher turned away from her, his attention now focused on her fellow classmates. "Tardiness. It will not be accepted. First period beings at 8:15, and you are late as of 8:05. Is that clear?"
"Yes, Sensei." The entire class responded, their voices crisp and clear and formal. Kagome noticed the way all of his students sat up straight in their seats, they're bodies rigid, they're eyes locked on the front of the room. Kagome gulped. This guy must be tough.
"Ms. Higrashi, if it pleases you, you may give me your excuse for being late, though it will not serve to save you from a detention tomorrow afternoon."
Kagome cringed, detention on her first day of school. What would her father think when he called? "Well, I'm new here." Kagome started meekly, feeling that it was hopeless for her to be explaining herself now; she was going to get a detention anyway. "And my best friend, Rin… that's Otanachi, Rin, was going to show me to my classes today, but she was late for Sensei Dubose's science class, and I didn't really know my way around so I got… lost." Kagome said lamely, realizing that that was probably the same excuse every new kid told their teacher on the first day of school.
There was a long silence. Finally the silver-haired Sensie spoke. "I see…. I suppose I could over look this… once." He said, his voice still emotionless and coldly monotone.
Kagome blinked, the classroom seemed shocked. Everybody stared dumbly at her.
"You may have a seat, Ms. Higurashi. Please place yourself beside the other new student… Kambia, Koga."
"Thank you, Sensei." Kagome lowered her bow slightly before standing and looking around the classroom. The only empty seat was in the back, second row over from the window. And sitting at the window was an onyx-black haired boy with shocking crystal blue eyes that were very much like her own. He raised his hand in as if to get her attention, smiling. Gratefully she took the seat next to his.
He nodded at her as she sat down, and she smiled back at him. He seemed nice.
"Like I was saying before Ms. Higurashi's interruption." The Senei continued, sitting on his desk as if he were in a casual setting. Kagome watched the way he ran his fingers through his long silver hair, every movement deliberate and perfectly balanced. Maybe he was a dancer. She cringed at the way he glared at her when he said "interruption" clearly rubbing salt into the wound. How as she ever supposed to survive this class?
It was then that something kicked at her foot. Blinking, Kagome looked down to see a little crumpled piece of paper lying beside her shoe. She glanced at Koga, who kept his eyes locked straight ahead, not paying any obvious attention to her. And then, discretely, she stepped on the note and dragged it under her desk, she then pretended to adjust a strap on her sandal, picking up the note and curling it into her fingers as she did so.
"And further more, if you do not do well on this project, it will reflect poorly on your second term grades as well as the first."
'Geez, his guy is tough…' Kagome thought nervously to herself. She had no idea who in God's name she was supposed to fend for her own… this Sensei would slaughter her.
Turning her attention away from the teacher (A/N: not a smart move Kagome). She slowly she opened the note in her lap. She frowned at first, barely able to make out the messy scrawl, but after a few seconds she found it legible.
The Sensei's name is Hanyouri, Sesshomaru. And don't feel bad about earlier. The guy's a jerk. And I'm pretty sure he's gay.
Koga
Kagome smiled, folding the note and putting it her pocket. She turned to look at the boy sitting next to her. Koga winked, a smirk tilting his lips before he turned to look back at the teacher.
"Ms. Higrashi." Kagome whipped her head around to look directly at Sesshomaru, her stomach twisting.
"Sensei?"
"You weren't here to choose your partner like the rest of the class was so you are currently without. Fortunately for you, though, neither was Hanyouri, Inuyasha. So you two will be paired together as a result. You will be each writing papers on one another, so as to better get to know your partner. You will be given a sheet of questions tomorrow in class, the answers to which will serve as the basic foundation to your paper. The assignment must be completely finished by the end of the first term. No excuses. I'm expecting no less than a thousand pages from all of you, typed, single-spaced. No bigger than font twelve. Is that understood? "
Kagome nodded. The rest of the class looked horrified. Beside her, Koga coughed something that sounded suspiciously like "nutcase".
"But Sensei you can't pair her up with-" one girl started, sounding as if she were panicking. But all Sesshomaru had to do was look at her and she fell silent, the slightly frantic pitch in her voice fading into silence. Once Sesshomaru had resumed his lecturing, the girl who had piped up turned in her seat and gave Kagome a pitying look. Kagome wondered what it was for…