Disclaimer: Sadly, Inuyasha is not mine.
From Hatred To Love
Chapter 39-Visit By Hojo
Kagome couldn't help but feel nervous every time she thought of Prom coming soon. Kikyo had become more competitive than ever and her nasty attitude towards Kagome didn't get any better. She was getting nastier everyday.
She sighed and absently began drawing circles on her book cover with her pencil. It only had one more week until the event and her stomach did flip flops when her mind thought about what might happen.
The miko snapped out of her thoughts when the shrill of the bell had rung for the end of the period. She slid out of her seat and slung her bag over her shoulder. Her foot had manged to get tangled up in something and she went tumbling down to the ground.
Kagome groaned and picked herself up despite the burning feeling coming from her ankle. It was getting better very quickly. The swelling had long gone down and it only hurt if she put too much pressure on it.
"Hey are you okay?"
Kagome looked in the direction from where the voice had come to see Liko standing behind her with a worried expression. The girl quickly walked over to Kagome and rested her hand on the miko's shoulder.
"Do you need help?" Liko asked. Kagome smiled at the girl's concern and shook her head.
"I'm okay. I can't wait to make it to lunch," Kagome sighed and giggled. Liko smiled back at her.
"Well I could take you there if you want," Liko offered with a smile.
"Thanks."
"Great then, let's go."
The two girls had manged to make it halfway to the cafeteria without any conversation at all. The walked slowly, side by side, neither of them brave enough or willing to strike up a conversation. The were almost there, almost but they had to run into Kikyo.
She immediately walked in front of them with her usual pout on her face, her hands were folded across her chest and her eyes shooting sparks mostly at Kagome.
"What is it Kikyo?" Kagome sighed and rolled her eyes in annoyance. Somehow Kikyo always looked for conflict with Kagome. Whether it be something big or silly.
"I just came over to ask, how's your ankle?" Kikyo asked smugly. Kagome had manged to glance over at Liko before she answered. The girl's eyes gleamed with dislike and her lips were pressed rather tightly together. She didn't want to get Liko involved with Kikyo. She didn't deserve it.
"It's fine, Kikyo," Kagome said plainly, "It's healing rather quickly."
Kikyo's lips curled into a smile and her eyes gleamed mischievously.
"Are you sure?" Kikyo asked and took a step forward. Both hands were now hidden behind her back. Kagome frowned and stepped forward, challenging the girl.
"Kagome," Liko murmured uncomfortably and stepped back. Kagome turned her head around to face the girl. Kikyo saw this as her chance and shot a powerful force from her hand at Kagome but the girl had manged to react quickly and formed a barrier around her and Liko.
Kagome glared at Kikyo. Her face showing all the anger that she was holding in at the time. Kikyo was a bit taken back by the miko's expression.
"What the hell are to trying to do, bitch, kill me?" Kagome asked, angrily and stepped forward towards Kikyo. Kikyo looked quite shocked and stepped back, unable to say anything in response. She quickly regained her composure and smirked.
"Well, not really, but that's a much better idea."
Kagome mumbled something under her breath that none of the girls could pick up. Liko couldn't speak. Was this really happening? She had never been in such a situation.
"That's it I'm-"
" Kagome!"
Kagome knew who the voice was immediately. She didn't turn around to look because she had a feeling that Kikyo would try to attack her when she wasn't looking, again.
Liko looked back though to see who had called the girl's name. She tried her best to prevent herself from smiling. It was no other than Inuyasha running towards them with Sango and Miroku close behind.
"What are you doing?" Miroku asked Kikyo. The miko who was now out numbered looked rather cool.
"Can't you see, I'm killing her," she laughed like it was a very funny joke. Sango clenched her hands into fists together and her face began to turned red, the same color of red when she was extremely angry.
"Uh oh," Miroku said softly and looked over at his friend Inuyasha indicating for the hanyou to help him hold Sango down.
"You... you bitch!" Sango yelled and lunged towards Kikyo but she was stopped to her dismay by the two boys, Miroku and Inuyasha. She grumbled and attempted to get out of their powerful grasp. "She has gone too far... let me go now!"
"Now is not the time to fight, Sango," Inuyasha said softly and was pulled forward. He didn't know the girl had so much strength.
Kikyo smiled, amused at Sango's anger. She rested her hand on her chin. She looked like she was in deep thought. Everyone remained silent for the time, except for Sango who could be heard grumbling. Kagome stood her ground, ready for anything unexpected to occur.
"You know what?" Kikyo said, breaking the silence, "It's too crowned here. I'll have a chat with you later, Higurashi."
With that said Kikyo walked away from the group leaving everyone confused at her withdrawal from the fight, except for Sango who was still bubbling over with anger. When Kikyo could no longer been seen through the big crowd, the boys let her go.
"I could have taken her on!" Sango yelled and glared at her friend and her boyfriend, "Why do you always stop me?"
"Because," Miroku said rather calmly, "We don't want any trouble."
Sango got even more annoyed with the calmness in his voice. She stomped forward to him and glared.
"Oh so she wasn't causing trouble?" Sango asked. Miroku sighed and closed his eyes.
"I never said that. I said-"
"Miroku, you're not making any sense at all!" Sango argued, "So don't bother!"
The scene between Miroku and Sango would be very interesting for anyone to watch but Liko wasn't paying attention to them. Her eyes were focused on Inuyasha and Kagome. Soon after Kikyo had left, the hanyou rushed to his girlfriend. He held her chin and looked into her eyes. Kagome smiled when she saw worry in his golden orbs.
"Are you alright?" Inuyasha asked.
"Fine," Kagome replied and sighed, "I'm just glad everything turned out good and no one got hurt."
Kagome looked behind Inuyasha to see Liko staring. As soon as Kagome's eyes landed on Liko, the girl blushed with embarrassment and turned away, suddenly finding the plain white walls quite interesting.
"Liko, are you okay?" Kagome asked. Liko nodded refusing to look at them mostly because she was caught looking on at an intimate moment between Inuyasha and Kagome. She raised her head an took one glance in their direction only to see amber orbs looking into her green ones. Her face became an even brighter shade of red and she, again looked at the wall.
Inuyasha was becoming more, and more aware of Liko's strange behavior around him. He mostly tried to shrug it off but he couldn't for some strange reason. He averted his eyes from the girl when his stomach growled.
"Can we go and eat now, I'm starving!" Inuyasha said. All of them nodded in agreement and head towards the cafeteria for their lunch.Kagome had manged to make it through another confusion filled day. It was pretty average for her though;Kikyo always trying to pick fights with her, claiming one day that Inuyasha would be hers and she couldn't forget running into Kouga and having to stop Inuyasha and Kouga from fighting. To others Kagome's life seemed very odd in many ways but to her, she lived a pretty average life.
She languidly walked up the shrine steps leading to her home and her very strange family. Inuyasha couldn't take her home today, unfortunately. According to him, someone had hit his car from behind and he had to get it fixed. Kagome rolled her eyes at the thought.
'Inuyasha must have been the one who caused his car to get damaged.'
Kagome sighed in relief when her feet touched the top of the stairs, at last. She yawned and stretched her hands over her head. It was so peaceful where she lived. No cars or any of the city sounds. Kagome closed her eyes when she felt a soft breeze blow past her.
The peace was short lived though when a football came whizzing past her head, barely missing her. She opened her eyes in annoyance. She already knew who had done that. Her dearest little brother, Souta. The small boy came into view almost right after the ball had missed her.
"Souta, what are you trying to do?" Kagome asked, the annoyance obvious in her voice. The young boy looked rather surprised to see his sister standing there.
"Sorry about that, sis," he apologized. Kagome allowed her face to soften. She smiled at the young boy and nodded. Souta looked at the house and then at Kagome, as if he was trying to remember something. His eyes widened for a second and he ran towards her.
"Kagome, some boy inside wants to see you," he said and dashed behind his ball. Kagome stared at him and looked at the house, a bit puzzled.
"Boy?"
Kagome made her way towards the front door wondering who it could be. It couldn't have been Inuyasha, he said how he had to take his car to the mechanic later and it couldn't have been Miroku because she walked home with him and Sango.
She pushed the front door open and slipped her shoes off her feet. She wasn't surprised when she heard her mother's voice coming from the kitchen.
"Kagome, is that you?"
"Hai, it's me!" Kagome said and made her way to the kitchen still wondering who would come to see her on a school day. She stopped at the door frame and stared.
Her eyes first caught sight of the light brown hair. It traveled down to his face where she saw smiling blue eyes. She mentally groaned.
"Kagome!" Hojo said excitedly and smiled at the girl. Kagome was still rather surprised. She wanted to ask the boy how he had gotten her address firstly, before she said anything else but she knew that it might upset him.
"Hi Hojo," Kagome said and smiled at the boy. She really wasn't in the mood for this. First she had a stressed day at school, not to mention she had plies of homework to do for tomorrow and she had to study, now she had to be super nice to Hojo and hope that he wouldn't ask her out like he usually did.
She took a seat at the table and glanced at her mother. Mrs. Higurashi smiled at her daughter and left Kagome in the kitchen alone with Hojo.
"So," Kagome said uncomfortably and looked at him with a fake smile. "How'd you get my address?"
"I remembered it. You gave me it at camp, remember?" Hojo replied, his eyes never leaving her. Kagome wanted to slap herself in the head for doing that. She now regretted it.
"Oh I forgot," Kagome laughed. Hojo looked at Kagome intensely. He his hand reached over and rested over Kagome's hand which on the table.
"Well, I made sure not to loose that paper you wrote it down on," Hojo said softly and looked at Kagome. The miko averted her eyes from him, slid her hand from under his and rested it on her lap. She really didn't like how Hojo was looking at her. She needed a subject change and then she remembered...
"How's your eye?" Kagome asked suddenly. Hojo looked surprised but then he understood what Kagome meant.
"It's fine. Kagome, if it's okay for me to ask, but who was that guy that punched me?" Hojo asked. His tone of voice had changed. He leaned forward to searching her eyes, for an answer.
"That was Inuyasha," Kagome sighed. The day was still envisioned perfectly in her mind. Hojo's big mistake was trying to ask her out when Inuyasha was there, and that earned him a black eye. "I'm really, really sorry about what happened."
"It's alright, Kagome," he said and smiled at her, "He acted like he was your boyfriend or something," Hojo said. Maybe getting punched in the face didn't clear things up for Hojo. He was still oblivious to things going on around him just as before.
Kagome remained silent. She didn't know how she was going to tell Hojo this. She was afraid that she would break his heart if she told him the truth. He was really nice and he was rather attractive but Hojo was way to boring and boyish for her liking. He was nothing like Inuyasha. Hojo was a bit cowardly and not to mention clingy. It sometimes annoyed her.
"Hojo..."
"I almost forgot," Hojo piped up and lowed under the table. He rested a large basket on the table with herbs and soaps in it. Kagome's eyes widened at the size. "This is for you, Kagome."
Kagome attempted to smile although she was rather shocked at the large and unexpected gift. She leaned her head to the side so she could see his face.
"Arigato, Hojo. You didn't have to get me all this."
The boy blushed and scratched behind his head.
"It was nothing, Kagome. I wanted to," he said and the blush on his face became more visible. "You deserve it."
Kagome really didn't like how this conversation was going nor did she like how he said her name or how he looked at her, and she didn't know why he was blushing so much. She needed to tell him before he made some drastic move on her. She took a deep breath and rested the basket beside her feet so he could see her face.
"Hojo," she began seriously. "You're a really nice guy and all..." Kagome noticed that his cheeks turned crimson as soon as she said those words. "... but you see I-"
"Oi, Kagomeyou in the kitchen?"
Kagome's eyes widened in panic. She knew that voice too well. If she was caught in the kitchen with Hojo like this, things would get ugly. She looked around the room, trying to figure something out but nothing came to her mind.
She watched helplessly as a sliver haired boy with a hat on his head and golden eyes walked into the room. The person looked at Kagome for a second and then rested on the person sitting opposite from her. The golden eyes lost it's happy gleam and the person's face formed into a scowl.
Kagome stood up and ran towards Inuyasha, resting her hands on his to hold him down. She could already hear the growl coming from his throat. Wasn't he supposed to be at the mechanic? Why wasn't he there. Then she remembered his fast driving. He had probably gotten there in ten minutes.
"Inuyasha you had better not do anything," Kagome warned him softly. Inuyasha looked down at Kagome and then focused his eyes back on Hojo.
"What is he doing here?" Inuyasha asked loudly enough for the boy to hear him. Hojo blinked. He looked rather confused with the whole situation.
"Actually," Hojo said boldly. "I came here to see Kagome."
Inuyasha's eyes twitched. He didn't like how that twerp said his girlfriend's name. The hanyou stepped forward but was pushed back by Kagome. His eyes never left the boy when he stood up and walked behind Kagome.
"Kagome, what is he doing here?" Hojo asked softly. The hanyou growled. The wimp was looking Kagome strangely.
"What the hell do you mean by that?" Inuyasha snapped. Hojo never looked at Inuyasha. His eyes remained on Kagome.
"Why does he act like he's your boyfriend?"
"Because I am bozo if you haven't noticed!" Inuyasha yelled. Hojo's eyes widened. Kagome closed her eyes and sighed. This wasn't the way he was supposed to find out. She really didn't want to hurt him.
"Is this true?" he asked, his eyes begging for her to say no. Kagome moved away from Inuyasha and looked down at her feet, she didn't want to look him in the eye.
"I'm sorry" she mumbled. Hojo took a step back, he was unwilling to believe that this was true. He thought he and Kagome really had something special but he now noticed that they didn't. She was looking at the boy differently than how she looked at him. There was something in her eyes that he simply couldn't pinpoint.
He turned away from her and looked down at his feet. Kagome looked up at him and sighed.
"Hojo," Kagome began. "I... I didn't want to hurt you."
"I know you didn't," Hojo said quickly. His voice was now cold and emotionless. He turned to face her with a sad smile. "But... I would still love to be your friend even if we can't end up together."
Inuyasha began to growl but Kagome stopped him with one glance.
"I would like that, Hojo," she replied and smiled. Hojo walked forward to Kagome. He paused for a while and then pulled her into a hug.
"I really wanted to be good enough for you," he said and pulled away soon after, "I guess... I'll see you around."
"Yeah," Kagome said with a genuine smile. Hojo smiled and walked out of the room. The miko let out a breath she didn't know she was holding when she heard the closing of the front door. At last that was over.
"Uh... Kagome," Inuyasha said after a long while of silence. Kagome turned to look at him Inuyasha rubbed his stomach. "I'm hungry, got any Ramen?"
A/N; Took me a while to get this chapter done. Wow it's 12:21am. That took me long. Well I'm tired now. I guess I'll go to bed but first... I'd like to thank all my reviewers! You guys give me so much encouragement and that is what has caused me to update so quickly. Thanks sooo much and now that I've gotten Hojo out of the way, I can focus on the Prom and the ending plot. Tell me what you think about this chapter. Hope y'all liked it!
Neogirl
