A/N: Here we go, chapter 4! I'm kind of in a depressed mood right now. I'm listening to this song called Suicide Note by Johnette Napolitano, and it's really sad. But I like it. It's on the Underworld soundtrack which is a wicked awesome movie and good music too. Anyway, this is kind of a heavy chapter. I hope you all enjoy it!
Demented child in the corner: Well, I won't be getting into the entire story of what happened between Kagome and Hojo for another chapter or two, but I will explain. Thanks for reading and reviewing!
Shorty40: No, Kikyo is not in this story. I wanted this to be short and sweet, adding her would have taken too long. If you like high school fics with Inu and Kag going at it, you'll like the serious I'm going to start after I finish this story. Haven't picked a title, I'll keep ya'll posted, but I plan a juicy bout of high school drama. Thanks for reading!
Briar: No, I put a-social for a reason. Anti-social is someone who avoids all human contact. A-social is someone who had minimal contact. Yes, I am a huge spidey fan, so I had to have the comic in there, lol. Yes, this is an Inu/Kag fic, yes Miroku does deserve a swift kick there sometimes, but he's just cute so we can overlook it. Thanks for the review!
Sabishii-sama: Thank you, you are very sweet to say so. I'm glad you like the story. Thank you for reading and reviewing!
Gopher2806: Lol, yes I thought it would be funny to invoke the almight threat--telling mom. My brothers and I fight like that all the time. Thanks for reading and for the review!
Hanyougal: I'm so happy that you love my story! You make writing it worth while. Thank you soooo much for the review and for reading. I dedicate this chapter to you!
Shadowcat15: There will be more Fluffy next chapter, I promise! He's only in it for a few seconds in this chapter. Thank you for reading, and for the review!
All I Want For Christmas Is You
Chapter 4: Poptarts and Poetry
Kagome's days were peaceful, except for the occasional tiff with Inuyasha. Her days were spent in school, her afternoon and weekends practicing music with Rin and Sango--who were her best friends in no time--and her evenings were spent at home. Tokyo Heights really wasn't as bad as Kagome had thought it would be. She loved spending time with her grandfather. He was crazy, but just enough to be funny about it. Kagome and Souta got along like most older sisters and younger brothers, they squabbled but there was always underlying affection. Even her relationship with her parents were growing back to where it had been before that summer, when Kagome tried to cut herself off from everyone. Little by little, the Higurashi family was returning.
Thanksgiving had come and gone, and it was now the second week of December. Kagome had watched the lighting of the tree in Rockefeller Center and vowed to get there before Christmas. Rin and Sango were already in on it, as long as they could con others into going. Safety in numbers after all. They even made a plan of it to go the next weekend. But this weekend was more important. This weekend was the very first performance of The Shikon Jewels.
Tokyo Heights High had a student coffee house. They held it in the gym every Friday night where students would get up to a podium and read poetry or perform a talent. The Shikon Jewels, thanks to Kaede, had booked podium time. This would be the first time they played for anyone but Kaede, and Kagome was getting a little nervous. When she went to Sleep on Thursday night, she wasn't sure she'd even be able to sing the next day.
She was woken up on Friday morning by Souta, leaping on to her bed and stealing her pillow. Kagome chased him out, beat him with the pillow, then changed into her normal preppy outfit. What she planned to wear for the performance that evening was in a plastic bag in her backpack. This was her chance to show that 'other' Kagome, the double.
Rin and Sango met her at the front steps of the Shrine. "Morning! Sorry I'm late," Kagome said with a grin as she greeted her friends. "I couldn't decide which skirt to wear. The green one, or the olive one?"
"I think the olive brings out your eyes," Rin concluded with a grin.
"No, definitely the green one," Sango disagreed. "It fits her better."
"Well that's your opinion," Kagome interjected, adjusting her 'forest green' skirt self-consciously, eyeing the gothic girl. "You don't have to worry, all you have to chose from is 'the little black dress', 'the little black shirt' or 'the little black jeans'."
"Hey," Sango said defensively. "There is more in my closet then black!" Both girls stared at her. "Ok, there's not."
Kagome turned to Rin. "Pay up."
Rin handed Kagome a five dollar bill. "Con artist." Kagome grinned sweetly.
"Anyway," Sango said haughtily. "Are we all good for tonight?"
Kagome took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Her nerves were tied in knots, but she couldn't let down her new friends. "Yeah, I think we're good to go."
"Good, here." Rin and Kagome were each handed a strawberry poptart. "Breakfast on the go." All they could do was laugh as they reached the school.
Inuyasha sat in the backseat of Sesshomaru's car, same as every day. Miroku sat beside him, looking out the window at all the girls as they entered the parking lot, just like always. Sesshomaru was driving and silent, just like always. This was shaping up to be another boring, useless day of his education. Just as the car parked, Inuyasha leapt out the door, and rammed straight into a soft body.
"Meep!" yelled the girl as she fell back on to the ground.
"Kagome! Are you alright?" Sango asked, pulling her up.
"Inuyasha! Watch where you're going!" Rin scolded, sending a hot glare at the boy. Inuyasha looked as surprised as Kagome.
"I didn't see her coming! She should watch where she's going!"
Kagome glared at Inuyasha, brushing off her short skirt. Without a word, she stuck her chin in the air and walked off, the picture of polite irritation and feminine grace. He had to hand it to her. If there was one thing that Kagome Higurashi was, it was aloof. She could act indifferent and pull it off without the slightest bit of arrogance.
"You know, you can really be a rude jackass," Sango growled, as she and Rin walked off after their friend.
"I agree with the girls," Miroku said with the look of a wounded puppy. He scampered off before Inuyasha could turn on him. Sesshomaru materialized beside him, looking straight so no one could accuse him of actually paying any attention to Inuyasha.
"You know, little brother," Sesshomaru said tentatively. They both knew that he used that term lightly. "You should take the advice and go easier on someone like that."
"And why should I?" Inuyasha snapped. Why was everyone suddenly on his case? Kagome was just as much an antagonist as he was!
"You can't see it?" Sesshomaru raised one eyebrow in a semi-surprised arch. "I thought you were the one who prided himself on being a people-person."
"Shut up…" Sesshomaru shook his head and sighed.
Just as he was moving off, he turned back. "You really can't see it in her eyes, can you?"
"What are you babbling about?" Inuyasha stressed, totally confused by this uncharacteristic behavior. Sesshomaru only shook his head and continued on his way. Inuyasha waited outside by himself for a little longer, trying to prolong going to his math class.
He leaned against the hood of the car, yawning. Inuyasha examined his sneakers for something interesting as giggling girls and laughing guys passed by him, entering the school. Some said polite greetings, others waved and whispered. Some just whispered. Inuyasha took it in stride, thinking it better to be thought of as a threat than as a weakling. His eyes burned into the asphalt of the parking lot, and that is when he saw it.
Just out of the corner of his eye, a flash of blue that came from near the front tire of the car. Bending down, Inuyasha scooped up the beaten looking blue notebook with curiosity. There were doodles etched all over the cover and the back. He flipped to the first page and saw a name scrawled across the inside cover. In large, flowing script lettering it read, clear as day, Kagome Higurashi.
"Well, well," he said to himself, but not in a malicious way. "What have we here?"
The first few pages were just random scrawling of musical notes, melodies for songs that he couldn't begin to read. The first bell rang and Inuyasha walked toward the school, flipping through pages covered with small doodles and scribbled out lyrics. There were poems full of laughter and jokes, ballads of longing and heartbreak. Some spoke of family and fear. It seemed the further he got into the notebook, the darker the material became. Words flowed into him about death and blood, about pain and nightmares that haunted and burned. She spoke of inescapable things that hid when you closed your eyes.
The last few pages were selected quotes, parts of a poem called The Light and the Darkness; it seemed to be her favorite.
"She was light unfiltered, light unaltered, light unrestrained. There was no darkness within her heart, nothing but purity and love and honor. She was the wind that ruffled the feathers on an angel's wing, she was the laughter of a child, the kiss of a lover, the first flowers to open in the Spring once given the tender touch of the sun's rays. She was all things pure and beautiful. She was what healed all wounds and dulled all pain. She was the image held on to by the suffering and the sick. But there was a loneliness that called within her, a secret yearning that no flower could cure and no water could quench.
Light can burn brightest, but it is dull when burning for no one."
For some reason, that poem struck him as something extremely personal. Like the poem had been written about Kagome, or for her. It just felt to him like it was something that meant a great deal to Kagome. As he continued reading on, he was struck again by the dramatic dynamic of the poetry. It seemed like it was one of those mournful ballads that country singers liked to sing about. Songs of unrequited love, songs of broken hearts and dreams, but most of all, songs of longing too strong to be forgotten or put aside. He went to his second period, English, still engulfed in reading the notebook and all the wisdom it had to enlighten him with.
"He was pure dark, what light had ever glowed within him had been squelched by the years of sorrow and tears. He was the chill that ran up a child's spine, he was the icy kiss on the cheek of every virgin, he was the wild lusting in all men. He was a creature without soul, without love, without light. He was death and suffering, he was silence and despair. He was broken. He was lost and searching, calling for the forlorn light that fled his heart so long ago. Darkness calls, but light dwells within darkness no matter how deep it may become."
So that was the what the light and the darkness was. It was one of those tragic love stories. A Romeo and Juliet situation, star-crossed lovers. Light was what everyone strives to keep, strives to have. It is what makes people who they are, what makes them search. The darkness was what caught them if they fell from that grace. It was pain and anguish, it was simply what was forgotten and what was lost. Light and dark, the good and evil. Kagome was the light, of that he was sure. So did that make him…the dark?
"Inuyasha," the teacher's shrill voice cut through the classroom like fire. The junior froze, mid sentence, and looked up to meet the icy gaze of his English teacher. "Since you find our study of Shakespeare so boring, perhaps you would like to share with us whatever you are reading?"
"I'd rather not--" Inuyasha began.
"Now!" That left no room for argument. With a heavy sigh, Inuyasha rose from his chair and held the notebook in front of him, scanning the page for a new quote and began to read aloud:
"He walks enclosed in the shadow of midnight, The stars shine for him alone, the moon falls upon his figure, guiding him in the darkness to the light that burns with such brilliance. For she waits for him in the lonely night, waits for him in all her glory.
All that is dark and bright meet within his eyes. All that is light and good meet within her heart."
He sighed and looked up. Every eye in the classroom was on him, wide and unbelieving. Even his English teacher, who always had a comment or two to say, was without words after Inuyasha's recitation.
"That was….very good," she said at last. She cleared her throat, and then she continued with the class as if there had been no interruption. Inuyasha sank back into his chair and flipped the notebook closed. He made a mental note to give that back to it's rightful owner whenever he could, which wouldn't likely be until after school since he knew that the girls had a performance at the coffee house that night, and would be practicing at lunch.
"I can't believe I lost my notebook!" Kagome yelled, digging through her backpack for the eight time that period. "Where could it have gone?"
"Maybe you just left it home," Rin offered, looking somewhere between exasperated and sympathetic.
"No! I always bring it with me everywhere," Kagome said desperately.
"It was just a notebook Kagome, chill," Sango said at last, tuning her keyboard for the third time.
"You guys don't get it! You don't know what that notebook means to me. There is stuff written in there that is never meant to be seen, ever. It was my muse, I can't write without it."
"I'm sure you'll find it," Rin said again. "Or it will find you. You never know." Kagome looked decidedly sadder.
"Come on then," Sango said, trying to lighten the mood. "We've got music to practice and a concert to perform this night. Could we get back to business?" Kagome nodded and flipped the strap of her guitar over her head. It was going to be a long day without her notebook safely in her bag. She just prayed that whoever found it didn't understand what the means in those words were for.
The last bell of the day and Inuyasha was still in school. One could barely believe it, but it was true. Miroku didn't say anything, he was just to happy to be able to stay after and watch Sango's performance. Sesshomaru had also, surprisingly stayed after. It was only then that he shocked both younger teens with the fact that he watched the coffee house every week because he liked the poetry. Who knew that Sesshomaru was a tortured poet behind that mask of reserve?
The gym was sparsely populated, a group of students clustered here or there. There was a few microphones set up throughout the gym, three set in a corner with a cluster of amps and a set-up of instruments. Inuyasha could only assume that those were for Sango, Rin, and Kagome. He reminded himself to give back the notebook once more, because through the day, he had been tempted more than once to keep it.
Miroku and Inuyasha took a seat near the musical set-up and waited until it was the girls' turn to go up. It was an hour before they were introduced by the host of the coffee house that week, a loud-mouthed junior well on his way to becoming the next Leno named Kouga. (A/N: This is just a cameo, he doesn't play a major role in this.)
"And now, it is my great pleasure to present to you, three lovely ladies of rock, The Shikon Jewels!" It seemed that only Miroku and Inuyasha clapped for them. Suddenly, three scantily clad girls came into the gym via the girls' locker room and took positions.
One who could only be Rin, the smallest of the three with a short fall of straight black hair that was streak with hot pink took a seat before the drums. He took the sticks up into two gloved hands--both gloves being hot pink in color and missing the fingers. The jeans she wore were streaked with pink and ripped in several places. She also wore and long sleeved, tight pink shirt. No one would have thought modest little Rin would garnish that much pink eye shadow and wear clothes that made her appear like a sex symbol.
Sango appeared in her normal gothic appearance, only she donned silver mixed with her usual entourage of black. Black eye shadow and lipstick was replaced for silver, and it was streaked through her dark hair. Her clothes were normal, hip-hugging black jeans and a tank top with elbow-length black gloves, but all her garments were littered with silver glitter. Like Rin, her gloves were missing their fingers and her hair was down.
There was a third girl, one who donned the guitar and took the position in front as the lead singer. For a long moment, Inuyasha didn't recognize her. After he did, all he could do was stare. Kagome's color of choice was blue, not a dark blue, but a nearly lapis color that bordered gray. Her once black jeans were stripped and ripped, and her once white tee shirt was splashed. On the front of her shirt, it read in large lettering, The Shikon Jewels. Her hair was held up in a dozen small tails, each blended with a streak of gray. Her nails, exposed by her finger-less gloves, were cerulean blue, matching her lipstick and eye shadow.
The three of them looked ridiculous and punk at the same time. Inuyasha could only guess that they were going for a look that they could make fun of later. He turned to Miroku, ready to ask his opinion, but the pervert was too busy drooling. Inuyasha sighed as the 'concert' began.
"Hey everyone," Kagome said into the speaker. "My name is Kagome, I'm the guitarist and lead singer of this group." She turned to Sango, pointing a blue nail in her direction. "This here is Sango. She's our keyboardist and will be providing back-up for me. And finally, in the back, we have Rin on drums. We are, The Shikon Jewels, and we hope you like our music tonight."
Sango leaned over and spoke into the microphone. "Tonight, we are performing one original song, written by our own drummer and co-written by our guitarist. And then an array of stuff we've been practicing. The title of our first piece is 'Smile'."
Rin held up her sticks, blushing slightly. She hit them together, shouting the count up until four, then the band began to play the melody to their first song. It was an alternative beat, not hard rock because of the softer piano music in the foreground, but it wasn't pop-rock. It had a certain edge.
"When you walk into a crowed room,
The lights dim for only you.
When you turn to look at me,
I can feel my heart race.
In all the places that I've seen,
Never have I met a soul as beautiful as you,
Your voice leaves a lasting feeling over me,
And your eyes leave and echo in my heart.
Once in a while I get to see you smile,
And I know that we're meant to be,
Once in a while I get to see you smile,
And I know what it is you do to me.
You opened that long-closed door,
You showed me the hidden way,
The path looked long until you took my hand,
You shared with me your secret world,
Now I've come to show you mine,
Take my hand and I'll show you the way.
Once in a while I get to see you smile,
And I know that we're meant to be,
Once in a while I get to see you smile,
And I know what it is you do to me.
Live life while you can is what you always told me,
Catch the freedom in the palm of your hands,
Have faith in what you know and what you feel,
Believe in what you can't see because the heart never lies.
Once in a while I get to see you smile,
And I know that we're meant to be,
Once in a while I get to see you smile,
And I know what it is you do to me.
Let me help you,
Let me save you,
Let me love you,
Let me be yours.
Once in a while I get to see you smile,
And I know that we're meant to be,
Once in a while I get to see you smile,
And I know what it is you do to me.
The riff ended on a high note and the last cord of Kagome's voice died away in the gym. It left everyone speechless, but it didn't take long before the applause roared from the group of onlookers. It was needless to say that the rest of the songs they played, four contemporary songs from a few popular bands, had the attention of everyone attending the coffee house. When the girls departed, there was a round of 'encore!' but the Jewels were tired and needed to change before going home. Inuyasha and Miroku waited for the girls ad the coffee house dispersed for the evening.
"What do you guys want?" Sango asked as the three exited the locker room, a back holding their clothes in hand. She eyed Miroku speculatively, like he was something to be wary of even though she wanted him to be there.
"We just wanted to congratulate the Jewels on a stunning performance," he replied with a charming smile and a flirtatious glint in his eye. "And may I say the name fits you ladies well." All three of them blushed.
"Well thank you very much," Kagome said with a nod. "I should get going, my dad's probably waiting outside. See you girls tomorrow?"
"Bye Kagome," Rin waved.
"Later Kag," Sango said with a smile. Kagome made her exit and Inuyasha followed.
"Hey, Kagome," he called, trailing behind. She turned and frowned, finding it was him.
"Listen Inuyasha, I'm cold and tired and my father is waiting. Can't you mock me about this on Monday?"
"I'm not going to mock you," he said with a sigh. "I just thought you'd like to have this back." He held out the notebook to her. Kagome's eyes went wide before she snatched the book from him and hugged it to her chest.
"Did you read it?"
Inuyasha opened him mouth to deny it, but he found that he couldn't . Or rather, he saw no reason to deny it. "Yeah, I read some of it." Kagome nodded and turned on her heel, running to the truck waiting in the parking lot. Inuyasha didn't follow, he felt bad enough as it was. Her kicking him in a sensitive body part would have only made things worse.
"Kagome?" her father asked softly when she threw herself into the front seat. "Are you alright?"
"Yes Dad," she said with a nod. "I'm fine." Kagome had never lied so badly in her life.
A/N: Okay, here is chapter 4. Only three more chapters to go! I think I can still finish this before Christmas, what do you guys think? Review and it may help me along.