Her anger didn't last long. She made it to the end of the hallway in an angry march before she realized she had nothing to be angry about, except maybe over her own embarrassing actions.
Why did she always have to act like a stupid kid around him? She leaned up against the wall and sighed heavily, she had been feeling strange around him for months now, ever since he had joined their group to help defeat Naraku. It had only taken a few weeks of Inuyasha's constant bitching and trying to start fights before she had finally started seeing the true good in Sesshomaru. He had taken all the humans into his pack without question and had cared for them without a fight. He stayed close to the group while traveling and seeking jewel shards, only leaving while they took breaks in the village, which was more often these days while Kagome worked and went to school. She was still "sick" often, though made much more of an effort to spend more time on homework while traveling, often getting months ahead of her school work so she'd be fully prepared when she came back. Sesshomaru made much of that possible, allowing her to travel on his cloud made of demon energy while she spent hours studying. She wondered idly if that's why he ended up becoming a professor. He had always seemed interested in her school work, sometimes even asking her questions about what she was doing.
"Kagome!" The voice broke Kagome out of her thoughts. Standing in front of her, almost nose to nose was her old friend.
"YUKA!" Kagome screeched and grabbed her friend into a fierce hug "How long have you been back? I thought you were taking a few years break to travel Europe with that hot travel blogger boyfriend of yours?" Kagome wiggled her eye brows at her friend, make them both giggle like they were back in middle school.
"I was! We spent three months in Spain! It was amazing. But I got home sick so we came back for a while, I'm actually taking classes online, but decided to come into the lectures while we're back!"
"Do you have a lecture to go to now or do you have time to grab some coffee?" Kagome desperately wanted to sit and catch up with one of her best friends.
"Yeah! I just bailed on my archeology class... I followed you out actually." This time it was Yuka's turn to wiggle her eyebrows at Kagome. "I saw you and that super hot professor in there flirting. You have to dish! Let's go!" With that Yuka grabbed Kagome's arm and pulled her out of the building and down the street.
"Soooo, what's the deal? Word on the street is Professor Taisho is the coldest, harshest teacher, who never shows any ounce of happiness or favor. What I saw today looked a hell of a lot like flirting" They were sitting across from each other in their favorite cafe both cradling a large mug of cappuccino in their hands, a plate of small scones in the middle of the table between them.
"It's not like that" Kagome blushed and looked down into her cup.
"He's an old family friend, so we've known each other for a very long time."
She tried to ignore the feeling in her chest when Yuka said it looked like they were flirting.
"Besides, I'm pretty sure he's married!" She remembered the phone call he took in the grocery store a few weeks ago. That tone of voice had to be reserved for his mate or children. Yuka's face fell, she had been hoping Kagome had found a new guy, remembering all too well the drama the last one brought.
"That's too bad. He's super hot. Like, Adonis hot." Kagome blushed again, her stomach turning into butterflies when she pictured his face.
"Okay... I do have something to admit." She once again looked down, this time feeling more than a little guilty. "I sorta have, a well... a huge crush on him." Once she started talking she just couldn't stop. She gushed about how hot he was, how nice, resourceful, protective and amazing he was. She told Yuka how helpful he always was on their "family camping trips" they had taken in the past.
"I really just need to get a handle on this crush. It's driving me crazy. It was better for a while since he never talked to me at school. Honestly, I hadn't seen him in a long time when I started taking his class. For months I wasn't even sure he remembered who I was. But a large part of me feels really guilty about it. I know nothing can come from it, but he's Inuyasha's older brother and Inuyasha is my best friend. I feel so bad for keeping it from him."
"Wait! He's Inuyasha's older brother??" Yuka exclaimed. "Oh my god! I can't believe you fell for your ex's older brother! The one he hates??"
"Well, they don't hate each other anymore, but they certainly do not like each other!" Kagome threw her hands over her face.
"See? I knew I was an awful person!" She suddenly felt tears welling in the corner of her eyes. How could she do that to Inuyasha? Out of all the men in the past and the future, it was his freaking older brother that she had to start developing a crush on.
"No! Kagome! You're not an awful person! The heart wants what the heart wants and I'm sure Inuyasha will understand and support you. It's hard not to have a crush on that heartthrob! He's seriously hot!" Kagome smiled at her friend gushing over the hot professor. Confessing her feelings made her feel much better, but she just couldn't get rid of that nagging feeling of guilt.
"Okay, so what about you? How's Mateo?" Kagome just needed to get the subject changed now, she needed to just bury her feelings and completely forget about everything that had to do with Sesshomaru.
"He's great! We're leaving again next month for the Caribbean! You have to come with us one of these times, it's seriously so much fun. You would love it!" Yuka went on to explain how the process of being a travel blogger worked, confessed to Kagome she was starting a career as an Instagram model, and told her of all the different places they had been and where they were planning on going. Next year they were planning on checking out the Aztec temples in Mexico and Kagome promised she'd try to come with. The thought of exploring the archeological ruins fascinated her, but she tried to be realistic in her expectations before agreeing completely. It had already been seven years since she had shattered the jewel of four souls and they had only managed to recover a little over half of the jewel. The probability of finding Naraku and finishing the jewel within the next year was a little far fetched.