Chapter 3- song of the caged bird
"I 'm sorry mom, I was just having a bad day"
"You spelt your name wrong sweetie, that's more than a bad day, where was your mind when you were doing this test." She questioned. Kagome sat in front of her mother at the kitchen table while the stern woman examined the test "you a smart girl I expect better than this."
"I'm a little behind because I just got bumped up; the teacher said it wouldn't count since I didn't have as much time to study as the others"
"You are fortunate to be given such a chance, from now on you will come straight home from school and I will observe you as you complete your studies."
"After school is the only time I get to hang out with my friends, and miroku may have gotten me a job please don't take that away from me." She begged falling to her knees in front of her mother "this is my first failure since I colored outside the lines in kindergarten please give me another chance."
Her mother stared at her for several moments before nodding "but if you get anything below an eighty for the remainder of the year you'll be punished until you're walking with a cane."
"Thank you mama" she rose kissing her mother on the check and gave thumbs up to miroku who was peeking from a corner. Being punished would hinder her ability to complete the bet and she couldn't have that with the limited time she was given.
Later than evening kagome sat with miroku on the couch the two watched the black swan on TV, it was finished and changed the channel to watch the news.
"Hello Japan I'm your host Eleanor banks and tonight we bring you news of mergers and marriages straight out of the secretive inu-corp."
The turned towards a young man with brown a black suit and pink tie."That's right" he said "A lot has been going on in the business world tonight, hi I'm Robby William and this is The Scope." The theme song play, images of movie stars and business men passing on the screen before the host sat before them once again."
"for the past few weeks we've been discussing rumors about a merger between taijiya and Inu-corp, turns out the rumors are turn gone through the company sold for a reported seventy five million dollars, now that's a hefty paycheck." She said to her co-host.
"Yes it is but that's not all the news coming out of the company, first born and future owner of inu-corp sesshomaru taisho is getting married. That's right ladies soon the silver haired heartthrob will be a off the market for good, Kagura onigumo had this to say."
It cut to a screen where Kagura stood in front of the business building with several microphones pointed in her face. She wore a purple dress that matched her eyes a white feather in her hair, she hid her face behind a fan when she blushed or laughed. Beside her sesshomaru stood in a black business suit glaring into the camera.
"We are extremely happy to announce the news our weeding, we've been waiting until the merge was over."
"When will this wedding take place?"
"As soon as possible, the date has been set for the twenty third of January, I simple wish for all this to be over." Sesshomaru answered the stalked off, Kagura hid behind her back trying to hid her embarrassment as the fed switched back to the news room,
"Someone doesn't seem as happy about the news or was that just me."
"You are absolutely right Eleanor, while the two have been dating for quite some time the marriage is a part of another merger deal between the onigumo company and the inu-corp. giving the young heir little choice in the matter."
"All that power and he can't control who he marries, that's sad" she said fixing the stack of paper in front of her.
"Indeed it is" her co-host answered "next on the scope, is you're cats kitty litter slowly killing you? Find out after the break"
Kagome turned off the TV then turned to her brother," why'd you do that we have a cat, don't you want to know if he's killing us."
"Did you know about the marriage? When you made the bet?"
He looked away rather than answer grabbing a pillow from the couch she began beating miroku with it. "I'm not giving you the money for Milano's" she said throwing the pillow at his face "the bet is off"
"What... no… It's your last chance to see if there can be anything between you two, it's why I gave you two weeks I heard threw the grape fine that he wanted the marriage over asap ."
When she got to her room that night the anger still hadn't subsided, it hurt to know that her childhood crush was marrying someone he didn't love. She thought on how she would get him to fall in love with her, in two weeks after knowing him for almost ten years with nothing happening.
Kagome did the only thing she could, flipping open her lap top she typed in how to make someone fall in love into Google search. Confidence was her greatest ally in the quest to seduce what some called the ice king. She wrote down the list of things Cosmo told her to do and went to bed a plan etched into her mind.
Tomorrow she would begin her plan "prepare yourself sesshomaru taisho you're about to meet the love of your life."
Nothing was going as planned, miroku had kept to his promise to get them closer she was now his lab partner, Sesshomaru taisho however wanted nothing to do with her. He was cold, barely saying two words to her as he dissected his pig with a glare on his face.
"I heard about your wedding" she tried only to have his intense glare turned onto her "congratulations"
"For what" he spat
"I know the wedding is a stipulation of the contract between you and onigumo Inc but you and Kagura have been together for years, you must love her."
"Everything about us is arranged," He asked staring at her for the first time since they started working together. His gaze was intense; she looked down at their assignment to map the internal organs. "I though hakudoshi was my partner."
"He's been trying to get into jakotsu's pants for a while down, I thought I'd give them a little push" she said looking at the two boys who worked unnecessarily close to one another, "am I not satisfactory as a partner"
"You talk too much" he said returning his task of removing the organs from the dead mammal
"Sorry, I babble when I'm nervous and you make me really nervous with all the glaring." She admitted feeling like an idiot.
"My apologies then, it wasn't my intention"
"it's alright, I'm sure you have a lot on your plate right now" she said playing with her fingers " I understand, my mother expects a lot from me and my brother, sometimes I feel like I'm living her life instead of my own, I can't imagine what it's like to be the heir of the west,"
"No, you can't"
They remained silence for the rest of the class, kagome was far too nervous to say anything out of fearing she might annoy him. It was disheartening to say the least, during free period she went to the music room to practice with her violin. Thankfully no one was there and she could be alone with her thoughts.
She played song of the caged bird by Lindsey sterling thinking about sesshomaru and how trapped he must feel in the life he was given. He was a slave to his father just as she was to her mother, she had no choice in their chosen field, and sesshomaru had no choice in who he choice to love.
The violin also made her think of her father, he taught her how to play. They played a song together every night he was home until he died in a plane crash. He was a musician and was traveling for a concert during a storm.
When she was done she wiped tears from her eyes and placed the violin in its case, she turned to leave and found sesshomaru standing by the door, and she stood surprised then embarrassed that he heard her play.
"Hey" was all she could muster
"How long have you been playing?" he asked
"All my life, my father taught me before he died." She smiled "I wanted to major in music and dance but mother said that would lead me nowhere so business and science it is."
"You play beautifully, perhaps if your mother knew how well you play."
"Seeing the violin reminds her of dad, so she does like when I place it in the house." She felt a sadness growing in her chest and tried to push it back into the depths of her heart, she wouldn't cry in front of him. "What are you doing here?"He lifted a finger pointing to the piano "you play" she asked surprised. In all her years of obsessing she hadn't known they shared a passion for music.
"Do you mind if I stay to listen." She asked nervously
"That seems fair since I listened to you without your knowledge." He said as he prepared himself
He played his fingers moving over the keys effortlessly, when she recognized the song she pulled out her violin, and together they made beautiful music.
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