Thoughts and Feelings

"Jade! Wait!" Kagome called out as she jogged down the hallway. She saw Jade turn quickly and wave to her.

"What's up?" Jade asked.

"I just wanted to make sure that I understand the point of the copper wire experiment before I turn in the report. It seems too easy."

Jade nodded and shrugged simultaneously. "It is easy. But I'll still answer your questions"

"Alright, so the copper pulls the silver from aqueous silver nitrate and the copper pairs with the nitrate, but it asks how we know the copper attached to the nitrate."

"Yeah. You could see the solid silver hanging on the wire, so you know that part is true. The copper part is just as visible."

"Is it that why the solution turned blue?" Kagome smiled, happy to know her gut was right.

"Yep. The blueish-green color is a big indicator of copper and copper-related materials."

"So, the point of this experiment is showing us an oxidation and reduction reaction." Kagome stated.

"And to observe mass to mole relationships. Put that down, too. He's particular about answers and I have to grade by his rules." Jade insisted while wagging her finger. Kagome quickly scribbled it down inside her notebook to add to her report later and sighed.

"Thanks, Jade. This class would be a nightmare without you."

"Because you're not confident or because of Naraku?" Jade asked with a giggle.

"Yes." Kagome answered.

The two roommates bid each other goodbye; one walking away confidently and the other not in a hurry to reach her destination. Jade stood at the lab door, inhaling deeply and exhaling slowly before pushing it open and looking around. Naraku was sitting in a rolling chair with his eyes closed, slowly spinning a meter stick in his right hand. Jade saw the white wires of his earbuds slightly twisted in his wavy black hair. He opened his eyes and took one earbud out, raising an eyebrow.

"You are late." Naraku announced, pushing himself in the chair and paralleling Jade's path to her spot on the opposite side of the table. He slouched down and continued twirling the meter stick with his fingers.

"A student caught me in the hallway and asked me a question," Jade said.

"Really? They asked you?" he retorted with amusement.

"It was about the silver nitrate lab, so, yeah." Jade placed her hands on her hips and shrugged. It was Kagome who had asked her the question, but he didn't need to know that. Jade wondered if it stung his pride knowing someone came to her and not him.

"I suppose you are the more approachable one," Naraku admitted. The meter stick stopped spinning.

'Yep. It bothers him.' Jade thought, holding back a smile. She turned and looked at the door when it opened, feeling her good mood slip when she saw it was Sesshomaru. She couldn't deny the bitterness she felt about him shattering the slides she made. They were her first slides and she wanted to know if they turned out fine, but now she would never know.

"I left a stack of papers on my desk and it disappeared. What did you do with it?" Sesshomaru asked aloud, closing the door behind him.

"You are speaking to," Naraku trailed off questioningly, pocketing his phone and earbuds.

"Where are my papers?" Sesshomaru repeated, his tone hardened. He marched past Jade towards the sink.

"Where are his papers, Jade?" Naraku asked in a serious tone matching Sesshomaru's, pointing the meter stick at her.

"Knowing you, they're a pile of ash somewhere." Jade answered quickly.

"Don't bring her into this." Sesshomaru warned coldly. Jade side-glanced at him with shock. She didn't expect that from him. She looked back at Naraku and realized he was staring straight at her.

'Damn. He saw that.' Jade raised her eyebrows, expecting some quirky statement from Naraku. Instead, he slowly slid the meter stick across the table, pushing her notebooks onto the floor.

"Have you checked the trash cans?" Naraku asked, keeping his eyes on Jade.

"You're just sending me on a wild goose chase. I'm not interested."

"How many trash cans and recycling bins are in this building, I wonder? They have to be in one of them."

"I'm sticking with my original answer of, "pile of ash." Can you reprint them, Sesshomaru?" Jade asked, bending over to pick up her notebooks. Naraku saw Sesshomaru look at her to answer, but then he stopped and stared at her, as if he was shocked that she addressed him. When Jade stood back up, she saw Sesshomaru's eyes aimed down and flinched.

"What was your question?" Sesshomaru inquired, blinking. Jade frowned and smiled at the same time. It was such a painful expression, too, but she didn't know how else to react.

"Were you just...checking me out?"

"I don't think that was your question, but no, I wasn't."

"Uh-huh," Jade replied, her nervous giggling surfacing.

"I'll second that, Jade. He definitely was not checking you out. Why would he?" Naraku asked, receiving glares from both labmates for entirely different reasons.

"Why wouldn't he?" Jade argued bitterly, thinking Sesshomaru was a butt man.

"One reason," Naraku help up a finger, watching as Sesshomaru's hands balled into fists. "You're too old."

"Uh," Jade choked, but Sesshomaru had already vaulted onto the table, and Naraku's hysterical laughter had filled the room.

"Weeee!" Naraku teased as he pushed his rolling chair away from the psychotic Sesshomaru with a single kick. Naraku leapt out of the chair and threw the meter stick at him. Sesshomaru knocked it and the chair aside, chasing after him vehemently. Naraku ripped the lab door open, but that was his downfall as Sesshomaru's hands latched onto his shoulders and pulled him back into the lab and slammed him onto the floor. He was still cackling and Jade was glued in place.

"Leave." Sesshomaru ordered her, his eyes fixated on Naraku. "I want no witnesses."

"Ooookay," Jade agreed, almost jogging to the door. She did not want to redirect any of that anger simmering beneath his skin to herself.

"I'm so excited!" Naraku chuckled, pushing himself up on his elbows.

"You're fucking dead!" Sesshomaru shouted as Jade closed the door behind her. She walked to the other side of the hallway, leaning against the wall and crossing her arms. She heard the various grunts, thumps of fists hitting skin, angered curses, and Naraku's laughter. She also heard glass shattering and the loud wail of wood scratching the floor. Jade assumed the main table was receiving some abuse, too. She nodded awkwardly to a couple of students walking by, both who glanced at the door worriedly, but they continued walking, as if they knew better than to get involved.

"You promise me with a good time and that's all you've got? I'm insulted!" Naraku announced as he opened the door, but as soon as he cracked it open, Jade saw the enraged Sesshomaru tackle Naraku into the door, slamming it shut and causing the entire doorway to shutter with the force.

"Hahahahaha! Get fuckin' wrecked, dude!" Jade burst into laughter, holding her stomach with her hands when her laughter began to hurt. Naraku deserved it and the fact that his arrogant face was just bounced off a door made it even sweeter for her. She could only imagine the throbbing revenge boner Sesshomaru had at this point. The door opened again after a moment of silence, Sesshomaru standing at the entrance this time.

"It looks like you have time to grab a snack. Naraku decided to take a little nap." Sesshomaru said calmly, adjusting the collar of his shirt, which was missing a few buttons. His straight, white hair was now a disheveled mess and his lip was bleeding, along with a nice bruise already developing on his right cheek.

"Um," Jade didn't know what to say and Sesshomaru didn't wait. He strode down the hall as if nothing happened. Jade looked around, but people were in classes or in their offices. She slowly approached the laboratory door, brushing past it slowly. On the other side of the door was a smear of blood.

'Probably Naraku's.' Jade assumed, giggling as the image of him being splattered across the door replayed in her head. Jade didn't have to look for Naraku, as he was sprawled out on the floor at the entrance. However, the dark blue blanket that was usually draped over the back of the lab couch was now carefully placed over his body. Jade squeezed her mouth with her hands, snorting loudly.

'Oh my God, they're both psychopaths!' she realized, the tears of joy, and fear, rolling down her face.

It took a few more minutes, but Naraku finally regained consciousness. Jade stood over him, bent over slightly. He blinked a few times, his eyes adjusting to the light of the lab.

"How long was I out?" he asked, slowly sitting up and tossing the blanket from his body.

"Eh, I wasn't really counting." Jade responded. Naraku blinked again and looked up at her with a frown.

"How long would you have waited before thinking something was wrong?" he asked her.

"Hey, you called that dude a pedophile and he beat you like an unwanted step-child. You're lucky he stopped."

"I did not call him a pedophile. Besides, I landed a few hits on him." Naraku said with a small whine, but he was smiling again.

"You know what you meant with that comment. He walked out with a bruise, a bloody lip, and messy hair. You got knocked the fuck out, had a blanket placed over you, and you have a gash on your forehead. He won." Jade insisted as she backed away from him. Naraku rose to his feet slowly, pressing his hand to his forehead and examining the blood, which was now slowly dripping down his face.

"It's a cut." Naraku corrected.

"Whatever." Jade whispered with a smile.

After Naraku cleaned himself up and placed a bandage on his forehead not-a-gash, he walked to the closet and began pulling out large trash bags. Jade could hear the familiar hollow clanking of plastic bottles used for samples. She stood from her seat and brushed her shirt off lightly.

"These all need to be filled with cleaning acid and shoved into various ovens for a day." Naraku stated, shaking the bags.

"All?" Jade repeated.

"Oh yes, we will be starting with phosphorus extractions,"

"Question,"

"Yes, it's a torturous process." Naraku said flatly.

"No, no, I was wondering if it's necessary to do all two hundred samples."

"What makes you ask?"

"Well, I noticed the labels were half-centimeter increments, but I was thinking that doing an extraction on every half-centimeter seems like overkill. If we plot them on the graph, every one or two centimeters will follow the same trend as half-centimeters." Jade explained, now swaying slowly and nervously while biting her lips. Naraku smiled at her before looking down at the floor.

"You are correct.." Naraku lowered the bags. "Going by centimeter increments would show the same trend."

"Buuuuuuut you're still going to make me do all two hundred,"

"Hell no. I have to teach you, which means I am in the same boat as you. Two hundred samples will be two-thousand by Monday, and that doesn't include the last fraction which is an entirely different process than the first three." Naraku explained. "I'm sadistic, not suicidal."

"So, half?"

"Half." he agreed. "We still need over a thousand bottles to be cleaned and labeled. Follow me."

000000

"You've never weighed sediment before?" Naraku asked, picking up one of the labeled tubes with sediment in them.

"No. I mean, weighing these out to exactly a thousandth of a gram is aggravating, but not hard." Jade answered as she packed her notebooks and books into her backpack.

"You did it so quickly."

"Sorry?" Jade answered uncertainly. She wasn't sure where he was getting at, but she didn't have time to decipher Naraku's bullshit, nor did she have the patience. She was getting ready to meet up with Koga to attempt to smooth things over with him, so she needed all of her energy to focus on that knob instead.

"No, I'm impressed." Naraku stated, placing the tube back into the styrofoam holder alongside its brethren. Jade's smile activated before she could stop it. But at the same time, receiving a compliment from Naraku was exciting and rare. He glanced at her and raised an eyebrow. "But like you said, it isn't hard."

"Can you just...let me have this one? Please?" Jade's smile was now a frustrated scowl and her hands were balled into fists.

"Do you honestly crave my acceptance so badly?" Naraku teased, but Jade knew he smelled blood in the water. It was time to abort.

"No, I just wanted one nice thing to tell my roommate so she wouldn't use you for her competitive bitch-toss practice."

"I would love to see her try."

"I know you would." Jade pulled her backpack on as she headed to the door. "See you Friday, Daddy."

"Stop that." Naraku bit. The door was closing, but Jade quickly shoved her hand into the opening, flashing him the middle finger before shutting the door. Naraku waited a moment to make sure she wouldn't do it again before snorting and smiling.

Jade walked through the spinning door of the coffee shop, pulling her sunglasses from her face and hooking them onto the collar of her shirt. She saw a hand wave and nodded, heading in the direction of Koga. She placed her backpack in the vacant seat beside the window and sat in the chair next to the isle, across from Koga. The tables and chairs were all made of a dark, thick wood, and the shop building was made of entirely red brick, which had various paintings of flowers, comic book characters, and celebrities spread across each wall. The light from the tall windows and door at the front illuminated the shop well, but each table had its own little lamp with lace shades for the evening hours. Jade grabbed a menu from the other end of the table and inhaled deeply. She had only been in the shop once or twice, so she barely remembered what was served other than every coffee imaginable.

"Hey," Koga said, breaking the awkward silence.

"Heyyyy," Jade's answer was dragged out and her skepticism leaked into her tone. Koga held up a hand and closed his eyes.

"I know, I know. I come in peace." he said.

"I feel like my friend shouldn't have to tell me that." Jade responded in a small voice. Koga opened his eyes, but looked away and nodded.

"Yeah, you're right." he agreed. "Are we friends, though?"

The question drove a knife through Jade's heart and she stared back at him; a mixture of anger, shock, and betrayal stirring in her chest. Still, she smiled...or was it a grin? A part of her wanted to leave, but she couldn't. Not yet.

"You're the one who started this." Jade said calmly as she pointed at him vehemently.

"Yeah, and I've been trying to talk to you about it and you've dodged me every time."

"Mm, I can't imagine why," Jade replied, her hands cupped together as she rested her elbows on the table. She used her cupped hands to cover her mouth. She could still see a faint purple color on his cheek and she didn't want him to see her fighting away her smile.

"Look, what I did was impulsive,"

"And stupid, and hurtful, and completely out of line." Jade added. "You asked me to throw it for you."

"I know!"

"And your ass hasn't admitted that to anyone, has it?"

"No." Koga exhaled. "Not yet."

"So, why am I here? You don't think we're friends, you haven't admitted to your breaking of the rules,"

"Neither have you."

"You have no evidence other than a joke made by my friend who knows nothing about fighting games. I have no evidence on you other than everyone knows exactly how you are. Yet, you cast the first stone."

"You weren't going to tell anyone? Really?" Koga asked her aggressively.

"No. So, let me get this straight, you got paranoid and instead of trusting me as your friend, you decided to make your move first, make me miserable, piss off a portion of our viewers and donors, unite the fighting game community against yourself, and because none of that went your way, you cut my hours at work, tried to act like nothing had happened, and then when you realized that wasn't working, you decided to invite me here to talk things out, just to tell me you don't think we're friends and that you haven't and probably won't admit to breaking the rules, but you will make damn sure that I'm held responsible. Is that about right?" Jade recited venomously, indicating each infraction with her fingers.

"You didn't hang out with us as much as you said you would, you've been focused on your science stuff, and you're friends with Kagome, who I'm trying to date, and,"

"Stop." Jade interrupted, holding her hand up. "If this stems from the fact that she has told you no, mind you, without me telling her anything about you because the night she told you no, you promised to stream with us and I had no idea you were going for her...I can't believe you. I'm done." Jade stood from the table abruptly.

"Jade, I'm sorry!" Koga said loudly. Jade stared back at him.

"What do you want from me?"

"I just want this all to stop, okay? Your silence has made this worse on every front, especially at work."

"I don't feel bad."

"That's fine! I just...what can I do to make this right?" Koga asked. Jade pulled her backpack on and shook her head while grinning.

"You know what you need to do. When you do it, I'll be ready to talk, and we can smooth this over before we lose too many viewers or Pack members. We've lost three members already."

"Can you at least talk to Ginta? He's been a mess because you won't."

"I still don't feel bad. Neither of you considered my feelings in the situation."

"You know he cares about you, Jade. Come on. He's had feelings for you for years." Koga insisted with a whine. Jade placed both hands on the table and leaned in.

"And neither of you considered my feelings." she repeated slowly and seriously. Koga closed his mouth and swallowed hard, but he broke eye contact first, looked down at the table and nodded.

"I'll set things straight, Jade. I promise. Just, is there a way...can we work through this? As friends? Is there still a chance for that?"

"Show me that you want to. I didn't pull this shit. You did." Jade responded bitterly as she turned around to leave the shop. She placed her sunglasses on and pushed through the door to walk back to campus and her car. She tried to think of things that made her happy; her loyal viewers, Sango and Kagome, Sango's cat, Kirara, learning about the different microscopic lifeforms and how they survive, Naraku's compliment….

'He's made me smile more in the past month than my close friend of six years. Gross.' Jade gave a small laugh, wiping away the few tears that had fallen down her face.

000000

Bitter! It was so incredibly bitter! Naraku had tasted countless teas and coffees, and plenty of cuisines, but the purple liquid was so bitter, it was almost otherworldly. It didn't taste like it belonged on Earth and it certainly didn't act like it, either. The other week it was crystallizing, then the crystals dissolved, and now it was back at its stable liquid form. It was so baffling to Naraku that he had stopped being angry about it days ago.

"It was just a drop," he complained, swishing a shot of cheap vodka around in his mouth before spitting it back into the cup. The bitterness didn't care, as the taste still crept through his mouth. He didn't know why he wanted to taste it, but he did. Naraku decided to take a nap after his Research Methods class to give himself some extra energy for the extractions later that evening and when he woke up, the idea appeared in his head, as if someone hit a switch. Taste it. Does it taste like blood or does it taste earthy? Does it even have a taste? Would it make him sick or crystallize his tongue?

"It just deepened my regret, is all. Foolish me." Naraku said in a low voice, taking the cup of cheap vodka and saliva to the kitchen. He cleaned the cup and placed it on the drying rack, glancing at the time on his microwave. It was four. He had an hour to pack and prepare himself before meeting Jade in the lab.

Naraku pulled out a pair of worn jeans and slipped them on. He tossed a couple pairs of boxers, a couple of T-shirts, his deodorant, toothbrush and toothpaste onto his bed. After brushing his hair, he added the brush to the pile. He folded his clothes neatly, pressing out any wrinkles, and placed them in a black duffle bag. He placed his toothbrush in its protective container and dropped it in his bag with his other items.

'I'll come home and shower during one of our breaks,' he decided, hanging his towel up. 'I can feed the angry pig then, too.'

He sliced through an apple quickly, eating a slice and carrying another to the guinea pig's cage. Normally, the pig would almost fly out of his plastic igloo and grab his food enthusiastically, but ever since his encounter with the gem, the guinea pig was apprehensive about Naraku's presence.

"You act like I'm going to eat you." Naraku scolded the pig softly, wiggling the slice of apple enticingly. He could hear the agitated teeth-chattering, so he dropped the slice in the food bowl on top of the pellets. The guinea pig would eat it eventually. Naraku walked back to the kitchen and finished cutting various fruits and veggies, scraping them into individual bags and then placing all of those into a bigger bag.

Once he finished gathering his clothes, food, and papers for his thesis and classes, Naraku placed the bags of his items on the couch, checking his phone. He was going to be late, but it didn't matter. Because of his insistence, though much to Jade's annoyance, all the bottles they needed were cleaned, labeled, and ready, and the sediment samples had been weighed out and prepared. That meant that when the samples had to sit or shake for an hour or two, he and Jade could actually take a break to nap or work on assignments, instead of worrying about cleaning the next batch of bottles while mixing and buffering the chemicals for the following rounds of extraction torture.

'I wish I could figure out what to do with the blood solution. My first problem was breaking the gem down and now that I have, I'm stuck again.' Naraku walked to his office and picked up the glass tube holding said solution, gently swishing it around. He didn't want to leave it, but he didn't want to risk Jade finding out, either. Then, an idea popped into his head.

"I could mix a drop of it with the pig's water. He is a guinea pig, I am a scientist, and I need to observe what this would do, if anything, to a living organism." Naraku said aloud, still swishing the liquid around. But, he still couldn't do it now. He wouldn't be home to observe anything. He also doubted the guinea pig would fall for it. The animal seemed to sense it or smell it on Naraku, because he avoided his keeper at all costs whenever Naraku handled the liquid. If Naraku mixed it with the water, he was sure the guinea pig would choose dehydration over touching anything that smelled like the solution. No. He needed something unbiased, something that had no idea about it, therefore, couldn't taint or fix any results, and something he could keep an eye on for long periods of time.

'Something like Jade. She can be my guinea pig.'

000000

"Goodbye, cat. I'm sure you won't miss me." Jade stated jokingly as she held Kirara in the air. Kirara mewed and flicked her tail in response.

"She likes you. Otherwise, she'd never let you hold her like that." Sango remarked, fluffing up her hair with her hands. She had just returned home from work and changed clothes just in time to bid Jade good luck and goodbye.

"I found a box for you." Jade said to the cat, placing her on the floor and grabbing said box from the dining table. She dropped it on the floor and within seconds, Kirara launched herself inside. Jade giggled and looked at Sango, who was giving the wall the thousand-yard stare. Jade opened her mouth to say something, but Sango's eyes darted back to her.

"I don't like this," she began, prompting an immediate groan from Jade.

"It's fine. I will be fine. I'll send you texts."

"You're not going to be honest about it."

"Look, from what I've read, this extraction process was sponsored by Satan and Hitler, so I could be teamed up with the nicest person in the world, and still be miserable." Jade pointed out, her hands resting on her hips.

"That's true, I guess." Sango relented, deciding to let this discussion go. She didn't want to upset Jade more than she already was. "What will you do about art class on Monday?"

"I'll be there," Jade sang with uncertainty. "Physically."

"I can't wait to see what your drawings look like when you're sleep deprived." Sango snickered. Jade pursed her lips and shook her head in response. "Oh, Kagome made cookies for you! I almost forgot!" Sango ran to the fridge and pulled out a tupperware container with various cookies inside.

"Holy shit." Jade said, taking the box gingerly, as if it was so pure her touch would taint it.

"She also said to let her know when you're hungry. She'll bring you food so you're not driving while exhausted."

"Alright."

"Don't share them with Naraku." Sango ordered, pointing at the container of cookies.

"He doesn't eat sweets...I think." Jade said. "Anyway, you have fun on your trip to the Not-A-Sex-Dungeon with Miroku."

"We're going to an aquarium and I'm going to draw something I see there. What are you going to draw in the middle of your science stuff?"

"My tears."

"You have a warped sense of humor."

"I have to cope somehow."

"Touche'."

Jade closed her car door and waved to Sango, who backed up and drove away first. Jade pulled her seatbelt on and inhaled deeply. She wanted to be ready for this, she wanted to be able to look herself in the eyes in her rearview mirror and tell herself she was ready like she did at any tournament...but it would be a lie. Jade gripped her steering wheel and looked down for a moment, trying to control her breathing.

'He won't do anything. He wants to get this done just as much as I do. He won't hurt me. He won't.' Jade tried to reassure herself, but the trembling in her hands had already begun. Up until this point, she had spent limited time with Naraku on purpose. She didn't mind the night they got high together because he was actually somewhat pleasant after he was done being upset, of course. Her time spent with him had been hours, not days, and those hours felt like eternities. Naraku exhausted her mentally more often than not.

"I'll survive." Jade said aloud. She felt the pressure leave her chest for a moment. She could believe that much. It was going to be agonizing, but she would survive.

A/N - Thanks for the kind reviews. I'm glad you're enjoying this story.