Sorry this was so late...With exams and homework, I've been pretty busy. How was everyone's spring break??

Chapter 2

The Drawing

The sun was shining brightly through the window, as if beckoning Kagome. She sighed and turned back to her studies.

Wie heiBt du?

Ich heiBe Kagome.

Wo kommst du?

Ich kommt auf Engalnd.

She had to admit her German studies left much to be desired. She looked back at the window, at the wonderful field filled with strange and beautiful flowers. How she longed to be out there, instead of in this stuffy room, learning German. When would Mrs. Holm's cousin be arriving? Kagome wished he could arrive now, just to be rid of German for a while. Sango's words popped into her head.

The guy's a pain in the-

Well, maybe his arival could wait. No, she decided, she longed for something different; ever since she had moved here, all of her days had been planned down to the minute, and, to her dislike, not one of those minutes could be spent outside. Kagome figured that this change might be good for her. She might even be able to convince this new head of house to let her spend some time outside, doing things worth while, instead of her German studies. Ugh.

Just at that moment, the doorbell rang, and the event Kagome had been looking forward to came. Kagome didn't realize, of course, that with this ring of the doorbell, her worst nightmare had arived.

"Miss Halding, hurry n' come meet the new head o' house!" yelled the Irish maid, Ms. Mollin. Kagome didn't have to be called twice. She rushed out of her room, only pausing to check if she looked decent in the mirror. Her hair was up in a messy bun, and her beautiful dress, light blue wasn't wrinkled too badly. After all, it was just an old man, she told herself, she didn't need to look good, just presentable. Nevertheless, she took a few seconds to pull a few stray hairs into her bun, and smoothed out the wrinkles in her dress. There, she thought.

She descended the stairs two at a time, and jumped into the main hall. There stood Mrs. Holm, hugging a man in her chubby arms, hardly letting him breathe. She was crying,"Oh, my Lord! You look so well, and here I was worrying about your health! I missed you so much!"

The poor man seemed to be flailing his arms in an attempt to free himself from her grasp. Kagome, who thought she ought to do something for the poor guy, cleared her throat, rather loudly, until Mrs. Holm finally took notice of her and backed off the man.

What Kagome saw when Mrs. Holm moved away was not something she had expected. There stood the man from the funeral. Their eyes seemed to meet for only an instant, until Mrs. Holm interrupted and was saying something, but Kagome wasn't listening. She could only stare at those bright gold eyes, that seemed to melt hers. He seemed only a few years older than her, yet here he was ready to take his place as the head of the house.

"Miss Halding," he said taking her hand in his, and shaking it,"I'm Mr. Inuyasha Tallis, but to you, Miss, Mr. Tallis. Good to meet you. As you know, I'll be in charge of keeping everything up and running here, so that means that you will now be studying French, Advanced Mathematics and Biology, English History, and you will attend Music lessons in addition to your current studies."

As he was saying each subject, he placed an extremely thick book in her arms, equaling a total of five heavy textbooks. Kagome looked in shock at Mr. Tallis, a wave of angry and maybe not very appropriate words quickly forming in her throat. Just as she opened her mouth, though, Mr. Tallis held up his hand as if anticipation of her outburst and said,"Now, before you go and say something you might regret, you should know you should be thanking me..." Kagome, though, didn't hear the rest of what would have been a completely pratronizing speech, because at that moment, Ms. Mollin came in and grasped Kagome's hand, pulling her back upstairs. "Miss Halding, We 'ave to begin your new studies!" Kagome looked back, helplessly at Mrs. Holm, who just shrugged. With a scowl, she turned to Mr. Tallis. His stare was steady, and completely cold. What was wrong with this guy?

Still, she couldn't resist looking at those breath taking golden eyes. As she was dragged upstairs by Ms. Mollin, her hand began to itch for a pencil. Kagome pried her hand from Ms. Mollin's and ran past her to her room. Locking the door, she hurried to her desk and grabbed her notebook and pencil.

Nothing could distract Kagome when she had that pencil in her hand; she was completely lost to her drawings. She touched the tip of her pencil to the piece of parchment very carefully, but was soon she was making fast strokes. Her dark pencil strokes soon began to take shape, but Kagome wasn't sure what she was drawing, she just knew she had to draw. After about an hour of Ms. Mollin yelling at her to come out, and about half of an hour of Mrs. Holm knocking furiously at her door, she was ready to find out what it was that she had needed to draw so badly. As she looked down at the parchment, her eyes widened considerably. Just at that moment, her door was broken down and there was Mr. Tallis, whose eyes also widened considerably when they landed on her finished drawing. Kagome ran at Mr. Tallis, pusing him out of her room, crying, "Get out of my room! What kind of man are you? This is hardly respectable!"

At hearing this, Mr. Tallis blushed, and lost no time in getting out of her room. It would have made Kagome laugh under different circumstances. But right now she looked back at her drawing. It was a perfect portrait of Mr. Inuyasha Tallis. In the drawing, he was sitting on the bottom step of the staircase, his hand under his chin as if thinking, and his eyes, oh, his eyes. They were filled with sadness for some reason, though this did not make them any less beautiful, Kagome realized with a blush. Oh, what am I to do now? He must think I'm mad! I probably am, Kagome thought. She would never be able to show her face in her own house again.

The next day, however, Kagome found out that her Music lessons would be given to her by none other than Inuyasha himself. Mr. Tallis, she corrected herself with an eye roll. She proceeded to her doom in the music room at 8:47 in the morning. She reached the room and was about to open the door, when she heard someone playing the piano. Now, Kagome didn't know much about music, but the piece she was hearing was very beautiful. She listened a few more minutes until she got the courage to peek through the door. As soon as she opened the door a tiny crack, though, the music stopped abrubtly.

"Miss Halding, stop peeking through the door and come begin your lesson. You are already late." came a voice laced with coldness.

Kagome sheepishly walked in the room and sat down.

The rest of the lesson was utterly boring. Mr. Tallis said not one word about her drawing and she was starting to get anxious. Did he decide to forget her portrait? To never talk about it again? Well, he would be reasonable to do so. By the end of the lesson she had forgotten all about too. Untill Mr. Tallis brought it up as she was heading out the door.

"Mrs. Holm says that you are artisticly talented, and," he cleared his throat,"by seeing your work yesterday, I have decided to place you in art lessons. Your talent will be put to good use."

Kagome couldn't believe her ears. Art lessons? What kind of Nazi was he? No way would she attend art lessons. And she made a point of telling him so.

"Are you crazy or just mentally impaired? It was bad enough with all the extra studies you so generously made me take. Now art lessons? There's not a chance in hell."

At this Inuyasha's eyes widened his face now showed a look of shock, which turned, very quickly, to a look of anger.

"How dare you use such language! Especially from a lady! You will take these art lessons or you can move out," he said very strictly, for he did not approve of raising his voice to a woman.

Kagome's eyes filled with tears and when she realized that she was crying, she ran out of the room. She didn't want him to see her cry.