“The weather today looks dreary! A high of eighty-three degrees and ninety-five percent chance of a thunder storm!”
Kagome started at the sound of her digital alarm, falling out of her bed. Sesshoumaru had switched their covers so that she had a white cover and black flat sheets, while he had a black comforter and white flat sheets. It was quite a nice arrangement. Her legs were tangled in her sheets and half her body hung off the bed. Unfortunately, it was the half with her head. She groaned, trying to remove herself from the tangle of sheets. Looking up at the clock, she found it was 9:30 am.
“Why do I want to wake up so early?” she asked herself, tumbling onto the wooden floor.
“It was your idea to go and tour the university, today,” a smooth voice said from the doorway.
She brushed her tangled hair out of her face, yawning and pushing the covers off of her. “I see you’re up early.”
“And you’re up late.”
“Don’t push me, Sesshou,” she warned, standing and dumping the covers back onto her bed. “You’re not supposed to come into my room without knocking.”
“I’ve never knocked before,” he said, shrugging.
“You should start,” she snapped, smoothing out her covers.
“Why?”
“It’s rude to come in unannounced.”
“So, you should be able to sense me coming,” he reasoned.
“Maybe I should start locking my door,” she mused.
“I would probably break it down, then.”
“Okay, get to the point, Sesshou. Why did you come into my room?”
“I was expressing concern, for I heard a thump from this room,” he answered with mock sincerity.
“Ha. Ha.”
“What do you want for breakfast?”
“So that’s why you came.”
“Why else?” he asked, smirking.
“Feh. Anything, whatever you want,” she answered. Oh great. Now, I’m picking up on the dumb word.
“Alright,” he said, shrugging, “Twenty minutes.”
“Twenty minutes!” she chirped, pushing him out of her room, “Now go and get breakfast ready!”
She shut the door and quickly locked it. Sesshoumaru sighed, shaking his head. Why do I put myself through this? He ventured to the kitchen to prepare the morning meal for ‘her eminence.’ Meanwhile, in Kagome’s room, the girl rushed into the bathroom and turned on the shower. Quickly stripping off her nightclothes, she stepped into the hot rain. The searing water relaxed her and also woke her fully. After washing, she turned the water off and grabbed a towel, wrapping it around her body. Seizing another one, she bundle her hair up in it and sauntered into her walk-in closet. Kagome quickly chose her outfit and dried herself off, slipping the outfit on. She looked herself over in the full-length mirror. A white short-sleeved dress shirt was slipped on over a light blue tank top, which fell a little below the waistline of the black shorts she adorned. On top of that, she had two necklaces on, the one she had bought herself with the Yin symbol dangling from a silver chain and the one Sesshoumaru had given her as a graduation present. To match, the two silver earrings she had been given hung from her earlobes. She let down her hair and went to blow dry it. After which, she brushed it out, making it shine and glisten in the morning sun streaming through her windows.
“Perfect,” she said, looking herself over in her mirror.
Kagome opened her door, coming face-to-face with Sesshoumaru. “Well, you didn’t break down the door,” she said, smiling brightly.
He shrugged to answer her, walking back to the dining room, where breakfast was waiting. She followed after him, closing the door behind her. Even though she was still several feet away from the table, she could already smell the aroma of food wafting through the short hallway.
“Smells good,” she complimented, taking her seat across from him.
“Hmm,” he answered, picking up his fork and knife, “Itadakimasu.”
Kagome looked to him, a bit surprised as he started to eat. He felt her eyes on him. “Yes?”
“I didn’t think you would say that,” she said softly, blushing slightly, “Sorry. Itadakimasu.”
They ate in silence, chewing thoughtfully. “What are we touring the school for?” Sesshoumaru finally asked.
“Run through our classes. We have the same schedule, don’t we?”
“Mmm. You don’t have to take all the same classes as me,” he said softly.
“You requested it, so I obey!” she said happily.
“You don’t have to do that,” he reasoned.
“But you do whatever I say,” she shot back.
“Because I want to,” he answered.
“And I want to listen to what you say in return.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.”
After finishing the meal and cleaning up, they went off to the school. Kagome grabbed her purse and keys, and then, they were off. Along the way, Kagome commented about the things in shop windows, saying things like ‘let’s go there after we tour the school’ and ‘look! Isn’t that cute?’ Sesshoumaru sighed, barely listening to what she had to say.
“What should we do after college, Kagome?” he interrupted, turning thoughtfully to her.
“I don’t know. I’m not sure what I want to be, yet,” she answered, looking up at him. “What do you want to do?”
“I don’t know. Probably anything that involves making lots of money,” he said thoughtfully.
“Is that all you care about?”
“Hmm.”
“Money?”
“You need money to survive,” he reasoned.
“Yeah, I guess. But, you should do something that you like to do,” she suggested.
“There’s nothing I won’t do to survive. I stayed with you, didn’t I?” he joked.
“That’s not a very nice comment to direct towards your best friend,” she reprimanded, nudging him into the building beside them.
“Who says you’re my best friend?” he asked, smirking.
“You, yourself,” she answered, leaning on him.
“Hmm, I don’t remember,” he teased.
“Don’t be cruel,” she scolded.
“Feh,” he said, turning his head away from her.
“Sesshou~” she whined, latching onto his arm.
“What?” he answered indifferently.
“Are you tired of being around me?” she asked, tugging slightly on his arm.
He didn’t answer, not wanting to say yes nor no.
“Don’t ignore me,” she pleaded.
Sesshoumaru turned to her with his stoical mask, not expressing any emotion. “Why not?”
“Don’t,” she begged, “I didn’t do anything to make you, did I?”
If he was surprised by her implication, he didn’t show it, face remaining neutral. He didn’t answer, looking straight ahead.
“I’m sorry for whatever I did!” she said desperately, eyes shining with sorrow and regret.
“Really?” he said sarcastically.
“You’re not yourself,” she said softly, opening the door to the first building for him.
“How do you know?” he asked, brushing past her. “Maybe I wasn’t myself this whole time.”
“Sesshou~!” she called, catching up to him. “Don’t do this! You said you were happy with me!”
“Maybe I lied.”
“No, you didn’t! I know you didn’t!” she said desperately.
Lucky for them, the whole corridor was empty. Silence ensued between them, as Sesshoumaru could not think of anything to say. He hadn’t lied when he said he was happy. But, he had lied when he said they would be best friends forever. Silently, inside himself, he hoped for more. He wanted for her to recognize him as more than a friend. He wanted her to love him as she had loved Inuyasha, his sad excuse of a half-brother. If I can’t have her, I have to push her away. So, she can’t hurt me in any way. Love is a weakness, a weakness known widely by humans but recognized as a strength. Demons don’t love. Demons are emotionless. I am a demon. I don’t love. I am emotionless. He kept his emotions at bay. Over the last couple of days, he had begun to realize the strange feelings swirling inside his being. He had begun to recognize that he loved Kagome dearly, that if anything hurt her, he would kill it, make it suffer.
Now, he began to fear the warm emotion called love. It had torn his mother apart. The only thing he hadn’t told Kagome was that his mother had loved his otou-san very much. It was when he brought a human female home that she had wandered off into the claws of the cat youkai. He had followed, knowing the emotional stress his beloved okaa-san had been through, and had been there in time to kill the cat before it struck the final blow. Alas, his mother had lost too much blood from the battle, weary from stress. From then on, as far as he was concerned, love was something more destructive than the claws of all the youkai combined. He had been able to keep his distance from the emotion in the feudal era for a long time. But then, Rin came into his life, and the emotion was re-introduced to him. Now that he was with Kagome, it came back at full strength, warming his being. I won’t hurt her. I won’t love her. I’ll stay away from now on…