Second chapter up!
Two Can Play This Game
If you've never been on the subway train during rush hour in Minato, let Rin tell you. Millions of people were on the move, literally. Stations had hired professional "pushers" to push the multitude of people into the trains. This wasn't an exaggeration. These pushers were highly trained professionals.
She could feel the air being pushed out of her very body. She gripped the handle of her school bag tightly in her hands but she could feel it drifting further away from her as more people came onto the train.
Rin tiptoed to find Sesshomaru. He was six or seven feet away from her by the train's door. He was very tall and his unusual sleek and trim silvery hair was hard to miss even from afar in a crowd of people.
There was no way for her to get to him, the section of the train was packed. Fully jammed. Rin let out a long sigh.
Huh? Her eyes suddenly shot open.
'Someone... someone is touching my bottom... There's a pervert.'
Rin suddenly felt a rough hand trailing up her legs. She felt disgusted and violated. Her side locked her hands and there was no room to move around at all. She couldn't even identify the pervert.
'Someone... help me!'
"Help! Takahashi-kun! Pervert! Help!" Rin called out in frustration. She was screaming on the top of her lungs but it was too noisy inside the train section, no one could hear her.
"Takahashi-kun! Help me!" she called for Sesshomaru's help once more.
Nothing.
No reaction from him at all. None.
Rin gulped. Sesshomaru didn't even raise his head her way. She was certain that he could hear her crying for help. He chose not to respond. He...
'Sesshomaru! You... you... you jerk!' Rin cussed while winnowing and enduring the assault. She flinched and twitched her legs.
"Kamiyacho Station. Kamiyacho Station." Ding. Ding. Ding.
Saved by the bell, literally. The crush of people gravitated towards the door of the subway train and poured out from the door as it opened. Rin drifted to the platform with the crowd. She was still shaking the disgusting feeling from her. She was hurt, embarrassed, violated, and furious.
"Wait... Wait! Sesshomaru!" she roared his first name. It was rude of her to do so and she knew it. But she couldn't care less at that moment. He deserved all of her fury and outburst.
"Didn't I tell you not to talk to me?" Sesshomaru cringed and gave Rin a cold stare as he walked up the stairs of the station.
"Why you? A pervert violated me! I called for your help and you chose not to help me!" Rin yelled once more with tears of frustration in her eyes.
"There were many people in the train," Sesshomaru rolled his eyes at the little girl behind him. "Besides, who would want to touch... you? Stop making a big deal out of this. A moron like you was probably exaggerating. You know how to get to school from here. Like I said, don't follow me."
Without another word, Sesshomaru cold turned his back on Rin and walked out of the train station.
'This person...' Rin couldn't believe her ears. She trembled in pure exasperation. What did he just say to her? What. Did. He. Just. Say? She stood there and felt the blood drained from her face. She felt numb. Sesshomaru Takahashi... was cold blooded!
-x-x-x-
In anger, she couldn't bring herself to concentrate in class all morning. Her face was still flushed with pure disgust and rage. 'Sesshomaru Takahashi, damn you. Damn you.'
Rin gripped her pencil and copied intently away at the midterm schedule posted on the board.
"Rin-chan?" Ayumi popped up beside her. It was recess beak but Rin was still concentrating so intently. This was so unlike her.
"Should we let her be?" Eri whispered to Ayumi while watching Rin from the back, one table down.
"Maybe... maybe we should talk to her," Ayumi advanced to Rin, tapping her on the shoulders. "Rin-chan... Rin-chan..."
"Don't bother me. I'm copying down the midterm exam schedule!" Rin didn't bother to look away from the paper she was writing on.
"Why? We never study for that thing. In fact, we only pass with the bell curve," Eri joined the conversation. "Why are you trying so hard all of the sudden?"
"I'm going to beat Sesshomaru Takahashi! Watch me!" Rin muttered angrily while scribbling away. "Stupid Takahashi. I'll show him who's the idiot!"
"Ahhaha! Hahaha! Ha! Ha! Rin-chan! You can't be serious!"
"Damned right I am! I'm going to beat Sesshomaru Takahashi on the upcoming midterm!" Rin stated, in an as-a-matter-of-fact manner.
"Are you alright, Rin-chan?" Ayumi went up to feel her forehead. "Do you have a fever?"
"We don't even make it up to the top one hundred! Ever! No one in 'F' Class has done it before!"
Rin glanced up with range in her eyes, "Watch me!"
-x-x-x-
Rin smacked her face against the desk, 'I don't get anything. Nothing! Nothing at all!'
She finally tosses the physics workbook aside and rubbed her throbbing temple. She had been at this for the past six hours. She had made no progress. None. In fact, she had only gotten through the first ten pages and she couldn't even think of a way to approach the problems. How was she going to beat Sesshomaru?
"Rin-chan! Honey! How are you doing? I brought some snacks for you," Izayoi strolled into Rin's room with a tray full of delightful confection and fruits. "I even made a smoothie for you! It's a power smoothie!"
"... Thank you so much, Oba-sama!" Rin stared at the tray with amusement. She felt her stomach grumble. It's been hours since she's had dinner. She glanced at the clock on her desk. It was a quarter past eleven already.
"I'm so happy that I finally get to make snacks! I feel like a mother now!" Izayoi took a seat by Rin's desk and cracked a large smile on her face as Rin picked up the piece of tea biscuit from the plate.
"Hm... This is so good, Oba-sama!" Rin took a bite of the lemon cranberry biscuit. "It's delicious!"
Izayoi smiled ear to ear. Her dreams were finally coming true! She had always wanted to make midnight snack for her children but she had never gotten the chance to.
"I never get to do this for Onii-chan," Izayoi let out a long sigh. "But it's all good now! Now that you're here, Rin-chan!"
"Huh? Why not, Oba-sama?" Rin looked at the older woman with wonder and amusement.
"Onii-chan never studies past nine. Ever," Izayoi shook her head. "In fact, he's asleep already."
'No way,' Rin's mouth was agape. There was no way Sesshomaru never studied. She had been slaving for hours and she had only gotten three classes of problem sets. How could Sesshomaru possibly be done?
"I don't even get half the things," Rin sulked and pressed her face against her notebook on the table.
"Why don't you ask Onii-chan for help? He seems to get it," Izayoi gave Rin a gentle smile. "Rin-chan, would you like to take a break?" Izayoi pulled out an album.
Rin perked her eyebrow and sat down beside Izayoi on the sofa while sipping her glass of smoothie.
Izayoi opened the album to the first page and grinned.
"Ah! She's so cute!" Rin gawked at the pictures of a beautiful little girl in the album. "I love this cute pink dress! I've always wanted to wear one like this when I was a little girl! Who is it, Oba-sama?"
Rin flipped to the next page and cooed at the adorable little girl in a baby blue sailor suit.
"It's Onii-chan when he was little," Izayoi giggled at Rin's reaction.
"What?" Rin stared at Izayoi in terror and shifted back on the sofa. No freaking way! How could that be... Sesshomaru?
"Well... I've always wanted a daughter," Izayoi tapped her chin with her fingers and looked up. "When I was pregnant, I was so sure that I would have a baby girl so I bought all girl's clothing. Then... unfortunately I had a baby boy. But I didn't have the heart to throw all of the cute baby clothes away so I decided to dress Onii-chan in them until he was old enough to choose."
Rin was trying hard to suppress her outburst of laughter in the corner. This was just too precious.
"Hm... But I think this was one of the contributing factors to Onii-chan's cold personality," Izayoi cringed and let out a long sigh. "Rin-chan, this will be our little secret, okay? Even InuYasha doesn't know about this! It's just between us two." She gave Rin a small wink.
"Hai, Oba-sama!"
"Now, do you want one of these pictures?" Izayoi pointed to the picture of Sesshomaru in the fluffy princess dress on the next page. "How about this one?"
-x-x-x-
"Good morning, Onii-chan!" InuYasha sat at the breakfast table beside Sesshomaru.
Rin took a seat across from the two brothers. When she saw Sesshomaru, she couldn't help it but to snicker when she recalled the pictures from last night. This was going to take a lot for her to get over.
Sesshomaru stared at Rin with annoyance, what was this idiot up to anyways?
-x-x-x-
"Ne, Rin-chan, do you want to go shopping after school today?" Ayumi sat by Rin and took out her bento from her backpack.
"No," Rin shook her head and sighed. "I need to study for midterms."
"Wow... someone is working hard," Ayumi teased Rin as she took out a pair of chopsticks.
"Hokkaido-san," a familiar voice caught Rin off guard. This couldn't be... The entire class suddenly stopped talking and their undivided attention all focused on the boy at the classroom door. Sesshomaru Takahashi was standing at the entrance.
"Oh. My. Gosh! It's Sesshomaru Takahahashi!"
"It's Takahashi from 'A' Class!"
"What's he doing here?"
Whispers began spreading in the classroom.
"Did he just call Rin?"
"No way!"
"Hokkaido-san, can you come out for a moment please? And bring your backpack along," Sesshomaru requested Rin as he tapped impatiently on the door.
Rin froze. He had caught her off guard, 'What... what does he want?'
-x-x-x-
"I think there's been a mix up," Sesshomaru grumbled as he dug through his backpack and pulled out a pink bento. "This is yours. Where's mine?"
Kohaku, Eri, and Ayumi were watching Rin and Sesshomaru from afar.
"Oh..." Rin looked disappointed. She was expecting something more exciting than exchanging bento at lunch. She reached into her backpack and held out a larger black bento. "I was wondering mine was so large."
"Useless, brainless woman," Sesshomaru muttered angrily. "You've been nothing but trouble since the moment you came."
Rin suddenly felt an unprecedented anger growing from her. Two can play this game. She was going to fight back. She needed to show him that she wasn't a force to be trifled with. She knew exactly how to do it.
"I know right, Takahashi-kun? Us living under the same roof... Mix-ups are to be expected. In fact, you might accidentally wear my uniform," Rin laughed devilishly.
"What the heck? Your uniform?" Sesshomaru's interest peaked at Rin's words. Where did that come from?
"Hehe... Because when you were little, you wore dresses a lot, didn't you?" Rin laughed wickedly and pulled out a childhood picture of Sesshomaru, dressed in a pretty princess dress. "You were such a darling too!"
"No. Freaking. Way!" Sesshomaru gulped, hard. His eyes widened at the picture in Rin's hand. He yelped in horror, "How! How did you get that!"
"Oba-sama gave it to me! I've seen the other ones too! You were so cute, Takahashi-kun!" Rin laughed once more.
"Give it back to me!" Sesshomaru lunged at Rin while reaching for the picture of him from her hand. "Now!"
"No!" Rin leaped back with a big grin on her face. 'Who's the one laughing now?'
"What! Why!" Sesshomaru looked around to make sure no one was around. His reputation was at stake here.
"Because I'm fed up with you and your cruel remarks towards me! Now you need to get a taste of your own medicine!"
"Are you blackmailing me?" Sesshomaru yelled at Rin while attempting to grab the photograph from her once more.
"Hm... I can give it back to you..." Rin tucked the photograph into the inner breast pocket of her blazer. "But you have to do something for me."
Sesshomaru gulped. What did this girl want from him?
"You need to tutor me," Rin took a few steps towards Sesshomaru and smiled.
"Me?" Sesshomaru stared at Rin blankly.
"If you can get me into the top 100 spot for the exam, I'll give the picture back to you," Rin smirked and patted the breast pocket of her blazer.
"Fat chance! As if I'm going to do that!"
"Hm... I'll just mail this to the entire school then," Rin rolled her eyes and smiled sweetly back at Sesshomaru.
"No! Wait!" Sesshomaru called out to Rin before she turned around. "I'll... I'll do it." If this was what it took for him to save his reputation, fine. He'll do it.
"Really?" Rin's eyes sparkled as she heard Sesshomaru's compliant response.
"Before you get too excited, I need to make one thing clear," Sesshomaru raised his voice to capture her attention. "I can't promise that I can get you into top 100. You have to understand that 'A' Class dominates it with 'B' Class every exam. Not even students from 'C' Class get into the list. You're in 'F' Class."
"Oh..." Rin felt a little bit dejected. That was true.
"But... I can tutor you. Starting tonight," Sesshomaru mumbled and began to walk away.
Rin blinked blankly as she watched Sesshomaru disappearing down the hallway. Well... this was the first step. Rin Hokkaido - 1. Sesshomaru Takahashi - 4. She was beginning to even out the scores. She couldn't help but to grin from her small victory.
-x-x-x-
"This is amazing, Onee-sama!" Ken Hokkaido complimented Izayoi's spectacular cooking.
"Don't praise her too much, Ho-chan," Inu no Taisho laughed whole-heartedly. "Or it might get to Izzy's head!"
Izayoi laughed, "You're the professional master chef here, Ken-kun."
Rin's father, Ken Hokkaido was a chef by trade and ran his own restaurant. He had a devious palette that was hard to impress. But Izayoi's cooking was truly amazing. She could even make brussel sprouts taste delicious.
"Ne, Rin-chan. What would you like to have for midnight snack tonight?" Izayoi turned to Rin and asked her excitedly.
"Hm... same as last night please, Oba-sama! Thanks so much! I loved the smoothie!" Rin was getting excited for the midnight feast that Izayoi was going to prepare for her.
"Okaa-sama, make one for me too. I'll be in Rin's room," Sesshomaru muttered as he took another sip of the miso soup.
Suddenly, all conversations ceased at the dinner table and everyone directed their attention towards Sesshomaru. No one could believe what had just happened.
"Onii-chan... You're studying with Rin-chan? I'm so happy!"
He pretended not to notice everyone's staring. It was all Rin's fault.
Finished writing... now off to bed. I'll go back to read it over again for syntax and flow tomorrow :) If you've found an error, bear with me for now. I just really wanted to get the second chapter out.