Disclaimer- See Ch 4.

A/N- OMG, I KNOW how late this is… demonspawn666 wants to tell everyone that she's INCREDIBLY sorry about how late this chapter is. But with school and all, you kinda forget about things… But yeah, again, I am INCREDIBLY sorry, and I hope you still are keeping up with this, and I'll be working on the next chapter, which will be written by me!
CH 17- School

The sun was shining. The birds were chirping. It was a beautiful day. And Sesshomaru and I were wearing black.

Naturally, it didn't matter to us that we looked the polar opposite of the surrounding area, but of course it had to offend someone. As we walked hand in hand to the school building it was hard to ignore the stares being shot at us. But then again, it really didn't matter because neither one of us could care less. Well...maybe I could. I couldn't help but feel nervous. My mind was completely rattled.

The shades...they were good, weren't they? I mean, they couldn't have been the ones to hurt Sango and Miroku. They wouldn't cause anyone that kind of pain, not when there were always worse people they could hurt.

But then again, who am I kidding? I don't really know anything about them. I've seen them all my life. I've even helped some of them. ...But that didn't make them good, did it? They did kill Shiro. Sure, he was a horrible person. But does anyone really deserve death? It was wrong of him to kill those kids, but wasn't it hypocritical for the shades to put someone else in the horrible pain that they had once been in?

...But who am I to judge? I don't know anything. I don't even know if the boy next to me still likes me.

I could feel my head slowly turn to look at his serene face. His expression...so calm. It was always so damn calm! I never know what he's thinking, I never know how he feels! Does he hate me? His friends were hurt...and it was kind of my fault. I mean...the shades, I practically led them to Sango and Miroku.

They are like annoying little cousins. Everyone has that aunt and uncle who always bring those wild children with them. The parents are okay, but the little brats always have to come along and ruin the fun. That's what the shades were. They were spoiled little children. They couldn't get over their grief so they had to bring it upon other people...people like me.

I might have even had a normal life if it weren't for them!

I could feel my body tense up with anger. I was truly upset at this new revelation. Sure I had thought they were a nuisance before...but after this last event...they've gone too far. All they've done is screw up my life. They always follow me. They always bring trouble with them. It's just not fair!

Sesshomaru must have felt me tense up because he spoke to me. "Kagome? Is something wrong?" That's what he asked me. The same way he asked me anything. He always sounded so protective...yet so careless. Did he really care if something happened to me?

Does he?

His friends...they were hurt. I know I didn't hurt them, but the shades did, and I was the one to bring them with me.

See, that's what the shades do. Something finally goes right for me, and then they intervene, they screw things up. I know Sesshomaru is acting all loving towards me now, but he probably hates me.

"Kagome! Are you okay? Answer me!" He had grabbed my shoulders, and was now shaking me lightly.

"Yea, I'm fine." I answered as he pulled away. I stared down at my black Converse. How old were they now? Five years? They sure looked it, there was hardly anything left of them.

"Kagome what's wrong?" His deep voice brought me out of my little world again.

"Yea, I'm fine." I answered coolly, still looking down at the ground.

"Don't give me that shit, Kagome. I can tell something's wrong." He placed his large hand under my chin, and slowly raised my face to face his own. His amber eyes were considerably large as he looked at me with worry. Well, at least he was showing some expression. Better than him being so damn calm.

"Nothing's wrong." I said, staring at him straight in the eye.

"You're a good liar Kagome, but I can see through you. Look, we've gone through too much for you to continue keeping stuff from me. I respect your right to privacy, but you have to-"

"That's exactly it! You don't respect my privacy. The second you think something's wrong, you have to know! Well guess what, you don't have to know!" I heard myself scream as I ran off. Why was I being moody with him? Hell, I didn't know. Guess it was just his bad luck. I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't feeling irritated lately. Everything now, it seemed to be escalating, building up. Everything was almost coming to an end...I think.

I don't know how to describe it right now, but everything's changing. The better things get between me and Sesshomaru, the worse they get between me and the shades. Who's worth more to me? Sesshomaru of course! But that doesn't mean that the Shades will leave me alone just because I don't like them...they never did leave me alone despite what I thought.

I was still running. I had been caught up in my thoughts for a moment, but I'm aware now. I was already in my school. In fact, I was even in the right classroom. But something felt wrong. What was it? I looked to the side of me. Nothing there. That was probably it...

I've become so attached to Sesshomaru lately that I can't stand being away from him for long. I sighed and wippded my hand down my face. Why? Why can't I think straight without him around? I looked at the chalkboard across the room. The numbers and words scribbled across the board meant absolutely nothing to me. I mean...I'm going to die soon, why should I bother knowing math?

I stared at my notebook for the rest of class...actually, I just stared at my notebook through all of my classes, even lunch!

Why? Because I was bored. I was alone. I had no one to talk to but myself. But that never bugged me before. It's just that...now I actually have someone to talk to. Well, more like HAD someone to talk to. Screwed that one up this morning.

Ugh! I slapped myself in the face.

"Gee, I didn't know you were a masochist, Kagome," came a VERY irritating voice from behind me. I don't think I'll ever forget that voice, even when I'm dead.

"'S'cuse me?" I turned around, armed with nothing but my infamous death glare.

"Why'd you just hit yourself Kagome?" Announced Kikyo, backed up by her clone army. All of them wearing the same outfit, just in different colors. "Gonna start hurting yourself just because you screwed up?" She mocked me, shaking her head proudly.

"What the hell are you talking about?" I asked, slightly confused.

"Well, you and Sesshomaru split up this morning, didn't you? I saw you running." She commented snottily as if she had any idea what was going on between us. "You two looked close. Imagine splitting up just because you were feeling bad. He was all you had, and you ran away from him like he was some kind of trash." A smirk formed at the corner of her lips as she rested all of her weight on her left leg. "No wonder he's the only boy that's come near you. You freak out on all of them."

I stood there, taking it in silently, surprised that she was pretty much right. I ran away from him for no real reason. I had ended our relationship because I was feeling bad...what have I done? There's no way he'll take me back now...there's no reason for him to. I was just in his way the whole time.

She stepped to the side, revealing two of her clones that were holding cans of blood red paint. "Don't look at us like that Higurashi. You know it's the truth. Not only have you screwed things up with your boyfriend, but you've also put yourself on bad terms with all your classmates and potential friends." She spoke the horrible truth that I didn't want to accept. I shouldn't have to accept...

I screwed it up. I screwed it all up. I'd insulted most of the student body, ruffled the feathers of the popular crowd...and brushed past the only person in this school that meant anything to me. How was it that Kikyo was the one to tell me all of this? Obviously it didn't take a genius, so why couldn't I have seen it before?

I bit my lip, drawing my own coppery blood. Stupid! I shouted at myself. STUPID! I'm so stupid! I began to grind my teeth, and looked down at the pavement under me. I counted to ten, okay, more like two before I looked up, my face burning crimson from anger.

"Shut the fuck up you whore!" The group was silent quickly, too surprised to do anything but stare. "You don't know anything! You-you don't understand!" My voice cracked as I finished the sentence, everything too painful for me. Too many revelations...too many insults. I knew I shouldn't care though, I was going to die soon...but couldn't I just die peacefully?

I fell to my knees and covered my face with me cold hands. "Just leave me alone..." I mumbled as I struggled to hold the tears in. I would not cry in front of them, in front of Kikyo. I couldn't.

I froze as I felt the rush of cold and wet combined land on me. Like a strong wind whipping past me, the paint covered the front of my body. I spit the sticky substance from my mouth, the blood from my own lip meshing with the paint, appearing the same color. I looked up from where I was kneeling, watching all their happy faces. I wiggled my fingers, trying to clean them up as much as I could. But, to no avail, my hands would stay dirty. I stood up to face them, strangely enough a hand appeared in front of me, blocking me and my path to get to them. "Wha?" I asked dumbly as I was pushed back.

There he was, my knight in shining armor. Sesshomaru stood before Kikyo, and I could tell by his tense movements that he was horribly angry. Why was he here?

"IF you ever pull that on Kagome again, may God save you: karma gets back to you before I do." He began, the words dripping with venom from his pursed lips, he was barely stopping himself from tearing them apart.

He flexed his fingers, flashing his unusually sharp nails before the group of girls. "I could care less that you're girls, you could be babies, I won't let you get away with doing this!" He bit his lip as he slowly approached them, Kikyo backing up along with the rest of her followers.

"Sesshomaru stop!" He turned around, surprised by my sudden outburst...I was surprised by myself as well.

'Kagome!" He yelled, pointing an accusing finger to the group. "Did you forget already what they just did to you?" His eyes were wide in confusion as he slowly walked towards me.

"They...they just don't understand...leave them alone, we've got bigger problems..." He whispered as he fell to his knees beside me, wrapping his strong arms around my shoulders, pulling me into his warm embrace tightly.

'Forgive them, for they know not what they do...'

Well, here it is, demonspawn666 is still sorry, and I'm working on the next chapter RIGHT now! Oh, and there're only about four or five chapters left!