"Hey, have you bought your new uniforms yet?", Kagome asked, stifling a small yawn as she laid back on her pillow, the soft murmur of the fashion program playing on the screen nothing more than background noise by now.

"Not yet", Inuyasha sniffed, eyes closed under the arm laying across his face to keep the glare of light away, "you?"

"Nope", Kagome informed, much to her friend's surprise.

Inuyasha did look up at that, "What? Really—you?"

Kagome nodded as she stretched, doing a fine job of imitating how laid back she definitely did not feel about this particular matter, "my mom wants me to take Sōta with me, but he's never home—I mean, how many play dates can one kid have?"

One lone thick brow lifted up at her skeptically as Inuyasha snorted—as if Kagome would let her little twerp of a brother impede on her back-to-school shopping.

"Wanna go together?", he asked after a beat, "the guys and I were planning on getting ours this weekend"

Kagome contemplated it for a second—did she really want to deal with Kōga sniffing around her all afternoon? Or Miroku's unrelenting groping? Not to mention the super gross, and very loud burping contests.

"Will Rin-chan come too?", she inquired, feeling out her options.

Though only seven, Inuyasha's girly, flower loving adopted sister was not only really cute, but would certainly be a burst of fresh air in the midst of so much boy energy.

"Nah, she's still at camp", her friend replied, casually digging in his ear, "Sesshōmaru took her shopping for her uniform earlier in the summer before she left anyway—So what? Ya wanna go with us or not?"

"Hmm", she finally replied after a while, thinking it over a few more times, "Probably. If I can get Sango to come with me… maybe Ayame will want to tag along too."

"No doubt", Inuyasha giggled.

He stopped mid cackle to send the girl who wordlessly smacked him with her slam book an annoyed glare.

"Don't look at me like that!", Kagome snapped, "I told you not to read it!"

"It's all she writes about!", Inuyasha complained, as if someone had held him at gunpoint and forced him to ingest every last bit of gossip inside—the thing had a lock, for Pete's sake!

Okay, a makeshift one, but a decent one at best!

The dark haired girl rubbed her journal apologetically, as if she had hurt it more than the actual person she struck.

"So what?", she hissed, "that's still private information."

The boy scoffed, "You guys share that notebook with like four other girls—how private can it be!"

Kagome shrugged, that was besides the point.

"We all know she's had a thing for Kōga for years now, anyway", Inuyasha groused, rubbing his still aching head, "stop acting like it's some huge secret."

Kagome sneered, but did not retort—he was right after all, everyone did know by now.

Ayame had never been one for subtlety.

"It sucks we're back to the bottom of the totem pole thought", Inuyasha groaned, grabbing his friend's arm despite the dirty look she sent him, and urged her to rub his head instead.

"I wasn't looking forward to the hazing already, but did you hear that professor Jaken got transferred in as well?", his boyish face morphed into a look of utter disgust, "I'm telling ya right now. If I walk into the classroom and he's in there, I swear I'll drop out."

"Ugh", Kagome agreed, stroking his hair despite herself, "what was the point of that goodbye assembly they forced us to throw him if we're still getting stuck with him at a new school?"

Long sinewy muscled arms stretched up for emphasize in total agreement, "That's what I'm saying!"

"And what's with that weird cane of his?", Kagome's blue gaze thinned conspiringly,—"It's almost as tall as him—and you know, I have never once seen him limp."

Professor Jaken taught social studies, and was an all-around generally disliked teacher, but he was mostly known for the large and strangely carved two headed cane—one may even call it a staff—he carried with him to every class.

"He uses it to smash student's shins in on crowded hallways", her friend grumbled in response, just as a small phantom pain throbbed through his knee.

He rubbed at it bitterly.

"Decrepit creep", wide eyed, the dark haired girl shook her head, "how has this man not gotten sued yet?"

Inuyasha snorted, "did you ever clock how obsessed he was with Sesshōmaru?"

She nodded, rolling her eyes, "Every. Day."

Her silver haired friend clicked his tongue in annoyance, and rolled his own eyes as well.

"I never got how he was so in love with my stupid half-brother, but hated my guts", he grumbled.

Inuyasha had suffered way too many knuckle smacks on the top of his head than he had felt this particular educator had the right to give.

"Inuyasha", Kagome sent the boy a wary look—yes, she might dislike professor Jaken, but
certain truths had to be acknowledged, "all the teachers hated your guts."

"Keh"

Before Inuyasha had time to retaliate however, his phone vibrated—it was the pizza place, text alerting him that the delivery man had arrived at last.

"Oi, wench", he demanded, waving the phone at Kagome so she could see the alert for herself.

"Pizza's here, go get it will ya?"

She responded exactly as he had expected, with a punch to his arm.

"Don't call me a wench", she warned, "and would it kill you to say please for once?"

"Fine", Inuyasha acquiesced, rolling his watering eyes, but refusing—out of pure pride—to rub at the bruise she undoubtedly left, "please. Get the door, Kagome."

The dark haired girl huffed, though she did drag herself out of the bed and stomped towards his bedroom door, making a show of kicking away the chair that no doubt held Sesshomaru's wrath at bay, before turning to face her smug friend.

"I'm only going because I know for a FACT that if you were to go answer it yourself, there wouldn't be any pizza left by the time you got back up here", she hissed, before promptly exiting the room.

"I showed her", Kagome heard him mutter so quietly she almost missed it, and rolling her eyes she slammed the door closed so hard he yelped in shock when one of his host girl posters lost all its thumbtacks and fell over him.

The young girl snickered to herself in satisfaction and headed down the stairs, her amusement coming to complete stop however, when she opened the door only to find that the delivery boy was none other than the last person she expected to see.

Kagome blinked, and did a double take—but nope, she wasn't seeing things, after all.

Rather than the usual pimply, voice cracked pubescent riddled teen—or the occasional tired university student low on college funds—It indeed was one of Sesshōmaru's kendo friends.

One of his more annoying friends, at that.

It was the one who constantly bugged her whenever he came around, though that didn't make him any less handsome—she begrudgingly admitted—all of Inuyasha's brother's kendo friends were intimidatingly big and tall, understandably so, and this one wasn't an exception.

He was strong too, by the looks of how his shabby looking pizza boy uniform fit around his torso and arms—Kagome lifted a thin brow as her eyes traced down his ridiculous get-up—how long now had it been since she had last seen him, again?

Long enough, Kagome reasoned, observing the growing length of his soft green tresses jutting awkwardly from under the loud red pizza boy cap on his head.

Menōmaru would be a third year—the senior class—at her new high school this coming school year, just like Sesshōmaru and their small clique of friends.

Vibrant crimson eyes stared down at her expectantly, before a wide grin took over his face.

"Hey! Short-Stuff! That you?", he exclaimed, seeming to realize who his actual customer was.

"Gotta say. I wasn't expecting you!"

"Would you stop calling me that already?", Kagome snapped, finally remembering exactly why she didn't like him, and proceeded to snatch the hot pizza box from him with little more than an annoyed glance.

Menōmaru smirked, winking down at her with his usual lazy charm, and casually held up his hand to receive his payment.

"Oi, not tip?", he pouted, when she gave him the exact change.

"Oh. Yeah, of course!", Kagome replied with the sweetest of smiles, before holding the box against the doorframe to free up a hand in order to dig into her left jean pocket.

"Here ya go", keeping her shit-eating grin, she proceeded to drop a single lint coated one piece yen on his waiting palm, "enjoy!"

The older boy brought the measly coin up to his eye and lifted an unimpressed brow, blowing the piece of lint away as he did.

He then shrugged, and placed it in his own pocket.

"So, Short-Stuff. Is Taisho the older here?", he inquired, reaching out with expert speed to pull up the pizza box lid in order to swipe a particularly large slice right from under her.

Kagome glowered up at him as he bit into it with a wicked smile of his own, and rolled her eyes at his expectant look.

How he and Sesshōmaru were friends was a total mystery to her.

The younger of the two stepped aside nonetheless to allow him passage into the foyer.

"He's training somewhere in the house", she responded at last, unsure herself as to what his actual coordinates were.

"Ah, yes. The garage", Menōmaru reasoned sagely, pushing past her, but not before stopping to grab at her nose, "thanks, Koharu-chan!"

"It's Kagome!", the girl hissed, smacking his hand away.

She heard him chuckle as he left her behind to wallow in her indignity.

"Aww, they grow up so fast~"

Kagome seethed, but quickly pulled herself together, for there was a bounty of melty cheesy goodness in her arms with her name on it, and she was nothing short of starving.

And anyway, she reasoned, grabbing a thick slice of her own from the box as she made her merry way upstairs—revenge was a dish best served cold.

Pizza, however—was not.

…..

"Yo!", Menōmaru's aggravatingly cheerful voice greeted Sesshōmaru as the green haired boy entered the garage, slamming the door behind him obnoxiously loud.

The occupant resisted the urge to roll his eyes, even as the pizza boy insisted on waving at him despite the clear lack of reaction.

"What are you doing here?", with his long silver hair bound to a messy bun on his head, his friend barely spared him a look as he struck his shinai up in the air with a powerful thrust.

'Perfecting his form', Menōmaru reasoned sagely as he watched from the side, "just passing by", he replied.

"Aren't you supposed to be working?", Sesshōmaru bit out, his arms arched up, his back pulled straight, even at this point he refused to take his eyes away from his target.

The green haired boy followed his gaze and briefly wondered at what it was that his pal was actually looking at.

He shrugged, and dropped his body to sit Indian style by the door, "yeah"

At that, Sesshōmaru did look away from his task and gave him a blank stare.

"You brought pizza?", he questioned, observing in disgust at the half eaten slice hanging off his friend's mouth.

Menōmaru nodded, "your little brother ordered", he replied as he chewed, extending a slobbered piece of crust at him, "ya want some?"

Sesshōmaru scrunched his nose, "I'll pass."

"Speaking of passing", the pizza delivery boy wiggled his brows with a suggestive grin, "what's the verdict on your bro's little girlfriend? She passed the entrance exam, right?"

His friend frowned, returning to his previous fighting stance, "what do you care?"

"I saw her just now, she's gotten really cute"

A loud smack reverted through the large space, and Menōmaru squinted at the shock of it, flinching as if he was the one at risk of getting hit.

Sesshōmaru for his part payed him no mind and merely righted his practice dummy before it toppled over to the floor.

"Both her and the half moron are attending our school, yes.", he replied.

"Heh, that'll be fun—

"Don't even think about it", another grating swing smacked the poor dummy across the top of the head.

Red eyes widened, and their owner gaped, "Oh come on! What's your problem?", Menōmaru snickered, taken aback, "since when do you care about your brother like that? If he can't keep her, that's his problem not mine."

Though his demeanor was calm and unbothered as usual, Sesshōmaru snorted.

"Go ahead", he mocked, "she'll just get bored of you in two weeks like all the others do."

"Low blow, man", his friend clicked his tongue at the burn, "what do you care anyway?"

Menōmaru watched him shrug as he picked up his wooden bamboo sword once again.

"I don't", the seventeen year old admitted, "but you wouldn't be stealing her from anyone. Inuyasha and her are good friends, and my father loves her as if she were one of his own."

He said it as if that settled everything.

Menōmaru snorted, "…And…?"

Sesshōmaru gave him a somewhat amused side look as he slid two of his fingers over the polished and immaculate length of his shinai's body, testing it for any possible splinters.

"I would hate for you to get banned from coming here just because you couldn't keep your pants on long enough to avoid scarring her for life", his reply was nonchalant.

Menōmaru snorted at that, "as if you have any idea about the sort of equipment I carry."

Both boys shared a look before chuckling to themselves, one much more amused than the other.

"Pfft"

Despite his laughter, Menōmaru threw what was left of his pizza crust at his buddy in mock annoyance, before perking up at a sudden thought.

"Oi, Sesshōmaru?", he called out, checking his phone for proof, just as the other boy was readjusting his form to challenge his practice dummy once again, "didn't your text say you were heading to kendo practice like an hour ago?"

Finally caught off guard, Sesshōmaru paused mid swing.

Throat suddenly dry, he swallowed, "something came up."

"Uh huh", Menōmaru's annoyingly knowing look made him want to punch it straight out of his stupid face, "something came up alright!"

"You're an idiot."

The other boy's grin widened even more, impossibly so.

Sesshōmaru chose to ignore it.

"Look man", Menōmaru reasoned, holding his hands up playfully as if he were held up at gun point, "if ya had your eyes on her all along, all you had to do was just say so."

"Get out."

"What?", the other teen complained, "I don't hold it against you, I already told ya she's really cute! I just had no idea you also enjoyed partaking on the rare and once-a-year delicacy of a freshly picked cherry or two, that's all!"

Sesshōmaru sneered, deeply unsettled enough to turn his shinai on him, "I sad, get out."

The green haired pizza boy cackled, holding his hands up even higher—he already knew how much a smack of that bamboo sword stung, more so without armor, and he was not trying to reacquaint himself with it.

But before he had a chance to back himself towards the door, loud, yet still somewhat muted shouting exploded behind the thick garage walls.

"Kagome, bring back my pizza! I already told you I ain't sharing!"

"And I told you, it's not just your pizza! I'm not going to let you sit there and stuff it all in your mouth without offering some to your brother first!"

"Why should I give that asshole any? He can go order his own!"

"Because, Inuyasha! Your dad left both of you that money for food—Ow! Stop pulling on me or I'll end up dropping it!"

"You drop that and I swear I'll—GAH ARGH! Wha-ha-hy there!"

Both boys shared a concerned look, and Menōmaru for one, winced, fighting the urge to hold his own tender bits in comfort unity at the yawls of pain from a fallen fellow male in agony.

Sesshōmaru lifted a perfect silver brow at his companion's overtly solemn look, and rolled his eyes when the other proceeded to mouth: "N-e-v-e-r M-i-n-d, Y-o-u C-a-n H-a-v-e H-e-r".

Fed up with enough insolence from both parties, the oldest of the Taisho siblings dropped his shinai and stepping forward pushed away Menōmaru to reach for the door.

He opened it just as Kagome Higurashi was mid way through lifting her fist up to knock upon it.

"What is it?", he snapped.

Ignoring the abashed look on the girls face—not to mention his half brother's suffering moaning as he helplessly slid down the opposite wall in anguish—the annoyed third year simply took the steaming box away from Kagome's increasingly loosening grip, and then wordlessly presented her with his other hand.

—Only to help her down the steep ledge that separated the foundation of the house and the coarse cement floor of the garage.

"I—uh", Higurashi blushed, caught off guard yet again, "sorry to bother you, Sesshōmaru"

The older boy stared her down, clearly unimpressed, "Hn."

He had yet to let go of her hand, and a half smirking Menōmaru seemed to be the only one who noticed.

"We—uh", the girl's pretty blush deepened,"g-got some food and wanted to see if you wanted any?"

Well, the pizza boy fully smirked at that, maybe he wasn't the only one who noticed.

Almost as openly as he had taken hold of it, Sesshōmaru unceremoniously dropped her hand, and handed her back the pizza box.

"I do!", the delivery boy barging between them grinned, holding out his own hands for another slice with another cheeky wink.

Snapped out of her stupor at last, Kagome pulled the box away from his vicinity with a glare.

"Don't you have more of these to deliver somewhere?", she questioned, truly baffled that he was still dallying about.

The green haired boy shrugged, "Yeah…probably…"

"Ok, what?" The girl frowned, unable to comprehend such laid-back irresponsibility.

She shook her head, "whatever", turning back to her friend's brother, she waved the box at him tentatively, the half eaten content inside sliding about noisily, "have some?", she insisted.

"See, I told ya!", Inuyasha's gruff, pain addled voice grumbled from behind the opened door, "he doesn't want any—thinks he's too good for common food like that."

Kagome looked over her shoulder to send him an apathetic glare.

Mr. Taisho had ordered pizza plenty of times throughout the years, and never once had either of his growing teenagers turned their noses up at it.

Using her foot to push the door closed all the way with enough force to pointedly slam it against Inuyasha's nose, the dark haired girl gave Sesshōmaru an encouraging smile.

"Damnit, Kagome! Don't waste all we have on him!"

The older boy lifted a lone brow at her casualness for such an action, amused for once.

"Ignore him", she pressed.

Sesshōmaru smirked at the distressed look that had been on his younger brother's face, and briefly wondered if the buffoon bothered to recall their very large and very stocked fridge, not ten feet away, filled to the brim with junk food—both Inuyasha and their father's dietary staple.

Just for that he decided that even though he was not at all hungry in the least—having already ingested his protein shake prior to training—he would still get a slice or two just to torture the little idiot.

"Thank you", he responded at last, much to the girl's bewilderment, and lowered his eyes to stare patiently at the pizza box in her hands.

Kagome coughed awkwardly after a brief pause, but blushed once more when she realized he was waiting for her to open the lid.

'Inuyasha would have already teared at it', she mused to herself, lowering her own gaze when his long fingers grasped at two of the largest slices—one for himself, and the other he promptly tossed at a triumphant Menōmaru.

Very much so to both her, and Inuyasha's chagrin.

"So, Short-Stuff", Sesshōmaru's friend broke the silence, already halfway through ripping all the cheese from the bread on his slice, and gobbling it down in one go.

"A little birdie told me you're finally gonna be a first year at Our Lady of The Sacred Jewel—excited?"

His new underclassmen did not resist the urge to turn away from him.

"Not if you're there."

Despite the dig, Menōmaru chuckled good naturally, even as he shared a knowing look with Sesshōmaru.

"I'll grow on ya", he promised, pulling her back around to meet his playful eyes.

The glare Kagome gave him guaranteed otherwise.

"I'm going there too. Thanks for asking!", Inuyasha grumbled from behind the door, pulling helplessly at the knob every once in while.

Though it wouldn't have made any difference either way, on account that Menōmaru had taken to leaning rather smoothly against it in a bid to get closer to the ever retreating Kagome.

With a small uninspired snort, his classmate swiftly smacked him across the back of the head to get him to back off.

Crimson eyes threw daggers at emotionless gold ones.

"So. You still into music, Higasaki?", he asked, rubbing the back of his head with a forced smile, "I remember how much you enjoyed band class back when I was still in junior high"

"Higurashi.", Kagome gritted. What was it with this guy, anyway?, "but yeah. I already signed up for the music club—I had lots of fun there this summer."

"Nice-su!", the admittedly charming boy held up his thumb at her, "I joined my first year too. I had to leave it behind for Kendo, of course."

He sighed, then added, "but, there's always the elective period, you've heard of the music class, right?—am I going to see you there?"

"Ah", Kagome nodded enthusiastically, despite herself, "…yes, actually. You still play, Ganohito-san?"

From what she could recall, he had always been really handy with a guitar—electric, was his choice of poison as well.

Despite her annoyance with him, Kagome couldn't help but swoon slightly at the memory of how his talented fingers easily strummed melody after melody like it was nobody's business.

Briefly, she found herself wondering how much cooler he'd look now that he was much older—and so tall.

Kagome resisted the sudden urge to fan herself—He did always have that sort of rock star vibe.

"Yeah, a little", Menōmaru smirked, and somehow his goofy wink didn't seem so goofy after all.

"Keh, that band class was so pointless!", Inuyasha grumbled, very effectively cutting through the mood like an old rusty knife—while finally managing to swing the door open so hard it hit the wall with a cracking thud.

He winced—his old man was not going to like that.

Kagome broke away from Menōmaru's surprisingly mesmeric smolder, but only to stop and snort back at her best friend.

"Says the one who was disgracefully kicked out for having no redeemable musical talent", she was quick to remind him.

"Oi!" Inuyasha snapped, briskly grabbing the pizza box from her hands with a pointed glare, before stomping away back to where he came from, "I choose to leave on my own accord!"

"Hah!", Kagome mocked, amazed at the gall of him.

"Yeah, no. He bent the triangle so hard it became a musical rhombus", she informed the other two boys, who merely nodded awkwardly for lack of a response.

Once again they shared a look, and then simultaneously shrugged.

How those two were so close, neither upperclassmen understood it.

One of Inuyasha's feet froze midway as he lifted it to walk away, "Yeah well, there's no way that thing was made out of solid metal!", he asserted.

At this, three pairs of eyes did roll to the ceiling.

"Just go wait in the room", his one and only ally begged, pressing her fingers to the bridge of her nose, not for the first time today.

"Just go to the room", Inuyasha mocked as he did as he was told anyway, his fake high pitched girly voice muffled by a large bite of his precious pizza.

"How do you stand that kid?", Menōmaru questioned, shaking his head as he watched him leave, "he was only around for like less than ten minutes and I already want to throttle him."

Kagome shrugged, internally updating the data chart on her previous hypothesis—'another one bites the dust'.

"I grew up with him", she reasoned, when he kept looking at her as if he really, really wanted some answers.

Menōmaru pursed his lips at that, as if in true contemplation.

"I share part of his blood and I still can't stomach him", Sesshōmaru, never quite this talkative, argued with a sigh.

"I heard that, bastard!", Inuyasha snapped from somewhere up the stairs.

"Great set of lungs though", the green haired boy sniffed, somewhat impressed.

Even Kagome had to nod at that.

The panicked screech of an electronic alarm went off in someones pocket, and Menōmaru grimaced apologetically at the other two as he shut off what looked like an old beeper in his pocket.

"That's my manager", he sighed, "Anyway, Kagami-chan~"

He grinned down at her, knowing damn well that wasn't her name, "you'll save me a seat at the Music Expression class this semester, won't ya?"

Kagome let out girly giggle, nodding sheepishly, before thrusting her hand up to grab at the red cap on his head at lightning speed, pulling it down so hard it went past his nose.

"Eat dirt, creep."

"She's in to it", the boy grinned, nudging at Sesshōmaru as soon as she walked off with a few more choice words under her breath.

The other teen glanced down his nose at his companion with a steely look, "Clearly."

"She totally digs what I'm serving, and you know it!"

Though he felt it was beneath him, Sesshōmaru found himself scoffing more so than usual today.

"The only thing you serve", he countered, "is pizza pie."

Menōmaru's smirk dropped slightly, but it still didn't completely wane, even as he stuffed his pizza boy cap into one of his pockets, "I told pops this stupid gig was not the wave."

Sesshōmaru gave him another look, "Why are you even stuck doing delivery work, your father is wealthier than mine?"

The other boy lifted a shoulder nonchalantly, even as he carefully readjusted the top of his vivid green, helmet hair.

"It's supposed to teach responsibility and hard work, and maybe I can finally understand what blood, sweat, and tears are supposed to taste like…or…something stupid like that…"

Sesshōmaru gave him a long and very pointed look.

"You're worse than Inuyasha, you know that?", he muttered, inwardly contemplating his own life choices and how they had lead him to this moment now.

"Heh, didn't you hear though? I'm better", the reluctant pizza boy bragged, clearly overfeeding his delusion, "chicks dig musicians, ya know."

"Yes", his friend agreed, "the keyword being: musicians."

But the other boy was beyond listening, "I almost had that little short-stuff eating right out of the palm of my hand!"

Sesshōmaru sent him another cold and withering glare.

Yeah, right.

He had more chance with his own bamboo sword than he did with any girl at their school.

'hell', the silver haired boy reasoned, observing the smug look on Menōmaru's face with a strange sour taste engulfing his mouth—he had more of chance with that one lesbian lunch lady at the cafeteria, than he ever would with any other living girl in all of Japan.

At least, as far as Sesshōmaru was concerned.

Which by far, was abysmal at most.

"I'm not going to tell you again", he sneered, once again falling back into formation, "drop it."

A/N:

Personally, I don't really like creating my own OC characters in fan fiction if I can help it. I feel like there's usually enough characters in canon to make up a large cast in most fandom-however, sometimes when the story deviates from canon a fair amount, it can't be helped that some original characters might develop OC-like tendencies...much like this version of Menōmaru, and many more to come.

(lol me acting like the main characters aren't a little sus themselves).

I hope that despite this, it'll serve the story well.

I am curious though, what are your thoughts on original side-characters that end being written almost nothing like they are on the show/books? I'd love to hear your opinions on that.

Anyway, I also want to take this time to thank those who have followed and favored. You have all made my day!

Next chapter will be up soon!