Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to these characters.
As the four worked diligently through their coursework, Kuroo felt his eyes drift towards Kagome off and on. He couldn't believe that she was sitting right next to him after all these years. Seeing how she kept the gamer duo corralled and prodded them to complete their tasks brought a grin to his face. Not many can rope Kenma in line, he was a slippery one when he wanted to be, and it seemed that her little brother was cut from the same cloth.
She obviously had grown from the shy little girl that he once knew, the one who had an iron will and a spine of steel that she hid from the world. Now those traits that she rarely showed to anyone was on full display, and there was a confidence that radiated from her now that drew him in even more. He couldn't help but wonder what brought those changes about, and what else had changed since he had seen her last.
As they all finished their assignments, Kenma and Souta looked to Kagome with a clear question in their eyes. Kuroo leaned back in his chair and watched the byplay unfold before him. Kagome took her time checking that her little brother finished his work and then proceeded to look on silently. Kuroo could feel a grin begin to stretch across his face as he observed Kagome stare down the other two and they began to shift anxiously in their seats. Their eyes begging that she grant them mercy and release them from their torment.
Finally, Kagome released a sigh, "All right, you may go." With that the two stood up and practically ran up the stairs. Disappearing from sight as if afraid that if they didn't lock themselves away quickly, she would revoke the permission she gave. Shaking her head with a grin, she turned to Kuroo, "Did you want to take a break before we get started on your project, Tetsu-kun?"
Stretching his arms over his head briefly, before giving her a smile. "Yeah, just a quick one. The sooner I get that done, the sooner we can catch up." Seeing her nod in agreement, she stood up saying that she would make them some more tea. "Hey Kago-chan? Where's your bathroom?" He asked while starting to stand.
"It's up the stairs, to the right of Souta's bedroom. His door has a sign with his name on it so you can't miss it." She replied.
Following her directions, Kuroo climbed the stairs and found Souta's bedroom door and located the bathroom with ease. Just as he was about to open the door he heard, "So Kuroo is the reason why my nee-san refused do date anyone, eh?" He knew that he shouldn't, but this was information that he just couldn't let slip him by.
"What do you mean?" He heard Kenma ask.
"Well, I over heard nee-san and three of her friends from Junior High talking once during their first year. They were trying to get nee-san to go out with some guy in their class. When she refused, they asked her why. According to them the guy was the cutest boy in school, so she should be dying for the chance to date him. Nee-san said that a childhood friend made her a promise, so she was waiting for him."
Kuroo felt a grin creep across his face, this was good news for him.
"A promise?"
"Yeah. I don't know what the promise was, but honestly nee-san would have turned that Hojo guy down regardless. He wasn't the brightest crayon in the box." Souta said in a deadpanned tone.
"You didn't like him I take it."
"He's nice and all, but super gullible. He fell for Grandpa's tall tales every time. In fact, I think Grandpa was starting to run out of ideas to trick him with!"
Kuroo had to restrain a snicker at that bit of information. 'I knew there was something that I liked about Higurashi-san!'
"That and no matter how many times nee-san told him that she didn't want to date him, he apparently kept thinking that she was just being shy or not feeling well that day."
Now he was feeling irritated and wondering how he was going to deal with that fool if he came around again. 'He had better not be attending Nekoma…' He thought with a twitch.
"Really?"
Feeling as if he had eavesdropped enough, Kuroo shook his head with a grin and headed into the bathroom. As he began his journey back down the stairs, he could feel the makings of several plans forming in his brain.
Walking into the kitchen, he saw that Kagome was just finishing with the tea and getting ready to sit down at the table. She looked up at him as he started to sit back down and smiled.
"So, let's take a look at this assignment of yours."
Kuroo dug out the instructions out of his bag and handed it over to her, watching as she quickly read over everything. She turned her head to him with a brow raised, "What did you guys do to irritate your sensei for him to dream this up?"
Frowning down at the paper in question, "As far as I know, nothing."
"Are you sure?"
Kuroo looked back at her and frowned when he saw the skeptical look she was directing at him. "Oi! I may enjoy provoking people, but I'm not stupid enough to provoke Matsumoto-sensei."
With a giggle, she brought up her hands to wave off the scowl he was giving her. "All right, all right. I believe you." She took a pause to think a moment, "We have several legends here at the shrine that you could use, but it sounds like he's looking more for an epic and this is only part one of your assignment."
Kuroo felt himself sink into his chair with a groan, "I kind of suspected that."
Kagome nodded in return, "Granted you could probably try to stretch out a smaller legend to suit the overall project, but it would be difficult and possibly take a lot of time and work."
Now he could feel the walls closing in around him. His life outside of school and volleyball was doomed, not that he really had much of a life outside of those. He could faintly hear her voice penetrate his newfound dark world, "Luckily for you, we have a legend that spans several centuries that would work for you."
"Wait. What?" Blinking several times, he whipped his head towards her in hope. "Why didn't you say so before?"
Kagome blinked at him, "I did, you just jumped into mope-mode before I could finish."
Kuroo wasn't sure if she was doing this on purpose and being sneaky about it, or just being honest. He took a breath and decided to simply forge ahead, "So what's the legend?"
"It's the legend of the Shikon no Tama." She replied with a grin.
"The Shikon no Tama? It sounds kind of familiar." Scratching the back of his head he tried to think of where he had heard of the name.
"Hm. Not too many people know about it as a whole. Some of the other Shrines in Tokyo and elsewhere in Japan may have a mention of it, or of the Shikon Shards."
With that his memory sparked, he remembered hearing something about a battle over a Shikon Shard from a priest at another Shrine once when he was a kid.
"Why do they only mention it? And why only talk about a shard of the jewel and not the whole thing?" He was confused by this. 'You would think that if you have a story about a great battle over a piece of something then they would talk about the larger story behind it.'
"I'm not sure really. According to Grandpa, we are the only Shrine that has the legend in its entirety, including the tale of the creation of the Shikon no Tama. It makes sense that we would possess the majority of the legend since it supposedly centered around these grounds, but the start and the battles spanned across all of Japan. We can only speculate that our ancestors collected the tales and stored them here, while everyone else either ignored their part of the legend for some reason or forgot them."
"Huh. Well let's go with that legend then." Kuroo grinned, "So tell me oh-wise-one, what is the creation story of the Shikon no Tama?"
Kagome smiled as she stood up, "Grandpa and I have been working on a manuscript for a book of the legends our Shine has for publishing. Trying to bring in more income and people's interest to the Shrine. I'll go grab it quick." She disappeared down the hall for about a minute before she reemerged with a thick stack of papers in her hands.
"That's all your legends?" Kuroo asked in shock.
She scoffed, "Of course not. This is just covering the some of the Shikon no Tama. It's still not finished. I'm trying to get Grandpa to agree to split the smaller off-shoot legends that surrounded the Shikon into a separate book. Otherwise the book will be massive."
"It already looks massive." Kuroo deadpanned.
"Don't worry, there are some pretty pictures mixed in here to give your poor little brain a break." She said while giving his head a light pat.
Kuroo stuck his tongue out at her as she sat down. They both settled down and dove into the tale that began over a 1,000 years ago.
Kuroo finally closed his laptop after completing the majority of his project. He needed to smooth out some elements of his report still, but he could use the next few weeks for the finishing details. He stretched his arms over head to work out the kinks that he could feel forming and looked over to Kagome to see her gathering the manuscript together so she could put it back where she found it.
Just as she returned, they could hear the front door open, "I'm home."
"Welcome back, Mama." Kagome called while looking down the hall to the entryway. "Hey Mama, there's someone here you should see."
"Oh?" She replied curiously. Kuroo stood up and stayed behind Kagome, out of sight of the returning matriarch. As she wandered towards her daughter she paused when she saw the towering teenage boy standing in her kitchen. "Oh my! Tetsurou-kun, is that you?"
"Surprise, Higurashi-mama." He grinned and bent down to give her shorter frame a hug.
After giving him a tight hug, Mama leaned back and placed her hands on his face with a soft smile. "You've grown so big!"
"I'm a little taller than 6'1" now." Kuroo gave a proud smirk, and a sly glance towards the much shorter blue-eyed beauty next to him.
Kagome felt her spirit shrivel as her eyes nearly popped out of her head. 'Ten inches… He's ten inches taller than me. Why Kami-sama? WHY?'
Mama gave the two a smile, "I didn't know that the two of you had found each other again." Kuroo and Kagome proceeded to explain the whole story to her as she began to start making lunch for everyone. "I see, well I'm glad that fate decided to finally lead the two of you back together. I take it Kenma and Souta are upstairs playing games?"
"Yeah, and they probably haven't blinked once in the past hour." Kagome grinned.
Mama laughed in agreement, "Well while I finish getting lunch ready, the two of you can go catch up." She waved the teens out of the kitchen and to the yard, telling them to go get some fresh air. 'Those two are just adorable together!'
Kagome and Kuroo stepped out into the courtyard, enjoying the quiet and calming environment that surrounded them. Grabbing his hand, Kagome led the way over to the Goshinboku and sat down at its base. Kuroo made himself comfortable beside her and leaned back to look up at the branches that sprawled above them.
"Kago-chan…" he began.
"Hm?"
"What happened? I mean, as soon as we finally got settled in our new house, I sent a letter to you but it came back saying you were no longer there." His voice trailed off.
She took a deep breath remember those days. "About 2 weeks after you and your parents moved, Papa and Grandma were in a car accident." Kuroo's heart froze and he looked down at her in shock. She gave him a sad smile in return, "They didn't make it. Mama was pregnant with Souta and the shock and grief nearly sent her into early labor. We moved here with Grandpa not even a week later."
Moving his arm to wrap around her shoulders, he pulled her into a hug. "I'm so sorry that I wasn't there for you Kago-chan."
Resting against him and grasping his other hand, "You couldn't have known Tetsu-kun. It was a long time ago, and besides, you're here now." She smiled.
"Yeah…" Wanting to lift the brief melancholy that descended upon them, he gave her a smirk "Hey Kago-chan?" She tilted her head up towards him and he continued, "Is there a boyfriend that I need to be concerned about?"
"W-what? Boyfriend? Why?" she was stunned by the question, and cautious about that grin on his face. It never boded well for her when they were children.
"Well, if memory serves, you are my fiancé. I would hate to have to deal with some guy that thinks that my pocket-sized girl belonged to him instead. That would just be annoying." He stated with a matter of fact tone and a Cheshire cat grin across his face.
She could feel the heat creeping into her face and just knew that her face was redder than a tomato at this point. "I am NOT pocket sized, Rooster Head! And who said I'm yours? We haven't even gone on a date yet!"
"All right fine, we'll do it your way then. I'll pick you up tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock for our first date." He said with an exaggerated sigh.
Kagome swore her brain just short-circuited. "Wait, what? What just happened?"
"Kagome-chan! Tetsurou-kun! Lunch is ready." Mama called out to them.
Kuroo stood up and held a hand out to her with that smug grin of his, "Come on Kago-chan, you heard her."
Her body moved on autopilot as she reached out and grabbed his hand, allowing him to lead her back to the house. Her brain on the other was still trying to catch up on the conversation that they just had, '…What…?'
Author's note: Sorry about the delay! I had to send my computer out for repair, and I just got it back.