Okay, I had a Kagome Inuyasha part. Can everyone stop harassing me now? Will the harassment only get worse because they're not being cute and EVERY OTHER COUPLE IS? If said harassment does grow worse, will Teresa really just let Inuyasha and Kagome be alone forever? Back to the real plot, is Kikyo going to find out about that Mountain Dew sharing and get super miffed? And what's with Ayame? Will her dead slug eyebrows render her incapable of garnering the interest of Kouga from Kagura? Are her and Kohaku in some weird contest to see who can capture the interest of their already-taken object of affection? Isn't it sad that Souta's like the only person in the play getting less action than Kohaku? Why is it that no one asks where those two are? Only Inuyasha and Kagome…geez. Let's see if I can ignore more main characters in this newest serving of…
*****
Center Stage
Part 17
*****
"I missed you so much." Rin burrowed deeper into the cocoon of warm flesh and blankets that surrounded her the morning after Sesshoumaru's return. "Remember the time you had to go on that trip to America for a month?"
"Don't remind me." Sesshoumaru grumbled, still half asleep despite the light filling his room from the sun beaming in through his window. He pressed his lips to her throat momentarily. "I'm home now, and I'm not leaving again anytime soon."
"Mmm…remember when my dad used to think you were too old for me so you'd lead me astray?" Rin giggled at the lips tickling her collarbone. "And so I snuck out and you brought me back in acting all upset…so he decided that you were a good influence?"
"It worked well, didn't it?" Sesshoumaru's voice was a low rumble as he returned to Rin's throat, which he enjoyed kissing immensely.
"Mmm…remember when we first met?" she asked, her hand roaming over his chest. "Inuyasha's thirteenth birthday party?"
"Of course." Sesshoumaru kissed her chin on his way to her ear.
"Kagome brought Kouga, so Inuyasha was pouting the whole time." She recalled. "I'd heard all kinds of things about you already, but when I met you, I just thought you were beautiful…and kind of sad looking. Lonely."
"I didn't have many friends." Sesshoumaru nuzzled behind her ear before pulling back, amber eyes meeting swirling grey. "No one seemed to want to really know me before I met you."
"I just thought that you looked alone, and I thought it was the saddest thing. Someone so perfect that no one could love them? It seemed wrong to me, so I brought you cake and talked to you the whole time even though you didn't say anything back." Rin sighed, reaching forward to stroke the side of his face.
"You made me a paper flower, and I kept it." Sesshoumaru added. "After that, I'd make it a point to give you a different flower every time I saw you. I'd never given girls flowers before."
"I thought it was the sweetest thing…and then on my sixteenth birthday, you told me you loved me and gave me a rose." Rin smiled at him.
"I still love you, Rin." He told her seriously.
"And I love you, my prince." She assured him. After a pause, she burrowed her face into his chest. "Do you…do you think that Kagome and Inuyasha will still be able to get together?"
"I don't know." He admitted. "Are we to intervene?"
"Not yet, maybe. But I think we should do something." Rin sighed. "He's your brother, after all, and they're both my close friends. I'd hate for them to be unhappy."
"And I'd hate for you to be unhappy, my flower." Sesshoumaru assured her. "It would certainly please his mother. She's been convinced those two will wed since they were in the first grade."
"Do you think they can be as happy as us?" she asked, kissing his chin.
"No one will ever be that happy." He told her before kissing her deeply. This was where he belonged.
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"This really is coming together nicely. We have six more weeks until opening, and if everyone keeps up the good work, the performance will be great." Sango beamed at everyone. "Now, I have two more things to say, and then we can all get home. First of all, it's come to my attention that even though I never appointed a stage manager, one of the crew has taken it upon himself to be a leader and an organizer backstage. Thanks a lot, Kohaku. From now on, you're the official stage manager, and good work so far."
"Uh, thanks." Kohaku blushed as he noticed Rin beaming at him from where she stood next to Sesshoumaru.
"Also, I know I've been difficult at times, and I'd like to thank you all for dealing with my moods. To make it up to you, I'd like to invite the cast and crew to my house for a part on New Years Eve. Also, rehearsals are hereby cancelled until the second of January due to holidays. Merry Christmas, everyone!" she beamed at them, her happiness and easygoing ways the opposite of what they'd expected from the usually strict and stressed out writer.
"No rehearsal? Fucking sweet." Inuyasha's words seemed to be the general consensus as the rest of the cast and crew were cheering or talking excitedly.
"And Miroku and I made cookies for everyone! We're giving them out now for anyone that wants some." Sango had to shout out that last bit to be heard as Miroku and her stood, opening a pair of containers filled with festively decorated cookies.
"Wow, Sango's like…high on life lately, isn't she?" Kagome asked Inuyasha. Kikyo snorted and rolled her eyes.
"Maybe she's bipolar or something." Kikyo suggested. She was still very openly hostile around Kagome, but the feeling was obviously mutual.
"Maybe I didn't ask you." Kagome had made up her mind that Kikyo was easily the most evil and twisted individual she had ever known.
"Maybe you should keep away from my boyfriend and let Naraku keep you busy." Kikyo's voice was very bitter.
"Don't you dare bring him into this." Kagome's voice was deadly serious. She was never more intimidating than when she was defending her friends from potential threats. Inuyasha's brow furrowed in confusion. Why would Kagome be protecting Naraku from Kikyo?
"Kikyo?" he began, looking utterly befuddled.
"Naraku's my cousin." Her voice was brittle, as if there were a crack forming along the surface of her composure and it was about to split in half.
"That's not all he is, is it?" Kagome stepped toward Kikyo in challenge. "A little close, aren't you?"
"Don't." Kikyo's voice was much colder than Kagome's, and as she stepped forward, it struck Inuyasha how similar the two girls were in appearance. Usually, Kagome was too warm and emotional to make any expression that would appear on the unreadable, cold, Kikyo's face, but with both of them glaring at each other in cold fury, the resemblance was remarkable. Kagome's eyes were bluer, and Kikyo's hair was pulled back while Kagome's fell free around her shoulders, but other than that, the two girls could have been mirror images. It was extremely creepy to think that Kagome and Kikyo looked the same.
"What?" Kagome almost hissed, and the tension between the two was stretched so taut that Inuyasha stepped back warily, knowing that a confrontation he didn't want any part of was occurring. He didn't even know what the girls were arguing about.
"You guys want some cookies?" Sango saw the situation for what it was, and she managed to break it up before it got serious, stepping in and distributing her treats to the two girls and the one young man with bright, grateful eyes.
"Thanks a lot." Inuyasha told her, and she knew it was for more than the cookies.
"No problem." She smiled at them, knowing that even though something was still very wrong between the three, she'd done all she could already. They would eventually have to work things out for themselves. After all, they were growing up. All of them were.
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"Ha! Got you now!" Shippo's tongue came out of the corner of his mouth as his body leaned to the side, as though that would make the video game controller work better. "I'm gonna win!"
"No way!" Souta was furiously working at his own controller, his face screwed up in determination. "I just gotta…agh! You won!"
"Told you I've been practicing." Shippo informed his friend, smiling smugly. "I thought mom was never gonna let me leave the house again."
"No way." Souta shook his head. "So…what really happened to you?"
"Okay, here's how it was!" Shippo's green eyes lit up in excitement. "I was out in Kouga's car, guarding it, you know. Cause sometimes kids try and mess his car up, and he was busy fixing something that broke inside the high school, right?"
"Oh…that's right, that light blew out." Souta nodded, eager to hear what had kept his friend out of school for so long.
"Yeah, so then Kagura rode her cool bike to get the part that Kouga needed, but when she left, these guys all came out of nowhere! There were tons of them! All really big, and they were talking about how Kouga was gonna pay for messing with Naraku. And then they started trying to smash up the car, so I fought with them, but there were too many! So Kouga heard the noise and he came out and then he almost beat them, but I was already all beat up so I couldn't help. It's too bad. Together, I bet we could've taken them. But they ran off before Kagura found us, and we had to go to the hospital and everything. Mom's scared that Naraku's gonna come after us again, but I think he's a pansy." Shippo finished impressively.
"Wow…you fought against a gang of high school boys?" Souta was definitely impressed.
"Huge ones." Shippo added. "It was pretty rough."
"My mom would throw a fit if I got in a fight. Were you in trouble?" Souta wanted to know.
"Nah, mom said some pretty nasty things to the cops though. They won't do anything." Shippo explained, standing up. "Wanna pop?"
"Yeah, let's get some snacks too." Souta agreed. The two younger boys were taking full advantage of their break from rehearsals to catch up on video games and lazing about.
"Hey…you know what's weird?" Shippo asked the older boy as they made their way down to Shippo's kitchen.
"Huh?" Souta asked as they entered, seeing that the coast was clear of adults and helping themselves to two pops and a handful of cookies each.
"Kohaku never plays with us anymore." Shippo pointed out. "I mean, he's a couple years older than you, but that's no reason to just stop being friends with us."
"Hmm." Souta considered as he munched on a cookie. "Yeah, I know. I think it's annoying how he got to high school so now he's like…too good for us or something. And have you noticed that he has a huge crush on Rin?"
"Yeah, it's pretty silly. She's way too old for him, and she's probably gonna marry Sesshoumaru. Do you think he has lots of high school friends?" Shippo wondered.
"I guess he must. He doesn't really talk to me much. You?" Souta asked.
"No, like maybe he thinks Rin'll forget he's younger if he's not friends with us or something." Shippo made a short noise of disgust. "Oh well, maybe its just cause his sister's all crazy."
"Yeah, I know. She's worse than my mom, always yelling, and then being nice like she thinks we'll forget." Souta agreed. "Hey…can I ask you something?"
"Unh?" Shippo responded, his mouth full of cookie.
"Is Kouga mad at Kagome or something? Cause when I asked to come over today, Kagome made this weirdo face and asked why I'd want to be over here. She told me to stay away from Kouga." Souta told his friend.
"I don't know…the play is making all the older kids weird. Kagura's still really nice. I like her." Shippo attested. "I hope she marries Kouga. That way, she can be my sister."
"She sounds nicer than my sister. Wanna trade?" the two boys joked and laughed as they went back upstairs to their video games.
----------
"Thanks for helping out, Kohaku. It's very mature of you." Kagura smiled at the boy that was helping pin up decorations beside her. She had her suspicions as to why the freshman would rather help his older sister set up instead of camping out in the middle of the floor with Shippo and Souta who were fully engrossed in a video game battle. Sango had given up on getting any help from the two youngest cast members almost immediately, but it had been Kohaku who had the thought to distract them with video games after they'd both managed to light a roll of crepe paper on fire. That incident could have ended very badly indeed, even though Inuyasha had immediately put it out with the sprayer from the sink where he had been put to do dishes as they were made. If Sango's parents had found out about it, the party might have been cancelled immediately, but instead, Kikyo had taken charge when Sango's father stormed in, demanding to know where the smell of smoke was from. Everyone else had frozen up, but Kikyo had neatly lied, stepping forward and telling him how she had overcooked a bag of popcorn in the microwave, apologizing profusely and even blushing sheepishly. If Kagura hadn't known the truth of the matter, she would have thought that it was what had really happened. Sango's father had been convinced, and Miroku had beamed at Kikyo after the older man left, telling her that he retracted all previous insults about her lack of acting ability. Kikyo had shrugged and offered to help Inuyasha with the dishes.
"Well, it doesn't make sense for me to just sit around when I can help." Kohaku chuckled, stretching to his full height to pin up his end of the crepe paper arrangement that Kagura and him had started setting up only a few minutes ago.
"Wow, it looks great, you guys." Rin came in, carrying a platter of cookies that had been made earlier that day when Rin and Kagura first arrived, both of them declaring that between the two of them, they could make the single most attractive and aesthetically pleasing display of cookies that any of the other people there had ever seen.
"Ooh, nice arrangement, Rin." Kagura giggled as the sudden entrance of the other girl caused Kohaku to drop his newest streamer, blushing and mumbling as he bent to pick it up. "Kohaku, did you get to taste the cookies that Rin and I made?"
"Yeah, Rin gave me one earlier." Kohaku was nearly scarlet now, and Kagura had to make a serious attempt to not burst into laughter. And there she'd been, thinking that Kohaku was becoming more comfortable around Rin. Unaware of what was going on, Rin walked over to the tables that Inuyasha and Kouga had set up with surprisingly little argument, and set it down as Kohaku nearly fell off his chair leaning back to watch her walk and then bend over. To avoid laughing at the display that the younger boy was putting on, she busied herself with climbing onto a chair and pinning up another streamer, stretching to make herself taller and going up on tiptoe.
"Don't fall over, babe." Kouga's voice rumbled behind her, deeper than usual. He only used that tone when they were alone, and the way he slid his hands up her jean clad thighs to her waist was enough to make Kagura blush, perhaps even as brightly as Kohaku.
"Stop that, Kouga." Kagura's tone only trembled slightly, which she thought was a massive achievement on her part. Deciding that the best way to get even with him for making her blush so brightly was to ignore him, Kagura addressed Rin as though nothing was amiss. "Oh, Rin, we still need to decorate the tables, so don't bring out anything else, okay?"
"Oh, alright, but we're running out of counter space fast." Rin warned. "You want me to do the tables?"
"Uh…sure, why doesn't Kouga help you? He doesn't seem to be doing anything useful at the moment." Kagura grinned wickedly down at the young man who stopped letting his thumbs trail over her hips and cast her one of the most adorable pouts she'd ever seen. Suddenly, she saw the resemblance between Shippo and his brother.
"You're no fun." He muttered to his girlfriend before turning to join Rin. "Okay then, art director, what kinda fancy display are we gonna make over here?" The way he managed to sound as if he hadn't been trying to seduce Kagura only seconds ago…somehow that was very irritating to the crimson-eyed girl.
"This is really nice crepe paper." Kohaku told the girl who was still blushing just as badly as him. "I didn't know they made metallic streamers like this."
"Well, technically, it's not really crepe paper. It's really expensive, as far as streamers go, but luckily the boys only burned up one of the rolls of black crepe paper." Kagura explained as she pinned up a silver streamer. "We have another roll of the black stuff, and that's not too expensive. I thought that we could drape it all around the room between these ends we've pinned up to hide the ends, since they look kinda tacky."
"Oh…that sounds good, I guess." Kohaku was obviously unaware of the aesthetics Kagura was explaining to him. He simply pinned up another streamer. "Uh, hey Rin? Is Sesshoumaru coming to the party?" he sounded hopeful, but Kagura knew he wasn't hoping for Sesshoumaru to come to the party at all. Remembering the Halloween party, Kagura could have almost hoped he didn't come. Not that she disliked the college student, but it was harder to sneak off somewhere private with your boyfriend when there were so many other couples sneaking off at the same time. Miroku and Sango had started off being responsible supervisors, but they kept wandering off for ten or fifteen minutes at a time until someone went searching for them to bring them back. Kagura suspected that no one really needed Sango's say in how to arrange the vegetable tray, or where the tables would go, or how many more chairs she thought they needed. It seemed to be some sort of a game to mess with Sango's head, and it was probably working, but she was so caught up in the excited atmosphere of the almost-ready party and the fact that her boyfriend was attached to her hip to really seem upset about the conspiracy.
"Yep! He should be here any minute. He had to run into his father's office to help with the end of year business, but he said it wouldn't keep him too long." Rin beamed happily as Kohaku utterly deflated. Kagura pinned up the last of her streamers, and after a moment, Kohaku stepped down from his chair as well to survey their work.
"You know, Kohaku…" Kagura began, thinking she might offer him some helpful advice about Rin, but then, what could she really say? It would be almost cruel to verify that he would never have a chance with the vivacious young woman, but it would likely be more damaging to give him any sort of hope. "Why don't we start pinning up the black? We can twine it with the rest of the silver so it's not so dark that it looks unnatural."
"Okay then." Kohaku sighed heavily, and Kagura's heart went out to him. What would she feel like if she was left to want someone who would never return her feelings? If only Kohaku's interests could be…diverted. But to who? Kagura kept that thought in the back of her mind for that night when she could see which available female she thought might be most receptive to the plan. Maybe she wasn't making a lasting match of any sort, but at least some sort of rebound would take poor Kohaku's mind off of things. Just then, Kikyo came in the room, and Kagura felt guilty at even thinking about something as childish as matchmaking when her friend was still in so much trouble. She wondered if Naraku would accept the invitation tonight. She sincerely hoped he wouldn't.
"You have a phone call, Rin." She handed the other girl the cordless phone, her tone of voice as cold and neutral as Kagura remembered it being for the past six years. She could still remember the serious but happy young girl who had been the undamaged, pure version of Kikyo before Naraku first started in on her, but it was a faint memory next to this stern, emotionless teenager.
"Oh, thanks, Kikyo. Could you help Kouga with these while I take it?" Rin handed a bag full of silver-star confetti that she had been sprinkling over the black tablecloths. Kouga was carefully draping streamers off the edges of the table in regularly spaced loops as Rin had instructed him while darting glances at Souta and Shippo to make sure they didn't try to steal any of the cookies from the tray that was waiting on the floor only a few feet away from the boys. However, they were still diligently doing their part by playing video games with a single-minded abandon that put the others to shame with their dedication.
"Sure." Kikyo took the confetti, spreading it out carefully while avoiding tossing any of it into Kouga's hair as he worked around her. Kagura had to smile at the way Kouga was so comfortable with Kikyo, even offering her the occasional joking comment about how upset his girlfriend would be if he got stars in his hair. Rin looked rather distraught, and Kagura wondered who could be on the phone with her, even though her voice was pitched so low that Kagura couldn't hear anything she was saying. Turning back to the streamers, she corrected one of Kohaku's loops.
"Here, you want them to seem less tense, like this." Kagura pointed to a few loops she had already pinned up. "Like the icing on a cake."
"Ah, I see." Kohaku's brow furrowed as he concentrated on pinning up the streamers just as Kagura had demonstrated. Rin got off the phone, her face stuck in a pout just as Kikyo finished with the stars and bent to pick up the tray of cookies, officially taking it away from the danger of the nearby boys still engrossed in their video game.
"Who was it?" Kagura asked, pinning up another loop as she glanced at the distraught Rin.
"Sesshoumaru." She told them. "He's stuck there and he doesn't know if he's going to be able to come here at all. I guess he feels obligated to help out and everything, so I guess he may not make it at all. He said he'd try his hardest to get her before midnight, but he doesn't know if he can."
"Oh…that's too bad." Kohaku's brilliant smile easily communicated to Kagura that Kohaku hadn't heard better news all day. Maybe all week.
"Yeah, well…I shouldn't get so down about it. After all, I'm here with my best friends, right?" Rin didn't sound extremely excited, but Kagura spared her a sympathetic grin.
"I'm sure he'll get here by midnight." She offered the other girl. "You know, after I'm done with this, I think I'll get ready for the party. Want to come help me with my hair?" she offered, hoping to cheer Rin up.
"Yeah…I'll need to get changed too." Rin gestured to her own casual attire.
"I can help you zip up your dress, babe." Kouga offered her a lascivious wink that caused Kagura to blush as Rin burst into giggles.
"Very funny, smartass." Kagura told her boyfriend. Kikyo swept past her just then and she almost dropped her streamers in her rush to catch up with her. "Kikyo?"
"Huh?" Kikyo seemed more and more out of it lately. Kagura couldn't help but worry about her, but she didn't know what she could possibly do to help the girl. She'd made it clear that she just wanted to be left to her own devices.
"Is…is he coming?" Kagura didn't have to name names. They both knew who she was talking about.
"I believe he may make an appearance." Kikyo's voice was mournful as usual when she talked about Naraku, and she let out a sigh. "He made mention of it last night."
"Just…stick close to me." Kagura told her, offering a brave grin. "Maybe he won't bother you if he can't get you alone."
"I don't think he's coming for me." Kikyo told her before turning to enter the chaotic kitchen. It was going to be one interesting party, that was for sure.
*****
The End (Of Part 17, That Is)