Izayoi quirked an eyebrow at her stepson. "I was wrong?"
Sesshoumaru nodded gravely as they began to walk home. "I was trying to tell Rin I was sorry, but now all the boys and girls hate each other. The boys threw water balloons at all the girls and now everybody thinks I helped plan it."
Izayoi looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well, did you?"
Sesshoumaru scoffed. "No, cause their games are stupid. I told them to…to 'anbush' their enemies," Sesshoumaru struggled over a word he'd heard in a recent 'bedtime story'. It was an easy concept to understand, though he didn't think the other boys would actually understand what it was and do it.
"Ambush their enemies, huh? Sesshoumaru, where did you learn that?" Izayoi's brow was arched in suspicion.
Suddenly, Sesshoumaru's face went blank and he blinked innocently up at his stepmother. "TV."
"Right," Izayoi murmured more to herself.
Finally, they arrived at their large home and Izayoi ushered him into the kitchen to prepare him an after-school snack. "Well," she said slowly as she moved around the kitchen. "It seems like you've made a bit of a mess of things even though you didn't mean to. I think that tomorrow you should apologize to all the girls, and don't let the boys make you feel bad about it, either. There's nothing wrong with having friends that are girls—I'm sure some of them wished they could be friends with the other girls, too."
It was with this advice that Sesshoumaru steadfastly decided upon his plan of action the next day. He didn't care what anybody else did, but he was going to set things straight between himself and Rin. As he walked into the classroom, he was surprised to see that everything was mostly normal—he'd been expecting some sort of full scale war or something. All the girls were sitting at their desks whispering and giggling with each other. As Sesshoumaru approached Rin, he felt someone grab his arm. Turning, he was surprised to see Kagura smiling at him. "Hi…Kagura."
Kagura blushed and then giggled again, which was weird since she seemed like she had wanted to bite his head off the day before. "Hi Sesshoumaru!" she looked down and began to shuffle her feet shyly. "Would you…play with me at recess today?"
Shocked wasn't the word. Astonished is more like it. For a moment he could only stare dumbly, but then he shook his head. "But I want to—"
"YAY!" She cheered. "We can play on the seesaw today!" Then, Kagura ran off to her seat, leaving a dumbfounded Sesshoumaru. What had just happened? Turning back to Rin, Sesshoumaru was not surprised to see a look on her face that indicated that she'd heard everything. Sesshoumaru was really used to this sort of luck.
As he resigned himself to sit at his desk without talking to Rin, he noticed that all his other male classmates were unusually quiet. "What's the matter with you guys?"
Hiten spoke up first. "Kikyou asked me to play with her at recess and she wouldn't let even say no first!"
"Yeah, an' I gotta play with Ayame," Kouga grumbled.
Miroku smiled. "I get to play with Sango and I can't wait!"
Bankotsu rolled his eyes. "Miroku, you're such a girl lover!"
An argument ensued, but Sesshoumaru had long since tuned it out; the girls were up to something, but until recess, it was impossible to know what it was.
When recess came, Sesshoumaru decided that breaking his promise to Kagura in order to talk to Rin was well worth whatever horrible thing Kagura could think to do to him. As he stepped outside, he noticed that every boy was with a girl, and although this was very interesting, he decided not to care.
Rin was playing on the swing by herself. Perfect. "SESSHOUMARU! OVER HERE!"
Sesshoumaru couldn't help but cringe at Kagura's loud yell. "Oh no!" he muttered under his breath as Kagura ran over to him and began to drag him to the seesaw. Kami-sama was against him. "Kagura, I want to play with—"
Kagura, however, was completely ignoring him. "Before we play, I wanna give you something."
"Huh?" Sesshoumaru was completely confused; why was Kagura being so nice? In fact, as he looked around the playground, all the boys had the same confused looks on their face. Kagura's face split into a mischievous grin and she leaned forward quickly, planting a kiss on his cheek loudly. Then, so fast that Sesshoumaru was dizzy, she shoved a handful of mud in his face.
"AH!!!" And again, Ms. Kaida was on her feet, this time trying to get the mud out of all the boy's eyes, their shirts and even their pants. All the girls were laughing at the muddy boys, Kagura the most.
"That'll teach you stupid boys!" she grinned triumphantly.
This whole thing was getting out of control, Sesshoumaru decided as he greeted his mother at the gate to the pre-school. "Sesshoumaru! What in the world happened?!" his mother bent down and ran her fingers through his muddy hair.
"The girls. Mommy, why are you picking me up?" Sesshoumaru was not in the mood to explain why he was dirty; so he decided to change the subject.
Sesshoumaru's mother grasped his hand and led him down the street in the direction of his father's house. "Izayoi had to take Inuyasha to the doctor and your fathers on a conference call. So you aren't going to tell me what happened?"
Sesshoumaru shook his head. "I just want to take a bath."
"Of course, dear," knocking on the door, she was surprised to see her ex-husband open it.
"Sesshoumaru…what happened to you?" His father looked down at him with a face that highly resembled his mothers when she had first seen him.
"He doesn't want to talk about it," his mother answered for him as she bent down and gave him a kiss. "Think you can handle giving him a bath or should I cancel my appointment?" she laughed at the look on his face and shook her head.
Sesshoumaru watched his mother go to her car in the driveway and then he looked up his father. "Let me guess," the older Taisho grinned as he picked him up and carried him into the bathroom. "Girl problems?"
"I guess," he shrugged as his father simultaneously ran bath water and stripped him of his dirty clothing.
His father chuckled. "Well, son. I never thought I'd have to help you with those at this age, but then again, you're just like your old man! All the girls in my class loved me!"
Sesshoumaru blinked at his father. "The girls don't actually love me, daddy."
"Really?" the older man looked skeptical for a moment. "That's strange," he murmured more to himself than to anyone else. "Well what's the problem, kiddo?"
Sesshoumaru sighed, knowing he wouldn't be able to not tell his father. And so he began to relate the events of the past few days. By the end of the tale, Sesshoumaru had been cleaned, dressed and had eaten half of a peanut butter jelly sandwich. "I see,"
"What should I do?" Sesshoumaru knew his father would give him some sound advice.
"She like flowers?" Sesshoumaru's eyes lit up. How could he have forgotten? "Pretty much every woman likes flowers. Throw in a heartfelt apology and you're all good, Sessh."
"Flowers," Sesshoumaru murmured to himself, with hopes that finally the Gods would give him a break.
I lied. I didn't get to work on this story this weekend. So by Wednesday. I don't like this chapter...maybe I'll revisit it. Probably not. Anyway, review and know that the next chapter will be the last...
