About Fairies

"He's what?!"

"Gay," said Inu-yasha, leaning on the back of their sofa. "Homosexual. Fag. Fairy, queen, poofter, queer... getting the picture yet? I can go on if you want."

"Inu-yasha!" screamed Kagome, whacking him over the head. "What are you doing here?! I told you I wanted to be left alone! You thought I was meeting Koga, didn't you? Didn't you?! Stupid – jealous – moron – " Each word was accompanied by a whack to his head. Inu-yasha tried to duck, yelling "sorry sorry sorry" over and over.

While the two of them fought it out, Sango sat in shock, trying to figure out why she hadn't seen it before. The funny look Miroku gave Sesshoumaru during Sango's "test", it wasn't only anger, was it? The one he looked at when they were at the beach the day before, it wasn't the girl, was it? God, she really was blind, wasn't she...

"Why didn't you tell me?" she managed finally. Kagome stopped hitting Inu-yasha to answer her, looking very sorry.

"We just assumed you knew... it's sort of common knowledge around the school."

"You didn't think we'd let him act the way he does around girls if he was straight, did you?" Inu-yasha cut in. "I mean, the reason he behaves like he does is because it doesn't mean anything to him, if you know what I mean... god, he'd be a total pervert otherwise!"

"I think he has a boyfriend," Kagome went on. "Someone who works in a gay bar/café...thing somewhere in the centre of the city."

Of course. The Rainbow Café. Rainbow, the homosexuals' symbol. Of course.

"I thought you were supposed to be a smart girl!" Koga's words came back to her, ringing in her ears. Apparently she wasn't.

"Uhmm, would you do me a favour? Don't mention this to Miroku."

"Of course," said Kagome, elbowing Inu-yasha who was snickering slightly. She reached out and took Sango's hand, looking worried and sympathetic. And caring. No one could be as caring as Kagome could.

"Are you going to be alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, of course!" said Sango lightly. "I was just being silly. I mean, honestly. Uh, I've got to go now, see you tomorrow!" She gave them a cheery wave and left them, Kagome looking sad and Inu-yasha holding back laughter. Just before she closed the café door behind her she heard Kagome explode, yelling at her boyfriend.

"You are SUCH an insensitive JERK!"

Sighing, Sango left the café quickly.

'Well, that's that,' she told herself, home again in her bedroom. 'It was just a silly crush, right? ...Right?'

It wasn't that simple, of course. Just as she would still love him if she had found out he had a girlfriend, she still loved him even though she had found out he had a boyfriend.

'But he's gay,' she reminded herself.

So what? His personality hadn't changed. He was still the same person she had fallen in love with.

'Damn it. Damn it, damn it, damn it...'

She looked at the picture of the two of them on her wall. It looked false. While she had before held the hope that the scene it depicted might one day come to pass, she now knew that it was quite impossible. He would never love her back. Never ever ever.

Overcome with emotions, Sango threw herself down on her bed and cried for a long, long time.

                                                                             *

Fortunately, when you're seventeen life doesn't end there, even if it might feel like it does. By morning the next day Sango had recovered a bit. She winced at her red-eyed appearance in the bathroom mirror, smearing some make-up on her cheeks to hide the shadows under her eyes. Sighing deeply, she then picked up her bag and made her way to school.

In accordance with Murphy's Law, the first person she met was Miroku.

"Hello, my red-eyed beauty!" he chirped. "You're not looking like your usual radiant self. What's the problem?"

One day she'd have to kill that boy for his inhumanly bright morning temper.

"You are, Miroku," she answered quite truthfully, then smiled. "Nah, just kidding. I slept badly, that's all."

"Oh, I know how to get that crankiness out of you. Because I know that you are ticklish. So if I touch you here – or here – "

"Eeeeek! Get your hands away from me, lousy pervert!"

And so began another day, in the usual way. Things may not have been normal for Sango, but she'd be damned if she let it show. As she laughed, teased and joked with her friends, Kagome was the only one who noticed the strained look to her smile.

It felt good to pretend that nothing was the matter. She could kid herself that the day before had never happened, that she had never found out the truth about Miroku, that her world had never been turned upside down. And as she sat in the grounds eating lunch with her friends, she realized that nothing actually had to change. She'd just have to learn to get over Miroku, on her own.

"I'm gonna find Koga and give him his shirt back," she said, digging the hideous thing out of her bag. "Does anyone know where he is?"

"Aw, do you really have to give it back? You look so cute in it," smirked Kagome, earning herself a glare.

"Try Hojo, he'll know. He's over there," said Inu-yasha, jabbing his knife in the direction of the cafeteria, which also happened to be the direction of Sango's stomach. She jumped and sighed in exasperation.

"Do you always have to bring that stupid knife?"

"Hey, I live in a dangerous area!" Inu-yasha defended himself. "I need it!"

"And why do you have to fool around with it in school?"

"Intimidation," grinned Inu-yasha.

"Moron." She stuck her tongue out at him before turning around and walking towards the cafeteria, keeping an eye out for Hojo. The trouble with that boy was that you could never know where he was – he'd be somewhere else each day, not spending two days in a row with the same people. The good thing about him was that he knew everything.

She found him sitting with the group of Brazilian exchange students, chatting away fluently in...Spanish, or whatever it was they spoke in Brazil. She watched him for a while with a grin on her face before speaking up.

"Yo, Hojo!"

"Ah, Sango!" said Hojo brightly, turning towards her with a smile. ""Have you met Dudu? Or Mònica? This is Felicia... Santiago..."

"I didn't know you spoke Spanish," she said as he turned to the group, introducing her in their own language.

"It's not Spanish, it's Portuguese. I don't speak much, but I've picked up a little by speaking to these boys and girls here... you know how it is. You get chatting..."

Sango didn't know how it was, since she didn't belong to the group of people who were fluent in a language after five minutes of conversation, but she nodded anyway. You tended to nod a lot when you spoke to Hojo.

"I'm looking for Koga. Do you know where he is?"

"Yes," Hojo answered after making some comment to one of the boys. "He's sitting in the soccer field with Snap and Hawk. Dudu thinks you're cute, by the way." He smiled at her – that big, innocent Hojo-smile – and she grinned back.

"Hojo, you're the best. Say thanks to Dudu."

On her way through the school buildings to get to the soccer filed, Sango met several people covered in green paint, growling about stupid idiots who couldn't even secure a ladder properly. A while further on she ran into her English teacher, also covered in paint, who was in hysterics. Finally she found Shippou, looking very apologetic and paint-covered as well – although with him this was not much different from how he usually looked. He explained that he had been repainting the girls' bathroom, and leaned the ladder on the door while he painted the last of the wall. On the ladder he had hung all his cans of paint while he worked.

So, naturally, the result of some girls opening the door to go to the bathroom was not a pretty sight.

"And you never thought of maybe making a sign to warn them of what you were doing?"

"I didn't have a pen!"

"You only had your pockets full of paintbrushes."

"Well, yeah... um. Anyway, you want to take a look at what I've painted? It's really nice, if I may say so myself."

'What a subtle change of subject,' thought Sango with a smile, then peered into the room to admire whatever work of art Shippou had decorated the walls with this time. The smile disappeared from her face in an instant.

"What?" Shippou drooped, looking like a kicked puppy. "Don't you like it?"

"Yeah, yeah! It's... nice..." Sango answered with a very strained smile. The bathroom had been transformed into a forest, with paintings of fairies dancing hand in hand among green trees and flowers covering every wall. Needless to say, fairies wasn't exactly what Sango wanted to see at the moment.

"Aaaah," smirked Shippou, nodding wisely. "I know what the problem is. It's the fairy thing, right?"

"What? How did you know?" Sango gasped. Had she really been that obvious? Did everyone know she had fallen in love with Miroku?

"I've had some other complaints about it," said Shippou, looking pleased with his own cleverness. "You think you're too old for fairies, right?"

"...right."

                                                                        *

Koga was of course in the soccer field, just as Hojo had said. (Man, Hojo was scary sometimes. She wondered if he was a psychic.) He was laughing at something Snap had just said, and for once didn't look like his usual stuck-up self. However, as he spotted Sango the usual sneer slid into place quickly.

"Well, well, Bright Kid. How's things with you? And why have you come to see me?"

"It's amazing how you directly assume I'm here to see you," Sango snapped. She was not in a good mood and the "Bright Kid" comment did nothing to lighten it up. She had already forgotten how he had saved her two days before and how...nice, in search for a better word, he had acted when he drove her home. All she could think of now was that she wanted to punch his ugly face. "I'll have to add conceited to the list of things I can't stand about you."

Koga narrowed his eyes. If she didn't know better she'd almost think he was hurt by what she said.

"So you came out here to insult me? You're wasting your time. I doubt you could ever think up something to hurt me, bright as you are."

She tossed the jersey in his face.

"I came to give you that back. I was going to give it to you in English but you weren't there."

"Why should I be there? Everyone isn't as ambitious as you, rich girl."

Something inside Sango snapped. He was just so... so... She could see Snap and Hawk slowly edging away from her, looking a bit scared.

"You are such an arrogant bastard! Just because you happen to go to a school that won't give you trouble if you don't manage you don't give a damn about studying. That's so freaking stupid! It's planning nothing ahead! It's guys like you, stupid bloody morons, I just can't stand!" She turned on her heel, marching away from him. Ooh, he made her so angry. She knew it was stupid to lose her temper like that but she just couldn't help it. Aargh, why did Kagome like him? Why did she have to invite him to everything fun they did together? She could hear Snap and Hawk chuckle behind her and hoped they were laughing at their friend.

She didn't see the shocked and hurt expression on Koga's face.

                                                                        *

Waaaah! Sorry sorry sorry! (Does a nice impression of Inu-yasha ducking from Kagome, expecting to be hit any second.) Our computer crashed and I haven't been able to use it at all. Please don't hate me! The next chapter will be up quicker. Promise. (Unless the gods really hate me and the computer crashes again... it's been looking pretty bad...)

Something I Think I Ought To Explain: The names Snap and Hawk, because I can guess you've been thinking "Who the hell is that?!" The thing was, when I wrote the first fic containing Koga's friend with the black fringe (I kind of like him... he's sweet), I didn't know what he was called, so I made up a name for him: Snap. Then later I asked my sister for a name for the other one, the one with the mohawk, and she gave him the name Hawk. Now I've found out that their names are Ginta and Hakkaku, but I don't know which one's which. So until I find that out, I'm sticking with Snap and Hawk, 'cos I like those names.

So there.