A/N: Wahh I've been gone for sooo long! eh heh. bashfully rubs the back of her head well, i really dont have too many excuses, except for that... yeah. OK! So, as you've all realized, the chapters of this story are pretty damn short, so, not wanting to break up that rhythm, i've broken up the promised qoutes that i've left out for the next chapter. Go back and read if you'd like. Oh! And also, let me know if this chapter is unclear or seems to be written in not so good of a fashion as the others were. i have no idea how i'm writing these days. Oh! And another thing! (haha yeah i know, i talk a lot) the bars inserted in the story indicate a switch in point of view, the other chapters dont have it and let me know if you don't like it, but i find it helpful!). And, the first three points of view are what each girl is diong at nine o'clock. Ok! Now im done! (promise) Love yas!

Dislcaimer: ...pouts. (and thats a "no, i don't own Inuyahsa" by the way)

At nine o'clock at night, Kagome was soaking herself lavender scented bubbles, her damp fingers placed over the rim of the tub, dripping water onto the floor. A large disk of light hung over her face, illuminating her skin and creating a halo of shine in the water.

She inhaled lavender, closing her eyes. She – was – exhausted. Ever since she was a little girl she loved taking bubble baths, damp hair clipped up in a messy bun. She moved her arm to rest on her kneecap, and listened to the water dripping out of the faucet.

When she let herself relax, her mind sunk back into what the day had left her with: a ridiculous English project and some new friends. And then there was Rin… the way her jaw had fallen open to scream:

"You're English partners with Inuyasha!" The stunned look. The alarmed hazel eyes that were the size of dinner plate. It would have been funny if she hadn't received a similar reaction from all her classmates. That made it a little freaky. Even Sango had sort of done a double-take and looked at her as if to decipher whether or not she was being honest. So now it was just downright weird.

What was wrong with the guy anyway? Did he like, eat unborn children or something? She sank down lower into the bath, pouting as she thought.

She'd read the interview questions, and they had been kind of… intimate. Ranging from "what's your favorite television show, book, movie, etc." to "have you ever been in love," and "What's your deepest secret? Your worst fault? Your biggest mistake? The best thing that's ever happened to you?" She felt the light pink start staining her cheeks. The best thing that had ever happened to her? She didn't really have any answer to that… did that make her a bad interview partner? Would Inuyasha be mad?

Wait.

No.

This was Inuyasha…

He didn't really seem like the type to share either. She sighed again, shifting in the water, and started moving her fingertips gently up and down, one at a time, watching as the droplets fell and created tiny bullet holes in the bubbles.

She watched through half-lidded eyes as the ripples from the droplets that hit water spread like fingertips, reaching for something, and disappearing under the film of thick white froth.

She was having the nightmares again. And she didn't even know why. It had been six years ago. Six years, she thought, blinking back tears. You would have thought that by now she could have…

Rin lay in her bed, white hot fear zinging through her body so that she could barely move. Or was it ice cold? She turned over, her eyes wet as she realized she couldn't tell, and she couldn't stop herself from shaking. The red numbers of her alarm clock lasered themselves into her brain. It was nine o'clock, exactly six years later, and she still couldn't maker herself forget. Not the whole thing. She'd become very good at blocking out memories. But the feelings, and traces of figures moving in the dark, and the noises… the screams.

She rolled over and turned on the light, but somehow this was even worse. She didn't want to move.

But she had to.

Slowly she got up, every motion was full of something that should have been tension but wasn't anymore. She'd gotten so good at hiding fearfulness.

She was cold. Unthinkingly, she put on her school uniform, and a large sweatshirt over it. She didn't look into the mirror, because that would have been too much. But she picked up the sleek black phone and stood in the corner of her room, with both the walls pressed around her as she listened to the single ring pierce into her ear. And then there was an answering machine, the first noise of which she had memorized by heart, so she hung up after she'd heard the first intake of breath. If she left a message and it was received tomorrow it would be too late.

She bit her lip before she grabbed keys and started out the door. It was still early enough in the school year to be warm in Tokyo. And as she walked out into the humid smog, sky filled with gray, streets still filled with crowds of people, she felt a little safer. She liked people, and she liked the feeling of the constant moving all around her. The stillness was what frightened her most, the stillness… and mostly, silence.

She waited at the bus stop for six minutes, alone and hating it, standing up instead of sitting alone on the empty bench, and then got on. During the twenty minute ride, she seated herself next to an old man, in a tattered coat with smears of something on his face. He had fallen asleep in his seat, and probably missed his stop hours ago. She didn't know him, and there were plenty of empty seats around, but….

She sat rigidly, letting the greens, reds, and yellow lights flash over her face through the window, innocent hazel eyes scanning the black webbing of the floor beneath her. And all the while her heart was pounding hard inside her chest and she felt like throwing up. When the bus stop pulled up to a creaky stop in front of the school, with the sound of compressed air being released and a rusty break stop being pulled, she got off.

Sango had just finished played video games with her brother when the phone went off in her room. She'd kicked his ass of course – her brother's that was – in a final round of 23 to 6.

"Awww, Sis!" Kohaku had complained, sitting back on his hands. "You never go easy on me!" But he was laughing as he said it, so she'd known that she could just stick out her tongue and tickle him to make him forgive her.

Kohaku was an amazing boy. Unlike most of her little cousins, he was always smiling and laughing, never cried or complained. He was already thirteen, and growing like a weed in the summer sun, but in so many ways he was still just a child. And then, in so many ways, he was almost older than she. Usually, she was reminded of this during their family reunions. The Tijia's had a reputation for having a huge, boisterous family, full of rowdy people who got drunk a little too easily and started a few too many fights together over the dinner table or in bars. But they loved each other dearly. And of their generation, she and Kohaku were the oldest. That meant they were in charge of baby-sitting the rat-pack of kids that came when their 32 or more relatives piled through the door for Christmas and Thanks Giving or Memorial Day.

Kohaku had gotten up to help their mother with the dishes when the phone rang in the hall. "I'll get it!" Sango said, putting down the wet rag that she'd been using to wipe down the table and running into the other room.

She picked it up, tucking back a strand of hair. "Moshi moshi."

And then there was silence... "Hi."

She felt her stomach dry up until it burned and she stood there, on the phone. She didn't say anything, and neither did he. She'd known it was him from the minute she'd put the phone to her ear and heard nothing.

"You have to stop doing this." She said at last.

"When?" He asked, after a what seemed like a year of peaceful silence stretched between them.

"Soon." She replied. "Now. If my mother or father ever hears about you still calling me-"

"They knew about me?" Miroku asked, and she could see the slow smile on his face, the way his smoky lavender eyes must have crinkled, like they always did when he smiled.

She felt the pain lance through her entire body and inhaled hard. "Yeah." She said, her pitch changing as she refused to let the sting in her eyes blossom into tears. "They did." I was an actual girlfriend to you.

And with that she put the phone down on its base, ending conversation. She stood for a long time, taking control, staring at the varnish on the table until she was ready to look up into the mirror. Just as she'd tried, her reflection didn't show any of the turmoil that she felt inside. She had wanted it like that, but now, if anything, the sight of it only upset her more.

When the phone rang again, only a second later, she deftly hit the "mute" button so that the rest of her family couldn't hear, and waited until it was safe again to turn the ring back on.

He wouldn't call again.

With that she turned around and finished wiping down the table and went back into the kitchen where she found Kohaku rinsing the last of the dishes on his own, their mother having retreated for bed.

When her footsteps sounded on the tile, her little brother turned around, and she could tell from the look on his gently freckled face that he knew. She smiled at him a little and took the dishes from his hands, drying them and setting them in their cabinets as he handed them too her.

And then he said, quietly, "Are you ever going to tell mom and dad about him?"

She looked down at the counter for a moment, and then took the slick white glass from her brother's hands. "No." She said, looking at her perfectly calm, almost emotionless expression, warped in the wet reflection. "They never needed to know."

When the minute hand finally fell to six, and it was 10:30 at night, she came through the door, wordlessly. There was only the gentle, halting tap of her shoe on the floor. He looked up from his work. And there she was, standing in the doorway, the lone, dusty light from his desk hitting her face in just the right way. She bit her lip nervously. And he continued to just look at her, expressionless.

"I know you have a lot of work." She said, guilty, looking at the floor. "I called your phone… but you didn't-"

"I turned it off." For a reason his tone implied.

"I know." She said, walking slowly over to him. She looked curiously over his shoulder. "What are you doing?"

"Grading." He answered bluntly. "One of your friends is in my class."

"I know. She told me about that project you assigned." She smiled, and he stared at her, his hard golden eyes a growing slightly sharper as he perceived something very wrong in hers.

"Rin."

Her lips parted and she looked at him, directly, suddenly pained. He knew something was wrong. "I-" She didn't want to have to explain. Not to him. Not to anybody. "I just don't want… to be alone." She said, her voice sounding strange. "Not tonight." She looked up at him, and saw him staring at her, his gaze piercing into her. She swallowed slightly, thinking that of course he'd think she was being stupid, and kick her out.

Of course.

That was why she had smiled so broadly when he turned back to his papers and started grading them again. Permission granted.

She put down her books, and sat up on the desk beside the lamp, its heat on her bare thighs. "…Hey, you're kind of harsh on them, aren't you?" She asked as she watched him viciously mark down on his student's essays.

His eyes moved slowly to cast her a sideways look.

She smiled at him. "I'll be quiet now." She said, and pulled her knees up to her chest while his pen continued across the page. And finally inside her, her blood started to slow down, and the white-hot fear that had been eating up her everything lulled. She took his left hand in hers and linked their fingers gingerly. He let her. And it was okay.

A/N: sighs well, it feels like crap. but at least, i figure, i owe you guys at least a posting. let me know if you hate it and i'll take it down and make it better determined I will! And, oh, so, i guess i kinda gave it away huh? Rin's secret. A lot of you knew already, but some of you don't. if you still have no clue as to what's going on then... (stare) ill stare at you for the rest of the chapter... actually nah, if you want you can ask me in your review and i'll reply with the answer. Let me know if you think that part is not so well done either, i'm a bit lost when it comes to Sesshomaru.

Right! Well, thank you guys for all your support! Sorry for the wait... wanna leave me a review?? please?