Sun Setting
Authoress: Faith Lee
Disclaimer: If it were any more not mine, it would be stamped on my forehead.
Ramblings: Good Lord and Gods in Heaven.
Sun Setting
Part Seven
-In the View of Sesshomaru-
"Mr. Taisho."
I froze. My hand was right above Kagome's rear and her spine was arched towards mine, her cheek against my bare chest and clad in my jacket. I could now feel several presences at the door and wondered why I couldn't feel them before. Maybe because I was too wrapped up in Kagome Higurashi, one of my students, to notice.
After a few moments of silence and utter horrification, I risked a glance. And then I wished I hadn't.
Standing in the doorway was the Headmistress, Alumena Michiko, and next to her, Alumena's lover/employee, Rikotsu Nozomu. Alumena was tall and willowy, with long, dark hair and sharp black eyes. Rikotsu towered over her, and as Alumena was dark, he was light: he had silver-blonde hair that fell over his forehead and collar and bright blue eyes. Rikotsu had a hand clutching Alumena's shoulder, as if to hold her back; the expression on his face showed amusement.
I wasn't amused.
Neither was Alumena Michiko.
I gulped down some saliva gathering in my mouth and met Alumena's eyes. There was a cold fury in their black depths.
"Taisho, let Miss Higurashi go." Feeling as though she were my anchor to life and freedom, I held on for dear life. Kagome felt my stiffness and hugged me closer, rubbing my back with her small hands. I took in long, deep breaths from my nose and tried to calm down.
Rikotsu dropped his hand to Alumena's waist and grabbed on tight, kissing her temple. Then he turned to me.
"Michi-sama said to let go of the girl." I knew my time was short and rapidly depleting. The short, bittersweet time I had with Kagome was about to come to a close. At least I got to hold her. At least I got to… to taste her, like I've always wanted.
But then again, it's better this way. She can't live her life as my wife, not doing anything. I don't want her to be bored, or to end up regretting she had made the decision to stay with me when she could've had such a better life. In a way, this way was better than the disasture that would've come. Out of our euphoria would've come pain. At least we don't have to go through that.
But I found that I didn't want to let her go. I had finally found someone who cared enough to try to make things work, and, true, she was a whole twelve years younger than me, which means that she's naïve and has no idea what the real world is like, but damn it, she was willing to try.
And I found that I loved that in her.
I found I loved her spirit. The way she tucks a stray lock of hair behind her ear, then tweaks her earlobe before going back to whatever she was doing. The way her nose crunches when she laughs. I found that I loved a lot of things about her.
And then I realized that those were the things I was going to think about and torture myself over while I was sitting in my cell.
Damn it! Why was I thinking about this?
But…
There was a truth in all I had thought.
I had to let go.
I had to let her go.
So… I took one last breath of free air before I slowly, painfully let go.
-In the View of Kagome-
He wouldn't let me go. The voices, I recognized the Headmistress and one of my teachers from last year, had walked in on us. But he wouldn't let me go.
He would never leave me. Not after all that we've done…all that we've said to one another. And we had finally come to an understanding, too. We were going to work this out. Together, we would work out or relationship and make it work. I knew it sounded silly and downright preposterous, but I needed hope. Hope that he would realize that I'm in love with him…and that he's in love with me. Not in lust, in love. I could see it in his eyes when he looked down at me…
He would never let me go.
So you could only imagine my reaction when he let me go.
Taken by surprise, I let go of his slim waist and fell back a step, staring up at his bright eyes, shocked. What was he doing? What was he doing? With a beautiful, heartbraking smile to me, he walked to the Headmistress and bowed.
"Michiko-sama," he greeted hoarsely, and I zipped up the jacket to start walking towards him. He returned to his full height – towering over both Headmistress and my old teacher, Rikotsu-sama, and Sesshomaru turned to my old teacher to look him in the eye.
"Nozomu."
"Sesshomaru." There was a terse silence. Rikotsu-sama looked at me and smirked.
"Going after younger girls, are we?" A small chuckle escaped Sesshomaru's lips (oh, his lips!).
"I wouldn't be talking, Nozomu. After all, Michiko-sama is a whole eleven years younger than you?" I looked from teacher to teacher and finally decided that I'd had enough. I marched to stand right between him and Headmistress.
"You – you can't take him," I said, my voice cracking and a small sob in my throat, "he – he hasn't done anything wrong."
There was silence. I could feel Sesshomaru's breath on my head and feel his presence behind me as if we were touching. Oh, how I wish we were.
Headmistress blinked.
"Higurashi…"
"Headmistress," I cut in, "I know what you're going to say, but you're wrong! Sesshomaru has been a total teacher. It … it was I who tried to seduce him, you see, because I've been in love with him since my first year so if you're going to take anyone, take me!" Then I turned around, while Headmistress and Rikotsu-sama were stunned, to start on Sesshomaru. I pointed to him.
"You," I said through gritted teeth, "are one big, fat, drama princess. What were you thinking this would be? 'Oh, I'll go, say it was all my f-fault so take me and put me in jail so K-Kagome can't ever see me again?' Was that your plan? Because that's a pretty stupid plan. You could've at l-least t-talked it over with m-m-me!" I collapsed on Sesshomaru's beautifully chiseled chest and looked up at him through a curtain of tears.
"I thought…I thought we said…" but I couldn't finish; the look in Sesshomaru's eyes was torture enough. My bottom lip quivering, I gently pushed myself off his chest.
-In the View of Sesshomaru-
She stuck up for me. She told Alumena what she tried to do to me and how she felt about me. She doesn't want me to go. I don't want to leave her.
And God damn it! I don't want to go to jail!
Grasping her shoulders gently, I moved her over to the side as I heard her whisper, "I love you." Turning to Alumena and Rikotsu, I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.
"Don't listen to Kag – Higurashi… she's just… worked up. She doesn't know what she's saying. I think-" A finger on my lips stopped me, and I opened my eyes to see Alumena in front of me, her black eyes sparkling with tears, a small smile on her face.
She reached her other hand up to grasp my face gently, and pulled me down so I was eye to eye with those usually so frightening black orbs. After staring into my eyes for a time, she got on her toes and kissed my forehead.
"Oh, oh, oh, Sesshomaru-sama, I know what it's like to love a teacher." She turned to look over her shoulder at a tight-faced Rikotsu, memories darkening his blue eyes. "Nozomu knows what it's like to love a student. We started our affair when I was fifteen. Nozomu was twenty-six." She smoothed my shirt on the sides of my chest. "You waited before touching her. She's a senior. After this year, she won't be your student anymore."
Nozomu moved up to clap my shoulder.
"You can keep your job. Just… if you want to…do…what you were doing…as me. I have a place." And, with a wink from Nozomu and a kiss from Michiko, they left, his arm around her waist, her hair bobbing at her rear.
I was in shock.
I couldn't move. I couldn't speak.
I was too shocked.
-In the View of Kagome-
Oh my Gods. They just left.
They just…got up and left.
And oh my Gods! Who'd have thought that they once had a student-teacher relationship! And that they are…oh my!
I took a peek at Sesshomaru. It wasn't hard to see that he was surprised. Floored, actually, that Headmistress had let him go, had understood our situation…
Then it finally hit me.
Sesshomaru is… free.
"Ai!" I shouted happily, a goofy grin on my face, and I launched myself at Sesshomaru, who had been woken up by my scream. Catching me as I catapulted at him, he held me away from him, as if to study me, then crushed me to him, my feet off the floor and my chin on his shoulder.
"I love you," he whispered, laughing, in my ear. Giggling, I buried my face in his hair.
"I love you, Sesshomaru."
Author's Note: Okay, I know Nozomu is from Crescent Moon, and I don't own that either, but I was running out of names. Alumena Michiko is my alterego. I figured she could make a nice cameo appearance. There might be another couple parts to this. I figure since I've come this far, might as well go to Part Ten or something. Sorry for the long stuff of not stuffiness. But I just watched a whole bunch of Inuyasha so I was all hyped so I wrote this chapter. Sorry it's so short. Love you all. ALL!