"Ya gotta admit, that was pretty priceless though", Inuyasha chortled, stepping back into his room just as the last remnant sounds of a flushing toilet echoed through the hall, "I've never seen ya running so fast, and you had this weird maniacal look in your eyes too. Creepy stuff"

"Yes", Kagome's voice was as dry as her expression, or lack thereof, "I've never felt more alive."

The boy rolled his eyes, and scoffed when she proceeded to ignore him in favor of flipping through the channels on his TV.

"How come nobody's written anything about me?"

He didn't really want to ask at this point, but he had gone through all that trouble of stealing the damn thing, he might as well get some answers.

Kagome huffed, her hands shooting out to grab at the journal at her side with a weary glare, just knowing the girls were gonna flay her alive when they inevitably found out.

"I'm pretty sure Yuka might have mentioned that booger hanging out your nose last year during the cultural festival—It's bound to be in here somewhere…", she mocked, her thin fingers casually flipping through the slam book's many colorful pages rather threateningly.

"Shut up!"

A spaghetti strapped shoulder shrugged, "you're the one who wants to know."

"Not anymore", Inuyasha grumbled, shoving her legs out of his way as he climbed on his bed.

"You do realize you're gonna have to pick up the mess you made, don't you?", he added, dodging quickly when she attempted to shove him back.

"This place was already a pigsty when I got here!", Kagome snapped, reaching back with her foot again to wack him on the chin.

"Ow! Can everybody just stop hitting me!"

"Then stop being so insufferable!"

"Okay, first of all", the owner of the bed hissed, throwing a pillow at her head.

"This is my personal nirvana, and those"—he pointed at the river of baseball cards lying on his messy floor—"are my most valued and prized possessions!"

Kagome rolled her eyes, "Kim, there's people that are dying."

"Hey, I don't go into your room and trash the things you love most!", Inuyasha argued, after precisely going into her room and trashing it, to mindlessly steal the one thing she kept under lock and key.

Kagome sent him a cold look, "I'm surprised your father hasn't put you up for adoption yet."

"Keh", a rough voice bit back, "Too bad yours croaked before he could do it to you!"

"Too bad your mom only lived half as long as he did!"

Inuyasha reached out and pinched her toe "Too bad—

His attention, however, was quickly averted by the loud pizza add on the screen.

"Man, I'm hungry", he groaned, nudging an annoyed Kagome, "make some ramen, will ya?"

The girl scoffed, as if.

"Make it yourself!", she snapped.

Her friend glared at her.

"You know Sesshōmaru doesn't let me touch the tea kettle after he's brewed his stupid tea", he reminded her, as if it were common knowledge.

Which to his credit, it definitely was to her.

"Then use the stove", she countered, checking the gloss of her nails.

"I'll burn myself!"

"There's this thing called a microwave—

"Don't be disgusting, Kagome"

Though her pointed silence and lack of action was expected, it still made Inuyasha grit his teeth.

"Fine!", he grumbled, "I'll just oder myself a pizza."

"I think that's a fabulous idea", Kagome praised, watching over her shoulder victoriously as he struggle in fishing out his phone from his deep pockets.

While he fumbled with the ridiculously small buttons of his expensive blackberry, she turned back to enjoy the show playing on the tv.

At least she tried to, up until a few powerful cries cut straight through the sound.

'Oh'

Kagome's heart thrummed at the shock of it.

'Sesshōmaru must be practicing his swings', she reasoned, and couldn't help but wonder how in the overall quietude of a house, his kiai—the spirited cry before a bamboo sword struck its intended target—were almost deafening, even from just a few rooms away.

Normally she was never around to hear him train, and Kagome always assumed he did most of it at the high school Kendo club anyway.

Though up until now they went to different schools, her and Inuyasha's former junior high was a sister institution, and even if by some chance she had never met his half brother, she'd have still known all about Sesshōmaru's kendo infamy.

Everyone was obsessed with it.

Not only was he undefeated, as of yet, but he was also one of the only level 3-Dan of his age group.

He was expected to pass his level four examination in less than two years from now, and having never failed any of his prior exams, those expectations were very high.

His own father, Toga Taisho, was not only a once renown champion tittle holder in his own right, but had just passed his level 8-Dan—the last and final grade, a grand master—only a year ago at the age of 46, and on his very first try.

Unable to imagine herself having such enormous shoes to fill, Kagome for her part, was sure she'd cave under such immense pressure.

Another shout vibrated through the walls as the long body of his shinai landed on whatever it was that it hit.

For a moment the impressed girl found herself mildly wondering if he was actually settling some kind of weird dispute against the bathroom shower—the echoes were so loud!

"What an obnoxious bastard", Inuyasha sneered, hanging up on his call with the pizza place, "It's like he knows I'm on the phone".

Kagome grinned at his pouty face, and reached up to pull on his ear—like she always did when they were little, whenever something annoyed him and he needed a distraction.

"Keh", the boy nudged her hand away, but smiled nonetheless, "pizza's coming in half an hour"

"I'm surprised Sesshōmaru's still here, I thought he only trained at school?", She couldn't help but wonder out loud, when another robust blow reverted across the house.

"Mostly he does; but sometimes he trains at his master's dojo", Inuysaha replied with a short, uninterested shrug, and raised a brow when Kagome flinched at yet another strike.

"Other times he does it here", he added, proceeding to turn his body so he could pound at his own wall, "—TO MAKE EVERYONE JUST AS MISERABLE AS HE IS!"

It only took a few seconds before the unmistakable muffled sound of running hit the stairs.

Wide eyed and face pale, the younger Taisho brother sprang off his bed, tripping on a pile of clothes as he did, and ran to lock his door.

"Why do you keep taunting him like that, if you're so terrified of what he'll do to you?"

"I ain't terrified", Inuyasha scoffed, insulted at the mere word, yet still dragged his desk chair to hold it against the knob, "I just know from first hand experience that he's got no self control!"

Kagome laughed, amused at how he overworked himself for no reason at all—if Sesshōmaru was to barge into the room to hand Inuyasha's ass to him, he would have do so already.

"I find that hard to believe", she admitted.

If anything, she was of the opinion that the older boy was too in control of himself, and she sincerely believed it really wouldn't hurt him to loosen up a little every once in a while.

The guy barely even smiled, as it was.

"Hey, Inuyasha?", a sudden thought came to Kagome's mind, "how come I never see you train anymore? All you ever care about these days is baseball"

Thick brows creased, "Yeah well", her best friend muttered, suddenly finding the random piece of lint hanging off his sleeve way more fascinating,"maybe getting hit with a stupid fake sword all day long isn't really my thing."

This made Kagome frown, somewhat caught off guard.

When they were little kids all Inuyasha ever talked about was fighting, and all he ever wanted to be was a kendo master like his father. It was the only thing he had in common with his brother.

Just when did that change?

And how had she not noticed?

"Is that why you haven't signed up for your examination yet?"

Small bits and pieces were starting to click in her head as she recalled a particularly nasty argument not two months ago, "your dad's gonna be real pissed again if you keep bailing"

Inuyasha scoffed, "all that old man ever cares about is how well Sesshōmaru and I fall into his ridiculous footsteps", he rolled his eyes, "I'm already sick of it."

"How can you call Mr. Taisho ridiculous?", Kagome gaped, "He's practically a legend! How many times have you bragged about his skills—you wouldn't shut up about it just last year alone!"

"Just cause he's good doesn't mean I am", wide boyish shoulders shrugged, ignoring the baffled look his companion gave him, "and just cause he dedicated his whole life to kendo, doesn't mean I have to too."

Soft, thin fingers ambushed long silver locks, and Inuyasha winced as Kagome pulled on the lone strands of hair she clenched around her tightened palm.

"You are good!", she snapped, pulling harder still when the boy groaned in pain, "you're so good that your dad gave you his Tenseiga!"

"Damit, Kagome! Stop!"

"Even Sesshōmaru didn't get that one. You were so smug about it, you took it to school for a month straight!"

"Ow! It's just a stupid bamboo sword, for Christ sake! Stop!"

"Just a stupid—Sesshōmaru beat you black and blue because you so much as pointed it at him", Kagome reasoned, gawking at him as if he had lost his mind.

She then let him go, but only because he grabbed a chunk of her own hair in retaliation.

"He was so jealous!"

"Yeah", Inuyasha chuckled, the sting on his scalp dissipating at the memory of how incinerated his obnoxious older brother had been.

The image of it still brought the younger Taisho so much joy.

To think that all those countless years of devotion and hard work Sesshōmaru had mindlessly put in perfecting the craft their father so admired, had simply manifested in the reward of his second best sword, was enough to brighten the youngest brother's mood any day.

Even if he really didn't give two flying fu—er, figs—about that useless Tenseiga.

To him, wood was still wood, even if it had conquered championship after championship.

"You're really ungrateful, you know", Kagome's unimpressed drawl brought him back to the present, and Inuyasha raised an unconcerned brow at her disdain.

"Your dad did all that for you, but you still don't appreciate it", she sighed, "he's so much harder on Sesshōmaru"

Amber eyes widened, and then twitched, "Are you taking that bastard's side now?"

"Pfft, hardly"

Inuyasha gave her a weary look, observing for a second or two at how she fumbled with the remote control on her hand.

"Ya sure Erin's not the only one with the gross crush—

"Eww, no. Just no"

A rough laugh exploded out of his chest—the idea of anyone liking his half brother sounded ridiculous to him.

Throwing a dreamy look at Kagome, he fluttered his eyes.

"Don't ya think he's got the longest lashes in the entire universe—

The dark haired girl had him by the scruff of his shirt within seconds.

"Don't you ever dare repeat that in front of her, or I swear I'll strangle you with my own necktie", she hissed.

Oh, she was definitely gonna be toast.

Not that Inuyasha cared, it only made him laugh harder.

"But don't you agree? On account of how he's so brooding and manly—

Kagome, ever the devoted ally, let out a gagging sound as she dropped him, but despite her best friend's clear amusement, didn't meet his eyes.

Sure, Sesshōmaru was an asshole, and heartless, and so smug it'd make anyone want to pull their toenails out rather than deal with him…but

He wasn't that bad to look at.

And she wasn't about to hold it against poor Erin, either.

'I mean, come on!', Just because she was strictly team Inuyasha, didn't mean she was blind!

The guy was handsome, and it added to his popularity, whether he cared for it or not.

But she'd never ever admit that out loud—especially not to his brother—and that's exactly why the weather channel was suddenly looking a lot more fascinating than usual.

Concentrating entirely too much on how Fukushima, four prefectures away from her, should expect four inches of rain, the fifteen year old tried rather unsuccessfully to ignore recalling how hard the older boy's much larger frame had felt under her, and how warm his arms had been when they wrapped around her waist earlier.

Coming off his insufferably amused high, Inuyasha sniffed from his spot behind her on the bed.

"Anyway, that's what he gets for being an insufferable show off…", he shrugged, voice trailing off.

"Huh?", Kagome felt almost a little faint for a moment, as she shook silly thoughts out of her mind.

"Sesshōmaru", Inuyasha grunted, his attention now diverted on the screen of his phone, eyes firmly glued to the chat box in his messages, "he keeps feeding the old man's obsession—so that's why I just let him down easy, when I told him I wasn't competing anymore."

"Weren't you joining the Kendo Club?"

Inuyasha sucked on his teeth nonchalantly, "Maybe as the elective course; but the high school baseball coach's letting me try out once classes start, and I can only be on the team if I join his club"

Kagome grimaced, this was not going to fly over well with Toga.

"It'll be fine!", her best friend grinned, nudging her with his foot when he caught her expression, "he's got more than one basket to put all his eggs in—and that freak Sesshōmaru would rather off himself with his own shinai than see himself fail."

He seemed to think about that for a moment.

"Which in hindsight, wouldn't be the worse thing that could happen"

"Oh, come on!", Kagome reasoned, glaring despite herself at the imagery that conjured, "your family has been mastering this art for centuries. If you're not going to follow through, the least you could do is support your own brother."

"Yeah, sure", Inuyasha snorted, leaning forward to swipe the remote from her—he had enough of squeaky voiced weather meteorologists, not matter how big their boobs were—"I'll be sure to ask Erin to hold my place in line at his autograph booth"

While he laughed at his own joke, Kagome's blue eyes rolled back so violently it almost gave her an aneurysm.

"You should really consider getting your head out of your ass one day", she warned him, "both of you. You never know, you might actually need each other some day."

"Thanks Dr. Phil, I'll keep that in mind."

Threatened with a 90 degree burn from Kagome's scowl, Inuyasha averted his attention away from his phone long enough to send her a cheeky smile.

Giving up on the subject as per usual, the dark haired girl wrestled the remote back from him with the dirties of looks.

If he was sick of the weather, she was sick of overtly peppy girl bands with questionable fashion sense.

"What are the guys up to today?", she asked after a while, "usually they would have shown up by now"

"Miroku's out with his mom trying to apply for the learner's permit exam", Inuyasha shrugged, typing away at his keyboard, "and Kōga's in the countryside visiting his grandparents"

"No wonder it's so quiet here", he heard Kagome mutter.

She winced when an obnoxious theme song randomly blasted through the speakers as she continued casually surfing the channels, though before she could switch it off, a larger body jumped over her to yank the remote back.

"Leave it on!", Inuyasha complained, blowing up the volume, "I love this show!"

Kagome groaned, pushing him off him with an elbow jab to his side, "fine, get off!"

She hated 'The Gaman', it was the dumbest game show she'd ever had the displeasure of coming across, and quite frankly she couldn't understand why the boys enjoyed it so much.

Of course, It was just her luck, stumbling across the stupid re-runs now.

"I said, get off!", she snapped, when Inuyasha, rather than sit back, guffawed loudly—slapping his palm on the bed spread in amusement at the frantic look on one of contestant's faces.

Kagome blew a puff of air up at her bangs, trying to ignore her friend's idiot laughing—and the man on the tv who ran away from a gang of monkeys with a pound of bananas tied around his body.

"You said Miroku was doing his learners permit examination?", she inquired, annoyed to be competing with the tv noise.

"Nah, he has to apply to qualify for the examination", her friend waved her off, trying to push her head away from his line of sight.

Kagome nodded, interested, "And when are you gonna apply?"

"My dad won't let me sign up yet", his attention finally diverted from the contestants getting hurt on screen, Inuyasha groaned, "he said the only thing I'll be driving, is Sesshōmaru crazy for a ride at the rate my grades are going."

"Hmm", his friend nodded, "figures."

"I don't get it!", blunt nails threaded through silver locks to hide his frustration, "the old man is constantly overreacting these days—I mean it's not like grades reflect on driving skills."

"Sure", Kagome snorted, turning back to her nails—maybe she'd try a manicure before school started, "there's no such thing as actually working hard to earn something."

"Keh," Inuyasha scoffed, throwing a pillow at her, "what the hell's the point of going to the one school that lets students drive, if I'm the only one who can't?", he argued.

Kagome shrugged.

He was right though, and they both knew it—affluent parents all over Japan willingly payed outrageous sums of money in order to secure their children an easy acceptance just so that they could claim such a coveted privilege.

And that didn't even include the bloated added cost charged to a student driver.

"Well, you won't be the only one…", she quietly reminded him.

Kagome's mother certainly couldn't afford such a luxury, and her scholarship definitely didn't cover it either.

Somewhat subdued, Inuyasha shut his mouth, knowing better than to continue complaining.

Little else was said as they settled in a somewhat awkward yet still comfortable enough silence, with an occasional laugh from Inuyasha whenever something particularly stupid happened on the show.

Kagome hummed in agreement every once in a while, whenever an elbow was nudged at her, but for the most part was contented to entertain herself by shooting socks at an empty laundry hamper across the room.

"Man, I really do want a car though", The boy next to her grumbled, inevitably breaking their rhythm after a while, "I hate begging Sesshomaru to drive me anywhere", he groaned, "one time he broke my collarbone, just because I tracked mud onto his stupid carpets."

Kagome nodded, solemn and sagely, "I remember."

She sighed, "well, at least you have a brother that can drive"

"I know, it sucks!", Inuyasha bemoaned, sending her a regretful look, "If I had a car, I could drive us around without bothering anyone".

His friend gave him a comforting smile, patting his foot in unified dejection.

Inuyasha bit his lip, "I even promised myself that the next time I saw Kikyō, I'd have something to take her on a date with", he admitted, then winced just as soon as the words left his mouth.

The hand on his foot tensed, and her grip slipped off him as if burned by his skin.

Kagome tried to hide her grimace—and failed miserably—though it was no great big secret that she and the older girl heavily disliked each other.

Always had.

It wasn't even the contrast in their personalities, however she'd be lying if Kagome didn't admit that she couldn't stand the other's snooty, manipulative, and simply downright mean nature—and being Inuyasha's best friend, she even more so couldn't stomach the idea of him and her together in any capacity.

Not that it seemed like he had any kind of shot so far, from the look of things.

—Which was perfectly fine as far as Kagome was concerned.

Her frown deepened.

Knowing just how badly the other girl could really hurt him, should she decide to put him out of his misery and suddenly started toying with him—well, more so than she already had—was no laughing matter to the Higurashi girl.

Though that probably wouldn't be anytime soon, seeing as how much Kikyō did in fact like to get around with literally anyone other Kagome's love-drunk best friend.

Almost as if to spite him—or worse—keep him on his toes.

"There are so many other girls in the world, are you really gonna set your heart on that one?", she demanded, visibly discouraged at how now it was he who avoided her gaze.

"Heart", Inuyasha air quoted, "is too strong an implication", his gruff voice sounded drained, "but yeah, I guess so."

He flinched at Kagome's loud and indignant scoff.

Not the he expected any other reaction from the one person he respected enough to take her feelings into consideration.

Who in their circle of peers didn't already know of the strange animosity between those two girls?

And It really did go both ways, too.

Kagome couldn't stand Kikyō—but Kikyō completely despised Kagome.

No one—including Inuyasha—could really understand why, either.

It was like fate took a train-wreck to whatever hope for a friendship they might have had, right from the moment the two had slammed into each other in that hallway on his and Kagome's second year of junior high school—and Kikyō's last.

The baffled third wheel to their increasingly escalating argument, Inuyasha hadn't been able to do anything more than gape at the infamous new girl.

He had never seen such deadly eyes on someone so beautiful.

That's how he spent the next two class periods hounding anyone who would listen for any information they might have known about her.

It hadn't taken much effort though.

According to the gossip then, her and her parent's had just moved in from out of town—a sudden and new business venture for her already wealthy father.

But it hadn't ended there.

Mrs. Saitō,—Kikyō's mother—it later turned out, was an old college acquaintance of Mrs. Higurashi!

Though even that hadn't been enough to soften the blow form their daughters' immediate and violent dislike of one another.

And to Inuyasha's amounting surprise, it was something Mrs. Higurashi—ever the advocate of peace— was not willing to push.

Even going as far as refusing, as per her daughter's insistence, to accept any of the Saitō's multiple and more than generous invitations to their home.

Not that Kikyō ever let up on her bullying.

The whole situation was questionable at best, especially to Inuyasha who's loyalty forced him to stick to Kagome's side for most of it—which was a huge bummer, because apart from all of that, Kikyō was generally well liked by most, a natural leader, and seemed like a decent sort of person.

Why she had zeroed in on Kagome as her punching bag made no sense at all.

At least it wouldn't, had there even been a reason to start with.

Even Inuyasha, who was at constant war with his own brother, didn't get it.

But then again he was stuck between a no win situation, and being biased was out of the question.

Had he taken the time to really think about it hard enough though, he just might have come across a few crucial inconsistencies.

However, much like he did when it came to those two's bickering, he merely ignored it—for the sake of his own peace of mind.

Because deep down, whether Kagome liked it or not, and whether he had a choice or not, Inuyasha couldn't really help who he was attracted to.

He only hoped that this past year apart—them being in different schools and all—might have helped slightly cool the flames of their eternal hate for one another.

After all, they were all older now, so surely—surely—her and Kagome would have to start acting their age around each other sometime.

Right?

Amber eyes chanced a look at the silently fuming girl next to him, and noting how she crossed her arms so hard her knuckles grew white, he let out a slow sigh.

So far, it wasn't really looking like there was any chance in god's green earth for that.

Inuyasha sighed, inwardly cursing at himself for being stupid enough to bring her up at all—too soon!

Staring down at the time on his phone, he closed his eyes and willed the pizza delivery guy to just hurry the hell up already.

"Ehehe", he started, trying not to freeze up at the wintry glare Kagome sent him, and rather gingerly handed her the remote, "you can pick what to watch next".