Never Crossed My Mind

Summary: She didn't pay much attention to the Boy's Tennis Team, since most if not all of Hyotei's Academy's Tennis players, the guys in general, were all self-absorbed pricks! She didn't pay much attention...that is...until some annoying, bouncing, back flipping redhead insults her.

Anime/Manga: InuYasha/Prince of Tennis

Pairing: Kagome/Mukahi

Genre: Romance/Humor

Rated: M for Mature Content

-x-x-x-

"Geez, let it go,"

"What was that?!"

"You've got a lot of nerve! Like we'll just let it go?!"

"You are completely―"

Kagome barely turned her attention to the three girls shadowing her as she walked off to her next class. Fans of the redhead she'd insulted that morning. She'd already apologized to him, but that didn't matter to the girls. Not that she thought they were wrong to be upset. She had certainly gone overboard in her insult. She'd been so upset and he'd just... Kagome stopped. Shaking her head, a bit in her sudden surge of annoyance, she turned around and glared at the three girls. "I don't have literature with any of you, so there's no reason for you to be following me to my class." She hadn't heard much of what they'd been saying, but she got the gist of it. Walking away from the three girls, she left them aggravated in the hallway before entering her class and settling herself across from her study partner. "Oshitari-San, did you finish the homework that's due Friday?"

"I did, actually."

"What topic did you choose to write about?"

"I wrote my paper on the rustic writing in the nineteenth century." He pulled out a neatly compiled paper and held it out to her.

Reaching out, she took the paper carefully and read the title, "Searching for the Simple Life: A Study of Rustic 19th Century Literature."

"What about you?"

"Me?" She smiled, pulling a folder from her bag, she handed it over to him and watched him curiously as he opened it.

"Visions of Nature: 18th Century Poetical Imagination...delving a bit further into the past than what I'm used to reading in your writing. You normally write in the 19th Century."

"I've been looking into literature works from further back recently. You know, my grandfather pulled a whole bunch of old dust covered works from the storage shed. Nikki Bungaku dating back between 794 and 1192 AD. I wanted to read them, but he freaked and told me not to touch them. Too old." She sighed.

"That would be quite a treat to read. Would you be opposed to my coming to view them one day?"

Smiling, she handed his paper back as he held her folder out for her to take. "I wouldn't tell you no. Your one of the few in here who truly appreciate literature."

Turning their attention to the front, both stood as the class representative called for their attention, the teacher motioned for them to take their seat and the began rollcall.

-x-x-x-

"Oshitari!"

Kagome turned to see the redhead from earlier. The boy was running forward and bounding towards Oshitari who was sitting next to her. The two were studying the Third Generation of Postwar Writers from 1953 and 1955. She returned her attention to the literature history book in her lap and the notepad on the ground beside her. The contents of which read:

Shusaku Endō

"In those days, although we had received the Akutagawa Prize one after another, hardly did anyone expect that we would become great writers. We were regarded as if we would soon be forgot by the literary world. Precisely, almost all people did not start to know Akutagawa Prize until Ishihara Shintaro had won the prize and surfed mass media and provoked public opinion into asunder, as the first manifesto from one of the Postwar Generation."

Note: Read "Wonderful Fool" (1959)

"Higurashi-San, I need to get going to practice. I'll see you tomorrow."

Kagome glanced up from what she was writing and smiled, "have a great rest of the day, Oshitari-San." She caught the redheads' eyes and her smile slipped as she noted the curious look on his face before she watched the two turn and wander off. She stared for a few seconds longer before she returned to her studying. So lost in her studying, she never noticed the cold glares from afar, or the overcast of shadow from above.

Nearly two hours passed before the first drop of rain touched down on her notepad and stole her attention. Glancing up at the heavily darkened clouds above, she sighed before finishing her sentence and stretching her limbs out. Placing a bookmark in her book, she flopped her pages of her notepad back over and put both her book and pad in her satchel before standing and racing the rain back inside the academy. Little droplets were here and there on her uniform, but otherwise, she'd avoided the sudden start to a downpour.

Making her way to the shoe lockers, "I shouldn't have hung around for this long. Mom is probably worried." She stopped at a curious liquid dripping from her locker. Tilting her head as she took it in, she opened the locker door and her eyes widened. "Are you kidding me? Isn't this just...a tad bit juvenile?"

"Higurashi-San?"

Kagome turned and smile, "I guess the rainfall has put an end to Tennis Practice as well."

"Indeed," he walked over and eyed her locker. Her white sneakers inside were drenched in a blue dye that had seeped out of her locker and was now dripping onto the floor. Atop the shoes was a piece of paper with bold black sharpie scrawled across it. He reached past her and her eyes followed his hand as he pulled out the note. "Making enemies?"

"No more than the usual," she shrugged. Leaning over and pulling a handkerchief from her satchel by her feet, she lifted it to her locker and pulled her shoes out before wiping the blue dye from her locker and from the locker doors below hers. "The redhead from earlier, his fan club was very vocal about my snapping at him this morning. It's no big deal though. I'm sure they'll get bored." Folding the handkerchief, she placed it in a small baggie before putting it back in her satchel. "If not, then I'll simply choose the "ignore" option."

He watched her slip her Uwabaki shoes off and place them back in her locker before she slipped her blue dyed sneakers on. Pushing his glass up a bit, he watched her leave as the door opened and a few other members of the Tennis team came walking in. He brought his hand to one shoulder and met the eyes of his doubles partner as he held the paper from Kagome's locker out to him. "Your fans are causing her trouble. I don't...like it, Mukahi."

Mukahi frowned, looking down at the slightly scrunched up paper in his hand, his eyes widened.

GO STAB YOURSELF

LOSER!

It was true that she'd said the same thing to him, but he wasn't stupid. He knew she hadn't meant it. He got in her way when she'd already been standing on her last fuse, and the floodgates broke. He got caught in the current of her emotional outrage. This, however. This was obvious bullying. If it was his Fanclub, he would address it immediately.

"Gakuto-San?"

He turned to his King and smiled, "I'll take care of it, Atobe-Sama! Don't worry about something like this. If it's going to be like this, I'll take care of it myself."

Oshitari watched his team curiously before watching Mukahi run off with his umbrella out into the rain. A sudden thought struck him, and he sighed, "Higurashi-San...she forgot to bring her umbrella today."

-x-x-x-

Me: Here is chapter two of Never Crossed My Mind.