Skeleton in the Closet

Kagome stared at her reflection in the mirror. The girl blinked as she held her glasses up to her eyes, then down. She swore it had only been a year when she was practically blind without them. And now, as she looked through the thick lens, she realized she did not need it: her vision was completely normal. Her constant headaches and convulsions that started as she graduated in middle school, gone.

She leaned forward, touching the bruise-like birthmark that lay where her shoulder and neck connected. Through the years it was fading, and now, it was almost erased.

It's... odd.

A sharp knock on the bathroom door startled her, and she rolled her eyes as she opened her little pouch. "I'll be out in a second!" she said, getting back to her original task. She took out some lip gloss and swiped it on her lips, taking out her compact and brush and applied her pressed powder, making sure her face stayed matte in the humid summer day.

As she combed through her unbound hair with her fingers, her thoughts brought her back to the year that had passed. Nothing much happened in Shibuya except for the subtle changes to her health, and of course, being with Kikyo, her dear cousin, who gave her enough knowledge to dress to pass as 'normal,' even teaching her how to use make-up and how to fix her hair. Her cousin, although a shrine maiden like her, was good at those things.

Too bad Kikyo was not there with her three months ago, during her parent's funeral.

Her strict father, and her poor, submissive mother.

They died in a car crash on their way to visit her at Shibuya.

And she felt guilty for feeling this numb, not even shedding a tear for her father during the service.

The knocking on the door persisted, and the girl gave out a sigh. She opened the door, and the figure of a glaring Souta greeted her.

She only glared back.

"Are you all done?" he started, "because I'm late for my first day in high school."

"Give me a minute more," Kagome answered. "I still have to put on some concealer." She held her glare as her brother's eyes widened in horror. Unable to contain herself, the girl burst out laughing. She reached over and ruffled his hair playfully. "I'm just kidding,"

Souta huffed in frustration, looking away. "Geez, who are you and what did you do to my sister?!"

Gathering him into a hug, Kagome smiled. "She's still here. She hasn't gone anywhere."

After her parent's death, she dared to come back to Tokyo. She dared to enroll in the very school thatripped her to pieces, going under a different name. She will be Kaguya Higurashi, Kagome's cousin from Shibuya. She knew she could pull it off, after all, what was high school for her than a fake set of people with fake faces and personalities?

She would dare because she was stronger after all that had happened. Her brother needed her by her side, and she did not want him to transition into life without any parents.

She would dare for him, the only real family she had left.

"Youkai mating is a complicated topic," the teacher explained, "the higher the level of intelligence, the more complex it gets."

Kagome sighed as she rested her cheek on her hand, her gaze drifting outside the window. The cool breeze hit her face, and she stared at the endless blue sky, filtering the teacher's lecture out. There was something in summer that gave her a sense of immense warmth and comfort. She watched the green leaves of the trees sway with the gentle wind.

She shifted. It was her second week at school, and she was, honestly, surprised.

No one had recognized her.

She had expected that, now that her glasses were gone and she let her hair down.

What surprised her was that everything was so different. On her first day, she even thought she had stepped in the wrong school. They had mandated a uniform for all the students to wear after the first week, so she had no problems in searching for an outfit.

And the people, they were different. Kagome secretly scanned her eyes across the classroom. She knew some faces, but the familiar ones she so hated, her circle of wolf-youkai friends, were gone.

The jocks that the school so very treasured, even those judgemental faces that looked back at her a year ago at the cafeteria, they disappeared.

As if they vanished into thin air.

"Expelled, probably. I don't know. Nobody knows" said a classmate, shrugging her shoulders. "a mass of people, mostly the popular group, disappeared by the end of the school year."

"Well, it's a good thing. I never really liked them."

"Yeah. Such a bunch of meanies, Kaguya. Good thing you didn't get to meet them."

"Youkai feel emotions differently from humans," the teacher's voice drifted into her hearing, "they may look superior, but they are dominated by their instincts. For them it is raw and unfiltered. Their behavior highly depends on the level of their intelligence. For humans, think of your emotions, and multiply it by ten. Now it is up to their logic to control these emotions. That is why you see others ruder because they cannot control their baser instincts, and the cold and seemingly distant ones-

they have a more superior... mask, to those unfiltered, intense emotions."

A classmate raised her hand, "Is that why Tanaka-san is such a loudmouth?" he pointed to a bull-youkai beside him, and 'Tanaka' retaliated, punching his shoulder.

"Hey, before you start making stupid comparisons, look at yourself first, pea-brain." The class burst out laughing. Kagome rolled her eyes, bored. She brought her gaze back outside, to the trees that were swaying in the wind, green leaves dancing around.

"A male youkai can choose his mate as late as his old age." The teacher continued. "Others choose their mates as early as childhood. This is a rare trait, though, and it is seen in more powerful males. That is why you can see this happening commonly in Daiyoukais."

A classmate sitting before her leaned over to her seatmate and dropped her voice to a low whisper. "I wouldn't mind being chosen by a daiyoukai," she whispered, and her seatmate giggled. "I heard Naraku-senpai chose his mate Kagura when they were still in middle school."

Kagome's eyes widened subtly, upon hearing the name. It had been so long since she heard it said, and her heart raced a little bit faster. He is still here, in the school. That would only mean...

"Even if some are arranged into marriage, once the male had his choice, there is no hindering him from his chosen one. Inu-youkais, most especially, are notorious for this kind of loyalty. There are some cases of them that when their chosen one dies, they die shortly after. Some even take their own life, unable to handle the depression."

"Hey, Sesshomaru-sama of Fourth-year A is an inu... and a daiyoukai!" her classmate whispered, and her seatmate straightened, giddy.

"Oh my gosh... go for it, Natsumi! You'll hit the jackpot with him!"

Kagome withdrew from her eavesdropping, thoroughly disinterested. The mere mention of his name made her skin crawl, and she pulled away.

So he is still here.

The bell rang for lunch, and the girl with blue eyes gathered her books and bag and headed straight outside, her thoughts to herself. She would keep herself as low-profile as possible. He only had one year more, and then he will graduate, and he would be out of this school, out of her sight.

Kagome stepped back as she stared at the sign posted on the gym door.

"Taekwondo Team Auditions 12pm-1pm" it said, and the girl stepped inside. A crowd of people had gathered at the center, onlookers noisily cheering on the participants, and the girl, trying to drown out the noise of the crowd, walked past them and went straight to the female restroom with her heavy bag in tow.

When she emerged she was already clad in a dobok, her belt wound tightly around her small waist. She bound her hair up into a tight ponytail and exited the bathroom, beelining towards an empty locker where she shoved her bag with her uniform inside. She shut the locker door and paused, her hands lingering on the metal number plate that was bolted to the front.

A year ago she was inside this very locker, crying her heart out as she hid from Naraku when the scandal happened.

Kagome closed the door and headed to the registration area. It was clear that the ushers were already members of the team, and one of them raised his brow when Kagome approached with her black belt around her waist. "Okay, even with that you still have to go through the audition." he shook his head, handing her a paper. "Name and contact info."

Kagome rolled her eyes as she bent down and scribbled her information down. "Of course I would go through." She pushed the paper to the red-belter, "If you don't test me then I'd rather not join this club." she smirked as he tried to read her name.

"Higu...rashi. Higurashi Kaguya?" he clarified, and she nodded. He tucked the paper into the file and leaned on his chair, arms crossed in front of him, annoyed by her grin. "You're too confident. Aren't you a bit nervous? Our team swept the Taekwondo Nationals last year, and our captain was champion in the summer and winter open- National and International."

Kagome shrugged, refusing to be intimidated. She was done being pushed under the bridge. "Hit me with your best shot."

The red-belter chuckled. "Alright then. We'll let the captain himself decide."

"Decide on what?" a newcomer alluded from behind her, and Kagome instantly froze. She knew that voice. She could never forget it, even with her eyes closed.

"Sesshomaru-sama, we have a hopeful here who wishes to be auditioned by you."

"Who is she?" he said. Kagome shut her eyes closed, mentally cursing herself for such bad luck. Him, of all people.

"Higurashi Kaguya," the student answered, and there was a long pause.

"Higurashi Kaguya?" Sesshomaru echoed, his voice suddenly different. "How are you related to Kagome?"

The girl opened her eyes, steeling herself from the utter revulsion consuming her being. How dare he say her name as if he knew her. A mask of fake cheerfulness overtook her face, and she tried to quell her shaking breath. "She is my cousin," she answered.

A hand, his hand, rested on the small of her shoulder, and she almost jumped at the contact.

She felt a sudden surge of flame burn from where he touched, and she instantly knew where it came from. Her hatred.

"Where is she?" he said, his grip on her shoulder oddly tight. He was forcing her to turn her to him, dare she say, desperately. "Your cousin Kagome, where is she?" he repeated, and Kagome took a deep intake of breath. She turned to him.

Their gazes connected, and his golden eyes widened.

Kagome willed herself not to pale. Did he recognize her? But this was not the time to falter. Her knees were weak yet her resolve was firm. She smiled at him, so very sweetly. "Far away from here, away from strangers who destroy people's lives just to have their fun."

With a confident stride, she brushed past him, and she would have ran but she heard the taekwondo team announce his name in the overhead pager. Seeing that he was not following, Kagome dashed to her locker, grabbed her bag and bolted out of the gym.

Stupid Kagome, you just gave yourself away! Stupid, stupid!

She was distracted for the rest of the day, but the girl tried with all her learned strength not to panic. Kagome had her share of sleepless nights, crying herself to sleep from the immense shame she was subjected to.

There was no way in the seven hells she would subject herself to such torture, ever again.

The rest of the day was uneventful, and she breathed a sigh of relief. It looked like he did not recognize her because no one was hounding the door when the bell rang for dismissal. The students had already trickled out, and Kagome, being voted as class representative, had just finished piling the papers and arranging them to submit to the teacher tomorrow.

She chuckled at the irony. When she was covered up with her thick glasses and country clothing, no one even bothered to look her way. Now that she was "pretty" to their standards, they were clamoring for her attention.

Such superficial people.

The girl exited the room, her stack of papers in tow. She started towards the school corridors when someone shifted from behind.

"Kagome," a familiar voice said, and the girl's hold to her papers loosened. The stack spilled from her hands, leaving an unorganized mess on the floor. Slowly, stiffly, Kagome turned around.

White hair and golden eyes.

The school prince was leaning on the wall by the doorway, his arms casually crossed in front of his chest. "You came back," he said, and Kagome forced herself to snap from shock.

She donned her overly cheerful mask as she knelt to pick the pathetic mess up. "I'm sorry, but you must have mistaken me for someone else," she said, hurriedly gathering her documents. A firm grip on her wrist stopped her movement and she raised her gaze.

He was down on one knee himself, in the middle of the mess of papers.

"What are you talking about?" he said, grabbing her other wrist and dragged her closer to him. Her blue eyes took a deeper shade, her entire being swallowed by one emotion:

Fear.

His golden eyes flew open, upon seeing that raw emotion thrown directly at him.

His hands fell limply to his sides, and she took the chance to pull away, not even bothering to gather the rest of her things. "I don't know you," she asserted, and his jaw visibly clenched, she could see a vein throbbing at the side of his neck in constrained rage.

"Kagome," he repeated with a fanged snarl, and she looked away, standing up and straightening her uniform.

"I'm not her." She declared. "You're crazy." She stood up to leave and had already walked two paces away when a sound echoed in the empty hallways, and she froze, halting dead in her tracks.

The sound of moaning, her moaning, and a male grunt interspersed in between.

Tears instantly streaked down her cheeks. She was paralyzed.

"Deeper," Sesshomaru's voice ghosted, "Ah, yes... yes! Deeper... Kagome," She spun around, her eyes wide and vulnerable as she watched him hold the phone in his hand.

You...

Her shoulders slumped, and her knees, already weakened, gave way. She sank on the floor, her tears spilling from her eyes. The video continued playing, the repulsive sounds broadcasted in the lonely hallway. She thought she had only moaned once. She did not recall moaning as much.

But she did and she was, her moans were more frequent than his grunts, bouncing off the walls of the open corridors.

How dare you...

Her whole body trembled. At that moment, all her strength, the fortress that she built the entire year had collapsed. "What do you want from me?" she whispered, not even looking at him, her blue eyes had lost focus, staring into the empty space behind him. The taekwondo captain leaned forward and he held her in a very intimate embrace.

I hate you,

her body involuntary shook at the contact, the hairs on her skin standing. "Kagome," his tone was oddly gentle, and she felt nauseous, so fucking nauseous.

With the very fibers of my soul... I hate you...

The tears would not stop, as he pressed her closer to him, "Six days from now will be summer solstice." Sesshomaru started, and he rubbed his cheek on hers, so very gently, "Bed with me." he purred. "Bed with me this coming full moon," he pulled away, "You will not regret it. I'll make you the happiest woman in the world, Kagome. I'll give you everything you want..."

The youkai dared to press his lips to her unresponsive ones, and she had not stopped crying, even as the hands that cupped her face had tried to wipe the tears away. He trailed gentle kisses on her forehead, down to her jaw, as he gravitated on her lips again. Kagome closed her eyes, not wanting to see his face so close to hers, wishing all of this was just a bad dream. But the rough prod of his tongue in her mouth reminded her that this was real, and her moans from the recording, echoing in the hallways was continuously playing on a loop, the endless torture reminding her of the consequences if she would say no.

He was threatening her with the sick, disgusting video.

She bit his tongue out of anger, but the youkai had probably seen it as a response. His kisses grew rougher, and he yanked her hair so that her head could tilt up and he could go deeper. With his tongue invading her in that one-sided, open-mouthed kiss, he did one thing that she had found very strange: he held her hands on his, making her blindly feel his hair, guiding it to explore the outline of his face: of his eyes, his nose, his jawline.

He pressed her hands to his lips and he kissed it, pulling away. He looked into her eyes and she saw it, that strange emotion she had denied she had seen when their eyes met in the gym:

Despair.

"I'll do anything you want," he madly whispered, "Just be my mate, Kagome... please... anything you want." and he crushed her in his arms.

Kagome was silent the whole time.

Pathetic. You are just...

pathetic.

Since when had he been this desperate?

She remembered how they first officially "met," as she would only see him from afar in his visits to their shrine. It was her first day as a freshman in this wretched school, and the cherry trees by the brick road to the gates were blooming. She stopped and paused to watch.

A sudden pain stabbed in her head, and she cursed at the timing. These headaches, they usually lead to something more severe, and she lurched, unable to hold her knees. She sank on the grass and started convulsing.

When she fell, in between her throbbing head and blurring vision, she saw an outline that she could never mistaken. He was standing right in front of her, and as Kagome grimaced in pain she held her hand out to him, seeking comfort, begging for help.

He only looked back at her with wide eyes, and he looked utterly stunned.

Slowly he backed out and retreated- he walked away fast as he can without ever looking behind him,

leaving her alone to suffer under the abnormally bright sunlight and fall of cherry blossoms around.

Now that I am socially acceptable, you dare to claim me?

He avoided her like the plague ever since that meeting, and the only contact she had with him after that was in the middle of the school year when that sickening party happened. The flames of her hatred blazed deep inside, heating her entire body, her blood boiling over the sensation of his body so close to hers.

With every fiber of my soul... I hate you. Sesshomaru Taisho...

I hate you.

He leaned his head on hers. Kagome was still looking away. "Yes," she said emptily, and he sighed as he kissed her forehead.

"I'm so happy," He murmured, kissing her lips, his thumb caressing that tender, sensitive spot where her neck connected to her shoulder. He engulfed her in a possessive embrace, and she forced herself to stop crying, the look on her eyes suddenly hardening.

If he was this desperate, then she will let him be.

She will torture him during those five days with her indifference, and on the sixth day, before the full moon rises,

she will disappear.

Souta will understand, and wherever she will go, she was confident that her brother would keep her location a secret.

Before the sixth day ends she will leave Sesshomaru without any word, without any trace.

For an Inu like him, that will be his ultimate torment: she will be out of his life,

and he will be out of her life,

forever.

We never should have met.

A/N: The repeated question on both sites I posted was: will there be a "Sesshomaru's POV"? Yes. Like what I said, the story will be seen from 3 perspectives/POVs. His will be the last one. If you are patient enough and will be able to stick through the angst (heheheee), you will get to see everything through Sesshomaru's eyes.

I really hope you guys will, because, I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just say Naraku's, and most especially Sesshomaru's POV carries the main story.

Until next time.