Kagome spent the next week with Asami, picking out both the hemi's and her own kimonos for the ball the following Saturday. Asami wanted Kagome to wear a dark kimono to accent her 'dark' features but Kagome had managed to talk her into a neutral green color with bamboo stalks with a blue obi covered in tan swirls. Asami picked an ivory white with shimmering blue cranes with a lavender obi for herself.
Kagome had spent hours on end with the girl being taught etiquette, which was very different from what she'd seen in the feudal world above. Even Sesshomaru needed a little help with what was expected, though he caught on much quicker and didn't argue like Kagome did. Asami taught the school girl several complicated dances which left her so tired by the time they finished, she could barely remember the steps. Sesshomaru had refused on dancing lessons stating very seriously 'this Sesshomaru does not dance.' Kagome couldn't help but wonder how well that would go over with the birthday girl at the Ball.
Kagome stood in the girl's room on a pedestal for the seamstress to finish the final fitting. The seamstress somehow had remand silent through all of the hemi's orders of tightening here and letting out there. "You'll look marvelous, Kagome," Asami gushed. "I can't wait."
"Your kimono will look wonderful too, Asami," Kagome replied her arms stretched out for the pin to be placed. She'd been standing like this for nearly an hour and she was tired.
"How did you and Sesshomaru manage to get down here?" Asami asked, lifting the back of her kimono to double check a seam. "Running away together?" she teased with a glint in her eye.
Kagome jumped and the pin went into her shoulder. "Sesshomaru and me? Together?! Oh, no! Sesshomaru and I can barely stand each other! Getting stuck down here was an accident!"
"That's not what I think," Asami said shaking a finger at her.
"I'm friends with Sesshomaru's half-brother whom he despises," she told the girl. "Sesshomaru hates me by association."
Asami sniffed her neck. "Well, you smell just like him. How can you not be lovers?"
"We share a room, Asami, how can't I smell like him?" She said. Not to mention he's been helping me dress for the last four days.
Sesshomaru had been insistent on helping her. True, Kagome had no idea what she was doing, but she just couldn't believe the daiyokai was the only one able to help her. This morning she'd been to beside herself on him helping she'd made a mad dash for the bell that sat on the table to call for a servant. Sesshomaru had actually held her back as she struggled. Later, she noted, the bell was gone from the table and there was a distinct bell shape under Sesshomaru's obi. The sick perv actually wants to dress me in the morning. She shuddered. Or he just enjoys my pain and shame that much. More than likely the second.
"Well, that will just thrill my sister, then," Asami said with a chill in her voice.
"What do you mean?"
"Sesshomaru's ripe for the pickings," Asami said. "And Tomoyo will have first choice."
"Ah," Kagome said simply. Asami made a sad face since she hadn't tricked Kagome into admitting her undying love for the yokai. Kagome sighed when she saw the girl's face. "Let it drop, Asami. I don't love Sesshomaru in any way, shape, or form." Sesshomaru wouldn't be happy with the tone she used with the hemi; he'd find it too informal. But Kagome had come to think of the girl as a friend and Asami would rather be a child than a princess.
"But there is a man," she said with the dangerous flash in her yellow eyes.
"Well," Kagome said slowly looking everywhere except at the girl.
"Oh, I knew it!" Asami cried. "What's his name? Who is he? No- let me guess. It's," she pondered for a moment, "Sesshomaru's half-brother! That's why Sesshomaru hates him so much!"
"That's not why Sesshomaru hates InuYasha," Kagome muttered under her breath.
"But you love him?" Asami pointed out.
"InuYasha's my best friend, I don't love him," she said. Or at least that's what I keep telling myself. "Besides, InuYasha loves someone else."
Asami either didn't hear or chose to ignore the last part. "You have to love one of them!"
"Do I really only get two choices?" Kagome asked sarcastically.
"There's a third man?" Asami cried in surprise. Kagome gave her a horrified face.
"I was right again! Ooo, what's his name?"
Kagome sighed in defeat. "Koga." Asami's interest in Kagome's twisted love life was giving even her a head ache.
"And you love him?" Asami asked with big eyes and disbelief. Kagome knew what the girl was thinking: how can one girl have so many love interests?
"Koga loves me," Kagome told her girl with an exhausted tone. "He calls me his woman."
"Why not?" Asami asked. "What's so wrong with this guy? Sounds like a winner to me. Some up front about his love." Asami lay down, propping her head up in her palm, giving Kagome her full attention.
"Koga's so-so…full of himself," she said exasperated. "He and InuYasha fight all the time."
"Over you?" Asami said grinning.
"Over Koga's interest in me," she said. "But InuYasha just doesn't like him around, not because he's jealous."
"And InuYasha? Why don't you love him?" she asked tilting her head and jumping straight into the next guy since Koga was obviously not Mr. Right.
"InuYasha's difficult, won't listen to anyone, insulting, and loud," she ranted. She added under her breath: "and he loves Kikyo."
She sprawled out, draping and arm across her forehead. "How romantic. Kagome, it's just like a drama. You're a beautiful girl with men hanging on you. Koga, the sweet and straight forward. InuYasha the protective one. And Sesshomaru, the dangerous, dark, and silent."
"You do them all far too much justice. And Sesshomaru's not even in the running," she told the girl. "I've never had a love interest with him."
"Liar," the hemi said wickedly
"You're thirteen, what do you know about love?" Kagome snapped in defense.
Asami stood up and strolled around Kagome like a predator. "I know you flush when I mention his name and you're heart speeds up," she said poking the girl. "You always give him side long glances."
"That's because he scares me, to be quite honest," she said putting her chin up in defiance. She sounded unsure even to herself. "Sesshomaru has a temper; I wouldn't put it past him to kill me."
"He won't kill you, because he does the same thing," the girl said. Kagome knew she was falling for her trap, but she couldn't help but gasp, causing the seamstress to poke her again and cluck angrily. She still didn't say anything and Kagome was surprised she hadn't been told to stand still with all the dancing she'd been doing over this apprehensive conversation. "What are you talking about?"
"Oh, nothing," she said. "Just that, maybe getting stuck down here together wasn't an accident like you claim."
"It was on my part," Kagome said defiantly.
"'It takes two to make it true'." Asami quoted and snickered joyously and Kagome's embarrassment.
"Let's back track a little," Kagome said. "Why would Tomoyo be interested in Sesshomaru?"
"Please, Kagome, even you with your "hatred" to Sesshomaru have to have noticed he's beautiful," Asami said rolling her eyes. Kagome sighed and gave her a look. "Fine, I'll explain how it works. This is Tomoyo's sixteenth birthday. She's getting official introduced as heiress to mama's kingdom. Part of the whole Ball is to get mating offers. If Tomoyo doesn't get offers- which she will because she's gorgeous- her next choice is her date. Who is Sesshomaru."
Kagome looked at the girl with an appalled gaze. "But there's no chance in that, right? You said she'd get a lot of offers."
Asami shook her head. "Tomoyo's demanding, she'll get whatever she wants. She changes her mind like none other but she's been super excited about going to her Ball with Sesshomaru. Unless she sees something she likes better- which I doubt because she's been dead set- Sesshomaru won't have a choice."
Kagome stared at the girl, lost for words.
Sesshomaru's gonna be furios!putting her chin up in defianceext guy since Koga was obviously not Mr. Right.d Asami would rather be a child than a princess.e
