A/N: I'm having so much fun with all my fanfictions. I have to rest all week, doc's orders since my muscles are all stiff, but yay writing.

Disclaimer: I down own Ouran or Inuyasha... d##1+!

All niceties that Kyoya held in regards to charming people were lost on Kagome after she'd stepped upon his foot in such a brisk manner. He probably warranted it though. Hikaru and Kaoru were laughing their asses off, wiping tears from their eyes as Kagome left Kyoya in her dust for the nearest bathroom. Kyoya actually was biting back the ability to curse as he refrained from waving his foot up and down. He merely let all see he was irritated. That girl had some strength behind that little foot! Was her foot made of metal or something?

"That could've gone better," tutted Tamaki at Kyoya's bad manners. His friend was too quick to let his mood temper with his judgment sometimes.

"Think she'd like Usa-chan to cheer her up?" The lolita asked his tall cousin who merely patted his head at the childish offer. Haruhi caught sight of Sota and flagged him down. "Hey Sota!"

Sota's face lit up at recognizing Haruhi. She was a year or two older than him and he clearly remembered her trailing after Kagome like a little shadow. "Heya slim!" He glanced around the aisles as if looking for someone, he was trying to be cordial while at the same time scoping out for his sister. If he lost her again his mother would never let him hear the end of it. It was hard being his sister's keeper, but he felt he owed it to her. Like a knight honoring fealty to someone who'd saved his life too many times. His big sis had always been there for him and now he was there for her. "Have you seen-"

"Your sister, yeah," nodded Haruhi. Not one for pussyfooting around an issue Haruhi was straight to the point with her curiosity. "Sota… how'd Kagome lose her voice?"

Sota sighed. Explaining that Kagome missed school because of 'illnesses' was one thing and saying outright that she went jewel hunting with demons was another. He scratched the back of his head as he came up with a lie on the spot, then again, he was used to telling lies in regards towards his big sis. Say one thing while thinking of another. "Kagome was in and out of school for a whole two years." On a quest to gather shards and getting hitched to the man she loved. "She went traveling abroad with some friends." Preparing themselves for battle and carnage. "But about a year ago she fell really ill," he stated. In his mind he didn't see a sister sitting in a sick bed in the hospital though. In Sota's mind he remembered Kagome crawling out of the well gasping and clutching onto something red and furry close to her chest. She was bruised and hurt with animalistic scratches on her side, but she had a winning smile on her face like she'd accomplished an impossible feat. It was like she'd stolen something from the very bowels of hell and gotten out of it alive. She'd looked like she'd been dragged through hell itself. Kagome's triumph was bringing over that little red haired fox demon through the well when only one other had been able to do so. Shippo had explained everything he could to them while they tended to Kagome who'd slumbered on for what seemed forever from exhaustion. For days she was asleep. They hadn't been able to take her to the hospital because of those scratches and they were scared to move her. Besides, her powers were acting up which would've been hard to explain at a hospital had a patient been glowing a luminescent pink hue. In the past a human with powers was accepted, here they were studied as an oddity of science. No one could go on blind faith anymore without wanting to dissect its cause.

"Kagome woke up and she stopped speaking." Stopped eating for a while too, caught in distress and every time they mentioned her husband's name she'd burst out in tears. "We don't know if she's mute, if her vocal chords aren't working, or if she just chooses not to talk." Sota feared she was cursed or something. Shippo couldn't even answer them because he hadn't been with Kagome when she'd lost her voice. She'd rescued him in complete silence from the danger that had kept him locked up in a metal cage as bait with Rin.

"Have you not taken her to a doctor?" Kyoya primly asked, bringing out the simplest of solutions. Really he wanted to take off his shoe and get a good look at his throbbing foot.

"Of course we tried that," griped Sota, glaring hotly at Kyoya. Hell, they were lucky they'd been able to find someone to coach their family on sign language cheap. "But unlike some rich brats we can't afford the tests that the doctors need to get done. And if something really is wrong with her we can't afford surgery." They ran a poor shrine and money was hard to come by. Him and his sister were already doing all they could.

"Is Kagome still in high school?" Haruhi asked. If she remembered correctly Kagome was close to around Tamaki and Kyoya's age. She should be a junior about now.

Sota shook his head and shoved his hands in his pocket. "As smart as she is she withdrew. I think it's because of people." A scowl marred his features like he'd swallowed a handful of lemon drops. "When she's around them and they're trying to get her to talk it's like they're teasing her." It was horrible for Sota to know that his sister was able to fight demons, save the entire world, and yet people were the beings that drove her away now that she was mute. Sota firmly believed that everyone who met his sister should take a knee down in her honor and let her pass by them while they kowtowed and proclaimed how unworthy they were. She'd saved the world and no one was the wiser about it. No one knew how much of her life she'd sacrificed for their world's current existence. And no one ever would. She had to go on living a normal existence without getting a single thank you of gratitude. It pissed Sota off.

"She's smarter than me though," piped Haruhi. That statement alone was worthy of Kyoya making note. "When I was in middle school I looked up to her with those grades! And Kagome was so nice. She tutored me for the longest time!" And Kagome was part of the reason why Haruhi had decided to go to Ouran. Haruhi had wanted to go to a school to be a lawyer like her mother, but Haruhi had picked Ouran because she'd remembered Kagome getting starry eyed as she described it. Kagome was the one to put a brochure on Haruhi's study papers saying she should look into it. At the time Kagome had seriously been wanting to transfer, but gradually Kagome stopped coming to tutor Haruhi… something happened and now Haruhi knew what.

"Yeah, you were pretty slow stretch," chuckled Sota, earning a punch in the shoulder from Haruhi.

"I was surprised when I didn't see her at Ouran. It was her dream school," Haruhi said, just as Kagome headed towards them with her pink rimmed eyes now dry. Kagome was so sensitive to things now that her voice was gone.

Tamaki looked at Kyoya with eyes that said he needed to fix this and it was an order from the host king that shouldn't be denied. Kyoya shook his head, but the puppy dog eyes soon made him regret ever befriending this guy as he sighed in defeat. As a boon to help things along, Tamaki was all sunshine and friendship when Kagome came back. Stars were practically bursting from his eyes. "Oh Kagome! You should enroll to our school! Ouran Academy-"

Kagome shot him a look that said he was heavily doped up on drugs. Kagome looked to Haruhi and Sota as if speaking to them and rubbed the fingers of one hand together making the universal sign for something costing an awful bit of money. Sota started laughing. "What'd she say?"

"It's too expensive," answered Sota.

"Tuition is free if you pass the tests as a scholarship student," said Tamaki.

Kagome got this deer in headlights look at those words. Ouran had been her dream school before she'd fallen through the well. The very year she'd been filling out the transfer papers to Ouran she'd fallen into the Feudal Era. Kagome stroked her chin deep in thought, but shook her head and tapped her watch and opened her hands like a book. Honey was the one who translated this time. "It's too late for her to study since the entrance exams are over." How the blond had gotten that much information out of such small gestures was a shock, but then again he was cousins with the quietest man the Host Club had acquired.

"I'm the superintendent's son. I'll ask daddy and you can probably take the test," beamed Tamaki. "We can help you study and get in! Nothings impossible!" Kagome's eyes went wide and no one needed a translation that said 'You've-got-to-be-kidding-me.' Tamaki slapped a hand on Kyoya's back so hard it made Kyoya flinch and reach out his hands to steady his spectacles from falling. Was everyone wanting to do him physical harm today? "Also, Kyoya has volunteered to allow you be part of a study at his family's hospital." Oh no, his conscience was to be harmed as well it appeared.

Kagome's eyes went wide at first and then she started moving her hands about this way and that way angrily. Tamaki's eyes widened when an unmistakable fingered gesture that had originated from the French and English, that lone middle digit, popped up directed solely at Kyoya. Hikaru and Kaoru were beyond the point of no return with hysterics at how Kagome was 'cursing' Kyoya out with her hands. Mori was covering Honey's eyes so he wouldn't learn a few ways to insult someone with his fingers. Kyoya just raised a single brow. Sota snickered. Just because his sister couldn't speak didn't mean she couldn't hold her own in an argument as she did when she could speak. Instead of words though Kagome just used fast flying fingers.

Haruhi touched Kagome's shoulder snapping Kagome out of her tirade. "I know these rich bastards are hard to put up with. Believe me," she let out a long sigh that said befriending them was a punishment in its own way. "But I'll help you study. Do you want to?"

Kagome chewed on her plump bottom lip a bit before tapping her head. "She wants to think about it," offered Sota. She gave Haruhi a faint smile and moved her hands, Sota's eyes watching as they tumbled about in what were simple gestures for the others, but words for him. "She wants to visit it and make sure her heart is still in it."

"You still want to study for nursing?" Haruhi asked with a smirk glad to see Kagome was smiling a bit. Kagome nodded her head furiously with a wide smile on her lips.

Her hands were moving faster now and Sota was having a hard time keeping up. "She wants to give back to the community. She healed a lot of people on her… travels." Sota knew that to be a fact and he reached out to touch Kagome's hands stopping them. Brother and sister shared a look of understanding. "I know you did. A lot of people wouldn't be alive if it weren't for you." He ruffled her hair and she smiled at her brother looping an arm around his shoulders lovingly, and not in the twincest type of love that sold to fangirls.

"So cute," cried out Tamaki with little hearts dancing about his head. He clutched a handkerchief and blew his nose out dramatically.

Even Hikaru and Kaoru were crying into the sleeves of their jackets alongside their king at such a touching scene before them of sibling bonding. Kagome rolled her eyes and pulled away. She sheepishly ducked her head before looking up at Mori and Honey for help. "Hnn," agreed Mori. Kagome's face dimpled at that one little word that sent a flood of memories to her. Already Mori and Honey were the ones she was beginning to warm up to. Far nicer than that icy shadow king.

"We're going to pick her up tomorrow morning," sang Honey. The golden haired lolita looked to Haruhi for a piece of paper. "Do you have something we can write her address with Haru-chan?"

That night Kyoya's fingers typed furiously across the keyboards for any information regarding Kagome Higurashi. He winced when he moved his foot that was wrapped up and had a bag of ice sitting over it. The swelling had gone down and thankfully he'd been able to get his shoe off far before it had swelled into bigger proportions. A faint bruise had blossomed over his feet and his toe was red as a pepper. Though he was mildly irritated at what happened he recognized it as his own fault. That didn't stop him from investigating about her though.

Kagome had missed a lot of school due to 'illness.' He could smell a lie a mile away; after all, Kyoya was the one who was used to wearing the mask all the time and bluffing his way through things. Then again, the brother had basically admitted that her school record had all been lies. She'd been traveling abroad during that time period. Kyoya looked at the time when Kagome dropped out completely. It was about a year and a half ago when she disappeared from school. She might've fallen ill around that time and was probably recuperating. There were no medical records. Nothing at all. Mr. Higurashi had died when she was young. She had a single brother. One mother. And a grandfather who was the only one in the entire family being checked in and out of the hospital due to heart problems.

There was an interesting tidbit. She was bringing in customers now even despite her lack of speech. Kagome and Sota paired together to perform exorcisms and blessings. She was a priestess at her family shrine and supposedly more people were flocking to it because of her capabilities. He didn't put much store in mumbo jumbo, not when you could rely on hard facts, but he wondered if her 'powers' had anything to do with her disappearance during school.

He tapped a finger on the side of the keyboard. There were so many blanks regarding her. She really was a challenge. But like all good mysteries it was something to placate his boredom and eventually he would solve it. He also wanted to find out exactly how the hell someone that small could cause so much damn pain.

A/N: That's right. Sota is her awesome brother! _ I always wanted to see more with those two. Hope I left enough plot-bunnies to keep your minds wondering.