Kagome's eyes hardened as Sesshoumaru rolled his window down to raise his eyebrow at her in his 'you-are-certainly-inferior-to-me' look. God how she hated that look! It ticked her off every time she saw it. He always looked at her like that. She wanted to punch it right off his face! But she contained herself before it showed too much in her face. "Let's go, you stupid preps." She told them angrily.
She pressed the button to roll the window up again, speeding out of the lot and into traffic. That look he always gave her was in her peripheral vision. It seemed only a second later that she was pulling in her garage, grabbing her backpack from the trunk and being sure to close the garage door before heading upstairs. She absolutely loathed that look. But why? Didn't he give that look to everyone?
She climbed the last of the steps before going into her room to change into the priestess robes she had to wear for working at the shrine. Souta had robes just like hers; only his were defined as priest robes, even though they looked like exactly the same outfit. It was a red and white outfit, red bottoms and white top.
Kagome tied her hair back in a high ponytail, looking at herself in her mirror. She felt funny looking wearing all her dark make-up and her jewelry, along with her priestess robes, but she hadn't had time to take it off. She was already late and she did take her job very seriously.
Once that was done, she went back downstairs, checking the fasting rooms to be sure none were messy on her way down and if they were then taking the clean blankets out of the closet and remaking the bed, taking the dirty blankets with her.
She redid three rooms on the second floor and two on the first floor, taking each floor's laundry down to the basement where the laundry room was and putting in a load after switching over Souta's clothes. She quickly went back upstairs then, going to find Souta and ask him what he'd done so far.
"I opened the store up so patrons could browse, and then I went and changed... and then I went to get a broom and now I'm sweeping the steps." He told her, grinning. "If you want something to do, you could dust the library."
She groaned. "Dang. You did this on purpose!" Neither of them liked to dust the library because it was so expansive and often took days to do. They had to run over every surface of wood with cleaning fluid and the shelves were over three stories high, the library having a huge arch ceiling.
There was a large winding staircase going around the large circular room's outer rim so that people could get to the top most books, the staircase was made of steel and had floral patterns in the wire. The wood used for the bookshelves was made of red oak and had floral patterns wood burned into the side of the shelves.
There were tables spread about the floor, both western and the traditional style tables that were low to the ground with cushions. The winding staircase had a ladder that went with it up and had a locking mechanism so that it didn't just slide back down to the ground floor when it reached the third story.
It was a beautiful room, however unused, but it got dusty quickly. One of them would spend almost a week out of every month dusting the library. Souta had done it the previous month. Both hated the tedious job because it was so repetitive: Spray, wipe, scrub. Spray, wipe, scrub.
Kagome sighed and cursed her luck as Souta snickered at her and then went on sweeping the steps. Kagome sighed again, cursed her luck again, and then went into the house, going into the closet in the living room for a handful of dusting rags and a can of pledge, placed them in a bucket, and then following the signs placed around the shrine for visitors, making her way to the library.
She once more cursed her luck as she looked at the impossible task set before her. Well, no sense wasting time. She thought bitterly. She decided it would be easiest to start at the top so she put the bucket on a hanger on the ladder and began the slow ascent to the top, pushing the ladder as she went along. Every two steps it would make a clicking sound, meaning the locking mechanism was working.
As Kagome began working at the top shelves, she began remembering her lessons about the demons, like Snob and Ice Prince were. Those two sacks of rich bastards were demons. She thought back to her lessons about demons. About three hundred years previous a giant war had taken place concerning demons and humans on Earth.
It lasted one hundred years before a truce was called, as neither side seemed to ever gain edge over the other. The few humans who had the ability: priests and priestesses might once in a while make a dent in the demon lines, but just as often a powerful demon would dent the human lines.
She sprayed a shelf, wiped it, and began to scrub it, thinking some more. These demons had all sorts of strange, almost magical abilities. Humans, with their stubborn personalities and (for select few) priest or priestess power, were able to hold the demons off though, before they were put into slavery.
That was what the entire war had been about: slavery. Whichever side won was going to put the other into slavery. But a truce had been called when a single priestess sacrificed her life to destroy thousands of demons.
The priestess and three of the demons – those touching her, turned to stone, the rest of the thousands of demons were turned into dust. Soon after, both war parties had heard about this catastrophe.
The reason for the truce on the demons side: they had suffered the loss of many great warriors while the humans lost only one. The reason for the truce on the humans' side: they had lost their greatest Mebana, or female flower, as they called the priestesses and they weren't sure they would be able to hold their own after that.
It was with great struggle that Kagome finished off a small section of the large library, making sure each of these books were in order. She moved a few clicks down the way towards the floor and began the whole irritating routine again. Spray, wipe, and scrub.
Kagome often had serious doubts that Naraku was her and Souta's father because he was a half-breed, or in other words the product of a demon's and a human's sexual intercourse. If Naraku really was their father, then the two of them should by all rights have demon attributes, like fuzzy ears that Inuyasha had, or SOMETHING... and the two having blue eyes didn't count.
At least, not to them anyway. So...if Naraku wasn't their father, then who could be? Someone who would be a lot better at parenting than Naraku, that was for sure. He was just a jerk, constantly beating on Kagome for anything and everything. Kagome of course, being the bigger sibling, often took Souta's beatings too. She didn't want Souta to get hurt. (Unless through her of course).
Spray, wipe, and scrub. The motion was never ending...
"Kagome!" Souta called up to her obnoxiously and she almost lost her balance on the ladder, which wobbled terribly unnaturally when she went to get her balance back. Souta laughed up at her. "Come down. Mom's cooking supper for us and our... 'guests'..."
"Souta," Kagome said dangerously, walking slowly to the bottom of the enormous stairs, her heart pounding wildly in her chest from her fright. When she reached the bottom, he was able to see just how angry she really was.
"I'M GONNA GUT YOU AND FEED YOU TO THE FISHES!" She screamed and chased after him. What was seen was two teens in flowing drapery racing through the house, one fleeing, one looking very murderous.
"Come back here!" She yelled as Souta raced into the dinning room and Kagome chased him around the long table. Finally she got irritated and ran over the table to get him on the other side, tackling him to the ground. "You jerk!" She said and punched him.
"'Gome, that was weak." He said. "You've been in the library too long scrubbing those shelves!" He laughed at her and pushed her off of him.
He was right. She had been scrubbing the shelves too long and now her arms were like play dough. Souta held out a hand to help Kagome up and she took the offer. "I hate you, Pillow." She told him.
"I love you too, 'Gome!" He said, grinning from ear to ear and sitting down at the long table. The two usually sat wherever their argument finished up at supper. Today it had finished at the very center of the table.
Their mother came out with the dishes of food, five plates in all, setting the very end of the table. She pointed to the last two dishes, headed towards the center of the table.
"You will sit down here today." She told them sternly.
Meekly, the two got up and went and sat across from each other, wondering who the two guests were. They both blanched when they saw Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru. Kagome stood angrily, knocking her chair over in the process. 'What, now the rich kids mooch off of us?!'
Souta looked equally disturbed, but more composed about it. Kali had Sesshoumaru sit next to Kagome's place and Inuyasha sit next to Souta. Of all the people to place her by in this world, fate had to put her by 'Mr. quirks-his-eyebrows'. Oh cruel world...
Her own eyebrow twitched in annoyance. She took a deep breath to calm herself and then righted her chair and sat down when her mother gave her that 'Just breathe and relax' look that she always gave her when wanting her to do something.
Finally, Kagome had halfway relaxed half through dinner. She and Souta were throwing cracks at each other just like they did every night.
"How can you tell a blond is working at a computer?" Souta asked.
Kagome snickered. "How?"
"There's white out all over the screen."
"Why can't a blond dial nine-one-one?" Kagome asked.
"Why?"
"He can't find the eleven."
"Hey, 'Gome, sixty seconds to say ten signs that a kid is a nerd." Souta said grinning from ear to ear.
Kagome ticked off the ten signs as Kali smiled tightly, picking up her plate and heading into the kitchen. "What's my timing, Souta?" Kagome asked, leaning back on her chair.
"One o' one."
Kagome stood quickly, her chair bouncing backwards a few feet. "Liar!" Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha's eyes were on the two now. They'd stared at their plates the entire evening until then otherwise.
Souta laughed and held his hands up. "Alright, alright! It was fifty something, but you should have seen the look on your face!" He cackled.
Kagome grinned and laughed as well as Kali came out of the kitchen and took everyone's plates. "You can go about the shrine." She told the two boys. "Just stay away from Madison's Labyrinth." She then rounded on Kagome and Souta.
"Now you two have annoyed me all dinner. You get back to your work!" It was a line they knew well and could have said it with her. She said it every day to them. The two sighed and left the room, going their separate ways: Kagome back to the tedious task of library dusting, Souta to go weeding in the garden.
"Alright." Kagome muttered to herself about a half hour later, knowing her face was probably smudged in dust from brushing loose hair out of her face. Her fingers were slightly pruned and red from scrubbing the shelves and using the pledge.
She wiped sweat off her brow and glared at the obstinate spot on the shelf. Her arms felt like water at the moment and her bucket of clean rags was already completely used.
"Okay, Kagome." She told herself. "Two minute break while you get a new bunch of rags, take these to the laundry room, and get a soda. Ready? Go!"
She grabbed the bucket of rags, racing down the long circular railing sitting on it and slipping clean onto her feet at the bottom. Once she was down, she ran to the basement as fast as she could tossing the rags out of the bucket as though they were water and she was splashing someone, then raced back upstairs taking the steps two at a time and tripping into the living room.
She grabbed a handful of rags and tossed them into the bucket, then raced into the kitchen and got herself a cold drink before racing back to the library, checking her watch for timing and grinning. "Alright! Two minutes and twenty eight seconds is good in a big complex like this!"
Sango came into the room as Kagome was congratulating herself and tackled the girl in the priestess robes from behind. The two laughed as they went down, Kagome slipping out of Sango's reach swiftly so that she didn't land on her face and break it.
For a few moments the two just laughed, before Kagome began to stand. She'd known Sango was in the room, but hadn't known the girl would tackle her.
"Totally uncalled for!" Kagome finally yelled, laughing as she said it. She picked up the discarded bucket, setting her soda on one of the tables. Sango followed her as she began to make the ascent to the top for the second time that day. "So how come you're here?" Kagome asked.
"Because Kohaku has his appointment. He might be sick, but dad still is making him come. I'm not blind; the reason he's making Kohaku come is because he's," at this point, Sango started making a really goofy 'love struck' face and puckering her lips up, talking in a sappy breathy voice, "madly in love with your mother..."
Kagome snickered as Sango began to prance up the stairs, looking like she were tangoing with someone. "Sango, everyone except my mother knows that he is... well, everyone who matters anyway." She said, grinning.
"Aww, it's so adorable!" Sango stood by the ladder, leaning against it while talking to Kagome. "The way my dad's always all serious when he's not around your mom, but then practically melts into a pile of hot gooey fudge when he is around your mom. Dude, your mom should impale Naraku and marry my dad! Then we could be sisters!"
Kagome laughed, scrubbing the particularly gross spot on the shelf she'd left off on. It was strange how a library that's rarely used could always get so nasty. "That'd be awesome! I'd run him through with a steak knife myself if I could get away with it."
Sango sighed then. "Miroku's such a jerk!" She said finally.
Kagome looked down at Sango. "What'd he do now?"
"I dunno. He just irritates me!"
Kagome gave a dreamy sigh. "Maybe that's 'cause you're in love..."
"AM NOT!" Sango yelled, smacking Kagome's foot (it was the only part of Kagome that she could reach). "I'll have you know that..."
Kagome interrupted, "Eight Ball asked you to the dance?"
"When did you hear about that!" Sango had been sure no one had known.
"He was yelling' about it in gym. 'Oh Ichiro, will you go to the dance with me? There is a seventy percent chance of rain...'"
Sango laughed at Kagome's drastic impression of Kenith Guan, nicknamed Eight Ball by Kagome and her friends because he always talked like one. "Hey! That's not even fair, Kagome." She complained.
"Of course it is! And the funniest thing about it is that Prom isn't for a long time, considering school practically just started."
Sango grinned slyly. "I know something you don't know..." She chanted, changing the subject away from her.
Kagome looked down at her. "Of course you do! You know things that half the population of the city doesn't know! So tell me why I should worry about you knowing something I don't know?" She grinned at the expression on Sango's face; a mixture of confusion and amusement.
"Well, I think you'll want to know why Ice Prince and Snot are in your house."
"I already know: they have group counseling sessions." Kagome said, turning back to her work.
"I know you know THAT." Sango said, frustrated. "I meant the reason they're in the counseling session!" She knew that would get Kagome's attention as she looked at her watch.
Kagome looked at the grandfather clock as well, curious of the time, leaning precariously away from the ladder to peer down to the floor below. It was eight thirty already, which meant that she'd been working for four and a half hours.
Normally she worked five, but she'd been late getting home because of the Nokugami boys. She looked up at the ceiling, composed of a thick glass dome roof and saw it had gotten quite dark.
The only reason the room wasn't dark was because of the hundreds of lamps in the room, hanging from walls, or standing from the floor. Some of the room was in patched darkness, but mostly you could see.
She looked sharply at Sango when the other girl spoke, climbing down from the ladder with eager eyes. "Ooh, tell me!"
Sango grinned and looked away, moving to the banister and riding it down to the floor. "No, I don't think I will!" She called back to Kagome.
"Ooh you are so evil! You so are gonna tell me whether you like it or not!" She too, rode the banister down to the bottom landing on her feet in a perfect form. Once she was down, she saw Sango pop her soda open and take a sip. "Tell me?" She begged while stealing her soda from Sango.
"Alright, fine." Sango agreed. "I found a bit of crucial evidence in the recycling bin at school as to why they're there." She dug in her pocket and took out a carefully folded piece of wrinkled paper and handed it to Kagome.
Kagome looked at it for a second, took a large gulp of soda, handed her soda to Sango, and then began to peel open the piece of paper.
Kagome saw scribbles everywhere on the page, along with rips and water drop smudges. "Whoever wrote it was crying would be my first guess."
Sango nodded solemnly. "I found it in the glass recycling bin just before you enter the music wing in the school, which was why it perked my interest."
Kagome began to read aloud the legible parts. "I can hear her saying it now, 'Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru go to group counsel' I'm guessing that's counseling..." Sango nodded her agreement and the two leaned against a western style table – both oblivious to the fact that someone else was in the room, reading quietly on a cushion.
Sesshoumaru stopped reading though when Kagome started reading the note, his eyes widened and his body started to shake with fear. Oh god no... He thought. No, no, no! He really didn't want her to read that. It was an entry from his journal.
He'd been so mad earlier that day that he'd attacked it with his pen in one of the band practice rooms. He'd really been upset because he'd started crying.
He still wasn't sure what had set the anger off, but it had been quite a while before he'd calmed down enough to go to his fifth period class, which he'd missed half off. He'd ripped the page out of his journal, crumpled it, and threw it away. But of all people to find it... did it have to be her?
Kagome thought for a moment. "Hmm... Well, unless there's anyone else in the school with your uncanny ability to know things before anyone, then I'm guessing it is either Sesshoumaru or Inuyasha who wrote this. I'm guessing it was Inuyasha though, because Sesshoumaru doesn't have the ability to cry."
Sesshoumaru gulped inaudibly. Why is the world against me?! He thought bitterly. Why do I have to be the one with the god forsaken crush on a girl like her? I could have pretty much anyone in school. Why did I have to crush on her? Why couldn't it have been Inuyasha? He felt the tears coming again but pushed them back, watching her with as stoic an expression as he could get.
Kagome looked at the note and read the next part that wasn't ripped or smudged to illegibility. "'Want to hate her forever, but I can't. Why...'" She moved to the next place. "'Asked Sango Ichiro to the Rave's Sunday Dance Tournament today...'"
Kagome looked at Sango with a sarcastic expression. "Why exactly am I looking at something that Eight Ball wrote?" Sesshoumaru almost cheered his relief at hearing that. Perhaps the world wasn't so against him.
"Oh just keep reading!" Sango said irritably.
Kagome shook her head, tossing the piece of paper behind her. "Eight Ball's a moron. Whatever reason he might have is probably wrong."
Sango lifted the paper from where it landed on the table and shoved it in Kagome's face, pointing to a spot on it. "Look here! This proves that it really isn't Eight Ball!"
Kagome's eyes widened and a grin spread across her face. "Ooh..." She smiled and read the words over and over. "Sooo... one of the Nokugami boys keeps a journal, eh?" She laughed. "How very interesting..." She read the line a few more times. 'Stole my journal so now we're in group counseling...'
Sango smirked. "Well, I'm positive that Kohaku's done by now, so I'll see you on Chat in a few minutes." She took the note, folded it, and stuck it back in her pocket. "Later Mebana!"
Kagome scowled as Sango ran out of the room. "I said don't call me that! It isn't true!" She yelled after the girl. Sango hadn't seemed to hear. I'll just yell at her later on Chat. She looked up at the bucket at the very top of the ladder, sighing heavily.
"I hate this." She whispered as she trudged up to get her supplies. When she came back down, she realized Sesshoumaru was in the room, reading a book with that stoic look on his face. "God!" She yelled, her voice echoing in the large, silent room. "Why are YOU still here?" She asked, her voice furious, and her body tense.
Sesshoumaru quirked an eyebrow at her, wondering how she could be so beautiful even while mentally berating himself for thinking like that. "My father is moving houses; not that it is any of your business." He added almost too quickly.
Kagome tried to calm herself. "Don't kill the guest...don't kill the guest... I'm gonna kill you, mother!" She screamed as she walked out of the room. She went to her mother's office. She was there, looking through a file and taking notes. "What's the deal? Why are they STILL here?!"
Kali sighed. She'd taken to note that Kagome and Souta didn't seem to like the Nokugami boys. Well, Kagome would hate the sleeping arrangements even worse... She couldn't spare a single fasting room; they were all in use already.
She told her daughter, "Kagome, they're here for the night. You will sleep in Souta's room, and the Nokugami boys will share your room."
"WHAT!" Her voice echoed through the entire shrine. "That's shit!"
"Kagome, don't cuss." Her mother warned. See? Kagome didn't like it. "And I'm doing this because you're the one with the bunk bed in your room. Souta has a loft and a couch. You know I can't spare the fasting rooms-"
Kagome groaned and slapped her forehead with her palm multiple times. "Mother, the bottom bunk of my bed is a couch." She said as calmly as she could. "And I am not leaving my room."
Kali frowned. She'd forgotten about that, but Kagome didn't have to be like this. She decided she was going to punish the girl, but she couldn't figure a way to do so. Anything that was done Kagome usually just shrugged off; even the beatings that Naraku gave her.
Finally, she got an idea. 'Room her with someone she doesn't like... But which of the two boys does she dislike more?' She decided to just take a stab at a guess.
"Fine, Kagome. Sesshoumaru Nokugami will stay with you in your room, and Inuyasha Nokugami will stay with Souta." She watched as Kagome began shaking, trying to control her anger.
"That's so not fair!!" She screamed. "You're trying to kill me, aren't you!" She rushed out of the room before a response could be made, and Kali went off in search of Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha.
She had to show them where they would sleep anyway, as it was quite obvious that Kagome wouldn't show the boys and if Kagome wouldn't, neither would Souta. The two were almost twins. Separated by ten months, but their personalities were almost identical.
She found the two boys easily. Inuyasha was watching T.V. in the living room, Sesshoumaru was reading in the library. She explained to them why they wouldn't get a room of their own on the way up to the attic.
When they reached the door to the attic, the boys saw that there were signs upon it that said "guests beware, death upon entrance" and "no fasting rooms beyond this point" and a variety of other signs.
As they climbed the well-lit staircase, they came to a long hallway, filled with pictures of Souta and Kagome. One side of the hallway had a long line of Kagome's pictures, starting from when she was a baby at the stairs and going all the way to a door at the end of the hallway.
Souta occupied the other wall in the same fashion. In the middle of the hallway were two doors, which was where Kali stopped. She pointed to the door on the left side of the hall, the side with all the pictures of Kagome.
"That's Kagome's room; the other is Souta's. There is a bathroom at the very end of the hall. Sesshoumaru, you'll stay in Kagome's room. Inuyasha, you'll stay in Souta's. They'll probably make you stay on the couches in their rooms."
Music suddenly blared from Souta's room as Kali entered. Souta was hopping around the floor with sweatpants on but no shirt, playing air guitar. "Souta!" Kali shouted above the music. He quickly turned it down.
"Sorry mama..." He apologized until he saw the Nokugami boys in the hallway. "What are they doing here?" He growled angrily.
"Inuyasha is going to stay in your room for tonight. I want you to behave." She warned. "Or else..." Souta turned the music up louder than before and began ignoring his mother. Kali closed the door momentarily, the sound dimming considerably.
"Go on in, Inuyasha. He'll probably ignore you." Inuyasha grumbled about it but went into the room. Kali turned to Sesshoumaru. "You'll stay in Kagome's room." She went to open the door, but it was locked. Just as she was reaching for a key ring at her hip, a shout came from the room.
"Don't even open that door mother! I will in a moment..." A crash and a moan was heard, then a string of cussing. A few seconds later, the door lock clicked and the door swung open, Kagome standing in a pair of blue and green plaid boxers and a plain blue tank top. She was massaging her shin and behind her a trunk was on the floor, its contents spilled out: thousands of tiny marbles of all sizes and colors.
"Touch anything and forfeit your life." Kagome told Sesshoumaru, calmly but furiously. She walked back into the slightly messy room, picking her way around her things as she went over to a computer, turning it on.
Sesshoumaru sighed, and then turned to Kali. "Thank you for your hospitality, Doctor Onigumo."
She shook her head. "I'm afraid I must ask you not to thank me yet. I was going to put you boys in a room together, and Kagome and Souta in a room together, but Kagome and Souta wouldn't have agreed to that. This was the only way. I'm sorry."
He shrugged. "You do what you can, and that's all you can do." He quoted his history teacher.
Kali turned away but then glanced back at Sesshoumaru with a stern look. "I don't think I have to worry about it, what with Kagome so aggressive, but I trust you to keep your hands to yourself."
Sesshoumaru blushed. "No, ma'am you don't have to worry."
Kagome glared at Sesshoumaru from the doorway. When she'd gotten there, Sesshoumaru didn't know. "Mother, don't worry. If he tries anything with me, I'll just rip off his balls and force feed them to him."
Kali looked shocked at Kagome's tone. "Kagome, don't speak like that."
Kagome said nothing, disappearing once more into the room.
Kali sighed and left to go down the stairs. She didn't know how this would turn out; she just hoped it would turn out all right. She also hoped that the Nokugami boys knew how to fight well enough, or they probably wouldn't make it to morning.
Sesshoumaru entered Kagome's room, stopping just inside the room to assess it. It was very small compared to his, but it was also not stiflingly small. She had a few items in her room that would be costly, her computer, the game console, and the wide screen T.V. and the stereo.
But the room was mostly moderate in expense. She had a futon bunk bed. The top was a loft; the bottom was a futon/couch. It was placed in couch form. She had two desks, one with her computer on it, the other without, but they weren't anything special.
There was a desk lamp on each of the desks, and a bookshelf filled with fiction books by various authors. There were a few random places where a group of ten or so music boxes were on a shelf on the wall.
Her closet was open, showing five new, never been out of the plastic covering, school uniforms and two hanging priestess robes. The dresser was near the closet, its drawers were shoved crudely into place, and next to that was a full hamper, the priestess robes that Kagome had worn being the top most items. There was a scattering of clothes on the floor as well, though thankfully no undergarments.
Surrounding the room's black painted walls were posters of different bands, clippings from newspapers, drawings, photos of her and her friends, posters of different anime shows, and tiny star and dot stickers littering the walls and ceiling.
There was paper crumpled up and ripped up by where the two desks stood back to back and there was a waste bin with soda cans filling it. Aside from the random thing here and there, the room was empty, carpeted in black plush carpeting. There was a double sliding door at the far side of the room that was closed.
On the desk with the computer on it was a black phone, probably connected to the phones in the rest of the house as a sort of intercom or something.
As the computer booted up, Kagome went to her stereo and CD stand, plucking a CD off it and putting it on. Techno music blared loudly out of the speakers and she went to pull up her Chat.
(rinokuna13 requests permission to add you to his/her messenger. Accept/Decline)
Kagome accepted, and then went into her desk drawer taking out a remote and switching song on the stereo.
"You can sleep on the couch." She said without looking at him. "That's the only thing in the room you have permission to touch." She looked to see who was on. Souta was on, but he was just across the hall if she wanted to talk to him.
Rin and Sango were on, but Sango was 'away from keyboard', Miroku was probably just getting off work, and Kohaku and Sango shared a computer. Kouga wasn't on.
Kagome pulled Rin up on her screen, but just as she did the girl got offline. She closed the box. Bored, Kagome got up from the computer, stretching tired limbs.
She'd worked too hard in the library. A bath would cure her aching muscles, she decided, so she got a towel and left the room, slamming the door behind her.
Souta on the other hand, was having a hard time with the arrangement. Neither Souta nor Inuyasha moved, just standing there yelling at each other about who was the better what.
Sesshoumaru used the time she was gone to go out to his car and get his overnight bag. It held his journal and some clothes. He sat in his car while he wrote his journal entry.
Sesshoumaru's Journal Entry
August 31st, 2004
Inuyasha and I have to stay at her house... It's just for a night, but I feel frightened nonetheless. Her friend found the journal entry I ripped out and the two read it... I wanted to cry when I saw her laughing at the fact that I keep a journal...
She didn't seem to know that it was I though. She seems to have it in mind that I can't cry... that I am completely emotionless. But I'm not. I care about a lot of things, but I'm afraid to show my feelings. Whenever I do, the person just calls me a freak. I'm positive that she knows I'm different.
I sometimes wish I were born a human, so that I wouldn't constantly have to say that I wear color contacts, dye my hair, and wear a stupid charm made by a witch to hide my traits. I think it is stupid that I can't just be myself.
I have so many friends, or at least they say they are my friends, but they are after my father's money... I suppose I am considered popular, but it grates on my nerves. I suppose that's another reason I'm attracted to her. She doesn't throw herself at me like the other girls in school do.
Her and her friends are outcasts from the school society, because they're different too, but all her friends are mostly human. They're different because of their attitudes. I like her attitude, though. Most people don't like it because she's not afraid to break rules. She has a friend who is a demon, but he doesn't have to lie about his traits. His charm covers all of them, and his hair and eyes are normal. I can tell he's a demon because I can smell it on him...
Sometimes I wish that I could just cry, just do it in front of everyone and let everyone know that I'm not completely emotionless. I want her to see that I have feelings too. I want the people who call themselves my friends to leave me alone.
I want that pain in the ass fan-girl club that follows me around, asking me out all the time to just go away. Inuyasha has friends like that too, and a fan-girl club too... I can see him getting more and more angry each time he has to deal with them. His girlfriend, Eleanor, doesn't do much to stop the 'fan-club' either.
She's actually a part of it which is scary to think about. School is getting more and more pointless, and tedious. It's strange going through the same thing over and over, yet ...it really isn't the same thing. It's always something new, but it feels like we just did whatever it was. In art class today, we were asked to draw a life-like picture of something. I did.
I drew Inuyasha and myself amongst a group of people who we could call friends. I didn't give the other people faces; just Inuyasha and I had faces. I wouldn't know what real friends would look like so I didn't draw them completely. I got downgraded for that.
I don't hate Inuyasha, but as brothers, we're going to quarrel... I just wish he didn't find this journal and read it. He knows now about how I feel about her so I'm stuck now. I'm stuck listening to him laugh at me for crushing on someone who won't even look at me twice.
Now, because he found that, we've got see Doctor Onigumo, Sunset's Shrink, who by some evil chance just happened to be her mother, and the office is in her house. Thankfully, though, Inuyasha has kept his mouth shut about what he saw in my journal, and about the reason we've got to be in counseling.
We both just sit there, not speaking. But Doctor Onigumo doesn't pressure us to talk either. It's strange... She's always writing on her yellow notepad, and I wonder what she's writing down for two hours straight.
Inuyasha, I know, is not at all pleased that father asked Doctor Onigumo if we could stay at the shrine for a night while he helped the movers take all our things to the new house. I wanted to help, because I don't like people touching my things, especially people I don't trust, which would be almost everyone...
I got angry with father last night when he told me to pack an overnight bag, but it was also something of a relief to hear we would be staying elsewhere for a night. We'd get away from Inuyasha's mother. Inuyasha looked murderous and grateful at the same time.
I did my best to keep my cool collected façade in place, but I knew it was slipping. Sometimes my father can be such a prick, like he was last night. I couldn't stand how he was treating us like we couldn't do anything. Like we were just spoiled rich brats, just like she treats us.
Then I realized that we were. We had things that most people in Sunset don't. But one thing we both hate having is a father who gives us the cold shoulder, and a mother, or stepmother in my case, who is a drunk and tries to touch us inappropriately.
What exactly are we supposed to do when she gets drunk like that? All we can do is lock ourselves in my room. I quarrel with my brother, yes, but I won't let him be violated. Since we can't fight back to stop her because father won't believe us and would immediately have us put in jail if we harmed her at all, we have no other option but to lock ourselves in a room somewhere.
Mostly all we do when she's drunk is play video games and try to forget. We can't though, and I can see it in Inuyasha's eyes. He can't forget any more than I can. It's really disturbing...
It took forty-five minutes to write the entry and it ended up being six pages long in his small six by four notebooks. He shuddered and remembered the first time Inuyasha's mother had started drinking and being inappropriate with her sons.
He didn't want to think about it, but the memory still came. When he got back to the room Kagome was talking on her cell phone, wearing a towel. She was searching through her dresser drawers for something.
"What, Perv?" She asked.
"I just got off work and wanted to talk. Is that so bad?"
She took a shirt from the dresser, tossing it on a small pile on the floor. "When it is you, Perv, it is. Hang on, I gotta change. I just got out of the bath."
She set the phone on the dresser as Sesshoumaru slipped back into the hallway, dressing quickly. Once she finished, she went and opened the door, knowing Sesshoumaru was in the hallway. "Okay, back."
"So what color underwear are you wearing?" Miroku asked slyly.
"As if I'd tell you. You're such a perv."
"Ah, and I dream of your under"
"Miroku James!" Kagome yelled, blushing. "You finish that sentence and I swear you'll be a woman before school tomorrow." Kagome watched as Sesshoumaru quietly, almost meekly and unsure, walked over to the futon, sitting on it.
"Aw, you're no fun. So what bit your bum tonight?"
"Can't tell you. You'll laugh."
"I promise not to laugh."
"I'll tell you tomorrow. Or else Souta will. Either way works. I'm not too happy about it."
Souta came into the room, dragging Inuyasha. Souta was wearing a shirt now. "Kagome, hang up." He said irritably.
"Hey, Perv. I gotta go; Souta wants to talk."
"Okay, see you in school." Miroku told her and hung up.
Kagome hung up. "What?"
"Who is the better dancer? Me or dog-face?" Souta asked.
Kagome laughed. "What started this?" The two looked at each other, confused. Truth was, they weren't really sure. Kagome laughed again at their faces.
"Well, neither of you is." Both looked at her sharply and she just shrugged. "I've got the hips, and aside from that, Kouga and I are still the champions of the Sunday Dance Tournament."
"But we weren't asking about you. We were asking about us!" Souta complained.
"You drug me into it." Kagome grinned at his facial expression. "Want to have a mini-tourney? The one who can't keep up with me for the duration of one song has to clean my room and do my laundry, and if neither of you can, you both have to do it. Oh, and I choose the song."
"Okay."
"Alright."
Kagome grinned and turned on song eight of the CD that was in, pressing pause and throwing the remote to Sesshoumaru. She went to the middle of the clear space in the room. "You first, brother dear."
Souta scowled. "Fine, but don't call me that." He went over to her. "What do we get if we win?" He placed his left hand on the smooth skin of her abdomen, his other arm crossing between her breasts so his hand rested on her left shoulder.
He was an inch taller than her, for all he was ten months younger. She placed her right hand on the back of Souta's neck, her left hand and arm covering his left hand and arm. Her back was tight up against Souta's chest, this way they were able to (if they were skilled enough) know where the other was going.
"You won't, but on the off-chance that you do I'll agree to be your personal slave tomorrow."
Souta snickered. "Interesting."
"Sesshoumaru, press play." Kagome told him. He did as asked, the speakers blared and the two began. Souta was doing well for himself, but Kagome foiled him at the end, pivoting her hips. Inuyasha on the other hand was defeated immediately, when Kagome unexpectedly turned her head and bit his chin, startling him out of step.
"That's no fair!" He yelled, rubbing his chin.
Kagome laughed. "You can do it next Tuesday."
"I refuse!"
"Inuyasha, you made a verbal contract. You will keep your word." Sesshoumaru said from where he lay on the futon. He sounded amused.
Inuyasha got a sly look on his face then. "Fine...but only if you dance with her too." 'He'll so lose...' Sesshoumaru glanced at Inuyasha, obviously about to say no, but Inuyasha cut him off. "You'd better... or else I squeal... And besides, consider this a favor to repay all the favors!" He grinned at his older brother.
"Nark!" Souta shouted. "I always knew rich boys couldn't keep their mouths shut!"
Sesshoumaru glared at Inuyasha. "Idiot, Inuyasha."
Kagome laughed. "Ooh! I got myself a new victim then!" She looked thoughtful as he grumbled about it but nodded. "Well then, I want a new deal. You help me with the library, or I spend Saturday afternoon being your slave. Deal?"
"Fine..." But this...okay I can do this... This won't be too hard...I just can't let her unnerve me... TOO LATE! GOD!
Inuyasha smirked, knowing that his brother was struggling internally.
Sesshoumaru placed his hands in the positions they had to be and heard her chuckle. "Sesshoumaru, you're quivering... Any reason why?" She grinned, and put her hands where they had to go. He forced himself to relax and Souta started the song.
The speakers blared. Kagome searched for his weak spot, but he seemed to be always a step ahead of her. She began to get frustrated. 'What makes him tick?' She turned her head to look at his face. It was that stupid stony look that irked her so! She scowled.
Souta stared, wide eyed, as his sister slowly fell behind, she was getting frustrated. "No way..." He whispered. Inuyasha saw it too. He wondered what Sesshoumaru was doing to make Kagome so mad.
Kagome stumbled, turning to face Sesshoumaru. "Jerk, you did that on purpose!" She yelled.
"What, pray tell, did I do?" Sesshoumaru asked, curious. All he did was concentrate on the dance as much as he could and not on how his hand was on her smooth flesh.
"It's that... that stupid look of yours! God I hate it so much!" She shouted, pointing at him. "And now I've..." She paled. "Oh god..." She gulped, storming to the double doors and through them, slamming them shut.
She was out on the flat roof that led to both Kagome and Souta's room. This was where the two sometimes came to collect their scattered thoughts after a beating.
The bitter night's autumn wind whipped at her hair, trailing it out to the side of her, whipping across her face. She shivered slightly, the stones of the roof cold on her bare feet, the wind cold to her near bare legs and arms, since she was wearing a tank top and boxer shorts for pajamas.
"Kagome?" Souta had followed her out. He walked to stand next to her. "What did you mean?" He asked quietly.
She didn't answer for a moment, contemplating the best answer. "His stony 'I'm better than you' look... I hate it. He looks at me with it all the time. As if he's rubbing in that he's richer than we are... I hate that..."
"Well..." Souta started, but Kagome interrupted. "I'm going to get a soda. Want one?"
"Sure, 'Gome..."
Kagome went into the house again, down to the kitchen to get four sodas, figuring that the 'guests' would want one too. Once that was done, she went back up to her room, handing out sodas, glaring at Sesshoumaru as she popped hers. Nothing was said between anyone in the room.
A few moments later the phone rang. Not Kagome's cell phone, but the black phone. Kagome went and answered it. "Sunset Shrine Psychiatry, Kagome Higurashi speaking, how may I direct your call?" She said in an obviously falsely pleasant voice.
The voice on the other end was slurred and very recognizable. "Ahh... Cl...Kagome... Mi prec..cious daughter..."
Kagome scowled. "What do you want? Do you have any idea what time it is? THREE AM!"
The three boys in the room looked at her, startled at her tone. "Ahh... come pay...bail... for me."
"No! For all I could give a crap, you could rot there for life!"
"You'll... pay the thousand dollars and you know why... Because... your bro"
Kagome slammed the receiver down. "God dang it. I can't believe this!" She picked the phone off the hook again and again, slamming it down again and again. "Crap crap crap!"
"Kagome, calm down!" Souta hollered. "Who was it?" Kagome gave him a meaningful scowl. "Oh..."
"Yeah, 'Oh' is right. The idiot got himself in jail, and he wants me to pay his bail!" She slammed the phone down a few more times. And I'm being forced to do it. If he tries to harm Souta, I'll kill him. I swear I will. "Go to bed Souta. When things are better, I'll come to you." She said, just barely able to keep a grip on her temper.
"Okay..." Souta said in a quiet voice. "Inuyasha, let's go..."
Unsure of what else to do, Inuyasha just followed Souta out as Kagome went to her dresser. Just before Souta left the room, Kagome turned and said, "Lock your door, Souta. You know he's gonna be mad." Souta nodded and left.
Sesshoumaru watched, his face as calm as he could get it. His heart was still pounding from the dance earlier. He'd been in a semi-intimate position with Kagome, the girl he had such a large crush on, and he couldn't get over that fact.
"Something bothering you?" He asked, worried, but not letting it show. He could see her eyes were frightened, despite the fact that she looked raring to kill.
"Rich boys like you wouldn't understand." She said coldly, turning to her closet and kneeling down by the closet carpeting. She lifted the closet carpeting back and pulled up a few floorboards, taking out a box from the hole.
From it she counted out some money, the pile of money diminishing quickly but not completely. She replaced the box, floorboards, and carpet and stood, going back to her dresser and setting the money on top of it.
With her back to him, she pulled her tank top over her head and before his face turned scarlet with embarrassment at her indecency and he turned his back to her, he noticed the scars on her back. There were many there, old scars and recent welts, but her shirt had covered them all, so they weren't very high up, or too low down so that a shirt might accidentally show them.
There was one particularly bad looking one, crossing horizontally across the middle of her back being a nasty red color, since it was infected. He felt himself angry that she had those and could only imagine where she'd gotten them.
But he couldn't question her about them. He couldn't bring himself to, not wanting to know whether or not she had an 'other than perfect' life like he imagined.
"Stay here." He heard her say then. He turned back to see she was dressed in a thick black sweater and plain blue jeans with enormous pockets.
She grabbed the money from the desk and shoved it in her pocket, looking at him with angry eyes. He didn't see the fear in them anymore, making him wonder if it had ever been there at all. "Don't leave this room."
She left him there, exiting to the hallway. Stupid idiot. If I knew he was in there for life, I'd leave him there to rot... It's just that... it'll be ten times worse if I don't go get him.
She got into her car and buckled up, turning the stereo off. He wouldn't like the loud music, she knew. She got to the police station, placed towards the west of Sunset with the hospital across the street, and stepped out of the car.
She was no longer in 'her territory' as she called it. She was in the territory of the rivaling school, the ever-hated Public school. She left the keys in the ignition but turned the car off, running into the police station and up to the counter.
"Hi, I'm here to bail Naraku Onigumo out of jail." She said.
"Hello, Kagome." The desk clerk said. He knew Kagome well. Kagome was often the one to bail Naraku out. "He's keeping the police station in business..." The clerk tried to joke.
Kagome scowled. "Yeah, well he's getting us into debt even more every day. Just go get the bastard." She tossed the thousand dollars on the desk, hating Naraku even more. She'd been saving her money for a car, now she was down to about three hundred dollars. She'd never get a car before the end of the year now.
The clerk took the money and placed it into a register for bail and then went to get Naraku. Moments later, he was walking calmly towards Kagome. He didn't look intoxicated. Of course, he never looked it. He sounded it, and smelled it, but never looked it.
Naraku walked right by Kagome, heading towards her car. He got into the driver's seat and took off without Kagome. She was angry that he did that. An intoxicated man was now driving her vehicle. She could have stabbed him just then, multiple times, such was her anger.
She wished she could go right back into the station and tell that he'd done that, but he'd be even more furious at her if she did and she knew his anger would be too much for her if she did.
She began to walk home, knowing it would take quite some time. She knew a short cut that would get her to her house in an hour and a half, so she took it, risking the fact that those bullies from the rivaling school would probably tear her to shreds.
Unfortunately, she met a group of the public school's bullies after they ambushed her in an alleyway. They beat her thoroughly, though she did her best to fight back. It was hard to though when you're fighting ten to one. Cowards they were didn't think they could take her in a smaller group.
They took from her everything expensive after they'd beaten her. She was furious when they took her bell jewelry, even the earrings. She recognized the voice of the person who took them then.
"Thanks, Hell's Bitch." He said, using one of her least favorite names. "My sister'll love these." He left then with his troupe, leaving her there. She stood; sore and knowing that she was bruised badly. She stumbled her way back home holding her obviously sprained wrist to her chest, wishing she'd taken the main roads.
But soon she was on the last stretch of Main Street, where the road changed names from Main Street to Shrine Circle, a long stretch of road winding around through the countryside.
She climbed the steps upon seeing that the garage was closed. She'd closed the door, so she couldn't tell if Naraku had closed it or not. When she reached the front door, she tried it to find it locked. She swore.
Naraku was doing this on purpose; she knew he was. She didn't have the energy to walk all the way around to the back of the Shrine and she knew for sure that the side exits would be locked, so she trudged towards the flat roof and picked up a rock, tossing it at her window with her good arm.
She was off by a lot, but it was very difficult to get the rock three stories up especially after getting the crap kicked out of you. She tried a few more times, and then gave up, going and sitting on a bench by the God Tree. Soon though, she'd lain down, feeling queasy.
'Crap...' She thought. 'I didn't get my homework done...' In a life like hers, worrying about trivial things such as homework was all you could do. She couldn't worry about being hit, because it was going to happen anyway so she saw no point. She hated it, but didn't worry whether or not it would happen. It was a simple fact; she would be hit.
The hard stone bench hurt especially on her back. She knew countless of the welts were torn open because of the bullies beating on her, and her entire body tingled with the pain, but she didn't cry. She never cried. Not over something so trivial as pain. She knew they would heal. They always did.
She didn't know how much later it had been before she heard Souta's voice. He sounded worried, yet far off. She was in a daze, not really caring. "Kagome!" Souta shouted from the balcony. "Kagome, come on! Answer me!"
He yelled angrily. He turned to Sesshoumaru, who had come out to see what the commotion was. Inuyasha too was wearily coming out of Souta's room, rubbing sleepy eyes. "Can you go get her? She's not responding to me and is probably asleep... I know you can easily jump down there and back."
Sesshoumaru was slightly taken aback by that admittance but nodded slightly. He walked to the edge of the balcony, hopping on the one-foot thick stone rail, crouching there for a moment to gather his senses together and wonder about how Souta knew about him.
"What the hell are you doing, Sesshoumaru?" Inuyasha asked as he reached where Sesshoumaru was on the ledge.
Thankfully, Sesshoumaru didn't have to explain since Souta did. "Kagome's locked out of the house, so it's either Sesshoumaru goes and gets her or else she wakes enough to climb the rope. She looks kinda dead though, and she'll be mad at me if I leave her there. I can't go get her, because I couldn't climb the rope with her."
"Oh." Inuyasha said, rubbing sleep from his eyes. He looked down at Kagome's sleeping form briefly before shoving his brother off the ledge. Sesshoumaru turned quickly, landing softly on his feet so he didn't break his neck from the fall. Inuyasha was laughing at him, he could see and hear.
Sesshoumaru walked over to the bench where Kagome was and saw her struggling to sit up. When he saw in the dim light from lampposts her form, he took a shocked step back. "What the hell happened to you?" He asked, a little worry entering his voice.
Kagome turned to see him with her good eye, the unswollen eye. "What does it look like? I got jumped." She said bitterly. As she struggled to sit up, he went to help her, picking her up as though she weighed as much as a feather and walked towards the building's edge. She didn't let him take her willingly though. "What the crap! Put me down, I'm not helpless!" She said.
As she asked, he set her on her feet, but she fell forward with an anguished cry. "Looks to me like you need my help." He said dryly, picking her up again, ignoring her protesting. He jumped easily up to the ledge.
"Ha ha, very funny, Ice Prince." Kagome remarked sarcastically.
"Holy crud, 'Gome, what happened?"
"Nothing." She said, struggling out of Sesshoumaru's grasp and placing herself gently on the ground.
"Don't lie to me, Kagome. Why did you have to walk home, and where is he?"
Kagome turned sharply towards her little brother, hissing as her abused ribs gave a painful creak. Souta backed a step away from her. "I have no clue where the hell he is! If I did, do you think I would have walked home, through Medallion territory, by myself, gotten the crap kicked out of me, gotten my bells stolen, and be standing here looking like this if I knew? Souta, don't act stupid! Put two and two together; he stole the car while intoxicated, knowing full well that I couldn't go back into that police station and report him for it!"
Kagome had forgotten that Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru were there, so when she remembered, she growled at her own stupidity. "Why can't you report someone for stealing your car?" Inuyasha asked, before Sesshoumaru could.
Kagome glanced at Inuyasha, not sure how to answer.
"Rich boys wouldn't understand." Souta grumbled, moving to help his sister to her room. Kagome accepted his help much easier than she did Sesshoumaru's.
Inuyasha blinked, confused. When the two figures had entered Kagome's room, Inuyasha turned to Sesshoumaru. "Rich boys?" He asked with dry humor evident in his voice.
Sesshoumaru sighed, rubbing his forehead. He could feel a headache coming on, both from lack of sleep for the past few days and from listening to shouting and terribly loud music. "Just ignore it, Inuyasha." He said. "Enjoy the time away from home as best you can."
Inuyasha nodded. "Goodnight, Sesshoumaru." He said, going to Souta's room.
Moments later, Sesshoumaru went to Kagome's room, where he saw Kagome lying stomach down on the futon wearing no top but wearing the boxer shorts from earlier.
Souta was next to Kagome, kneeling on the floor and rubbing some ointment on the bleeding welts on her back. Seconds after Sesshoumaru had entered; Inuyasha came in from the door to the hallway, gasping as he saw Kagome's back.
Kagome looked at Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha, knowing they weren't staring at any exposure of her breasts, but at her back. "Is there something wrong?" She asked, almost too sweetly, trying to smooth over the pain she felt as the ointment burned away any infection.
"What happened to your back?" Sesshoumaru asked, his voice stern and commanding, demanding an answer. He walked closer to examine it as Inuyasha did.
"Shut up." Kagome said, hissing and clutching the blanket on the futon as Souta ran the ointment across the worst, lengthiest of the welts. "I told you, I get jumped." She hadn't used got; she'd used get, the plural form. So this had happened more than once?
Soon Souta had cleaned Kagome's wounds and bandaged her sprained wrist, and he covered her with the black sheet from the top bunk. It was best not to really cover them with bandages.
The bandages would just soak up all the ointment and make it pointless, so what he did was keep her back bare and give her the edges of the blanket so she could be sure her chest was covered. She always slept on her stomach anyway, so worrying about moving so her bare chest was visible was useless.
"Thanks Souta." Kagome said, drifting off into slumber.
Souta turned to Sesshoumaru. "You better not peep on my sister while she's sleeping, rich boy." He warned. "You can use the top bunk."