Author's Note: The visitor's page says that three people from Qatar read this story. Qatar! I did not know where that was, until today! It humbles me. Thank you for reading.
If anyone cares, I have lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma – Cleveland, Ohio – Durham, North Carolina – New York, New York – Puebla, Mexico – and in Utrecht, Netherlands. I only count a city on my list, if I have been there for many months or years. Vacationing doesn't do it. But studying abroad, that counts.
Someone from Qatar should tell me about it, please? : ) Are you three people still reading?
A Distant Promise – Mini-Chapter # 34
White and gold.
It was happening again – she was getting a crush on a dog-demon with white hair and golden eyes. One might think fate had it in for her. And how would she tell her grandfather that her latest obsession had a son at least 300 years older than she was, who looked to be nearly the same age? Ah, life's little difficulties.
To be fair, all of this was not Kagome's fault. The taiyoukai represented more than just a memory of exciting times, in the past. He had changed over the years – not too much, but enough that she noticed. Perhaps she perceived the differences even more strongly than others.
For the same reason that she had been shocked to watch Satoshi doing simple acts like laughing or frowning, Kagome caught herself watching for these signs in her current companion, as well. Obviously, now that she was paying attention to such details, she realized Sesshoumaru was 'human'… relatively speaking… in all the important ways. He had emotions, even if he did not display them prominently. Ironically, this made her wonder if his personality had always been in place, like this, and she had simply not been attentive enough to him before.
Furthermore, it was practically cliché, what he represented for the rest of society, at this point. When other people looked at him, they saw someone fashionably dressed, rich, highly intelligent, determined and hard-working. An over-achiever and a business leader. Although Kagome did not view Sesshoumaru differently because of who he was today, she comprehended how others must view him. It was almost funny. In her mind, he had always been a bit of a Lone Wolf, not a vision of society's Golden Boy. But times changed, and he transformed with the era.
In fact, he was far more well-adjusted than she had ever been, in the feudal era. She had resolutely worn her sailor fuku, lugged around a bright, yellow pack, and bathed almost nightly, with modern soaps and supplies. Her attitude toward the past was practically disrespectful. Clinging to modern conveniences like that… it implied the past was best left behind.
After a while, Sesshoumaru reached over and pushed a tiny piece of hair off her cheek. Abruptly, Kagome realized that she had been staring at him for several minutes, drawing his gaze. With a blush, she turned to face their table companions, once more. Honestly! He was a person, not a spectator sport!
At their table, the two men sitting across from her did not notice anything wrong. They were chatting with each other, in Mandarin Chinese, and it seemed like Sesshoumaru could understand them perfectly well – but at the moment, he was not sharing information. Hmph.
The dinner was fantastic – fresh sushi, sashimi, tempura, rice balls, an entire array of meat, curry, noodle dishes, and anything else she might wish to order… But the beginning of the party had been better than the meal! At first, everyone had mingled and moved about the private gathering. It was only when they took seats that these other (rude) guests had descended upon the table. Really, if they were in Japan, then shouldn't they speak Japanese? For her benefit?
Luckily, her companion made an effort to distract her, periodically. It was not until this very moment, actually, in which she fell silent. Recognizing her growing attachment to Sesshoumaru, that was stressful.
She wasn't supposed to like him.
He was Inuyasha's brother, and she liked Inuyasha. And Shippo had put forth such effort to ensure that she would meet with her old love-interest, again! Yet rather than show gratitude, she had disregarded the idea, stating that Inuyasha should visit her, instead of the other way around… The entire relationship had fallen apart, and that was all Inuyasha's fault, wasn't it?
With a sigh, she poked at her food.
Maybe everything was not Inuyasha's fault, not totally. After all, she had not come home to visit him, even once, that first semester at the university. On the other hand, she found ample time to visit Sesshoumaru.
Interrupting her thoughts, since she had been quiet for more than five minutes (which was a sign of impending doom and disaster, where Kagome was concerned), Sesshoumaru asked, "Would you like to switch to a different table?"
Wide-eyed, Kagome looked up at him. "What? N-no, this is fine."
He did not seem convinced, but accepted her answer. "When you finish eating, I believe, there are several games and activities in the back room."
A small smirk crept onto her face, at last. "Which you are dying to play…"
"No," corrected the taiyoukai somberly, "I was planning to watch you make a fool of yourself, without my help."
Prodding him firmly in the chest with one finger, she announced that she would not participate in any activities planned by evil electronic corporations, without a company representative there to assist her. This outburst was enough to draw the other two men out of their discussion, and back into her conversation. After all, if she was going to brood silently, then their companions would not necessarily make an effort to get to know her. But when she did lively, audacious things like jabbing a corporate executive in the shirt with her pointer finger, then without a doubt, everyone else at the table wanted to be a part of the dialogue.
Kagome tried her very hardest to allow the other people at the party to divert her from her thoughts.
However, white and gold loomed in the back of her mind. Even when she could not see the true color of his hair and his eyes, due to a concealment spell, it still managed to distract her.