This was not what he was planning on doing this morning, he reflected as he pulled into the parking space and glanced into the passenger seat of his Ferrari at Rin who was dwarfed by the size of the huge chair that held her.
She clapped her hands together in glee “This is my school Sesshoumaru-sama!” she exclaimed reaching down to undo her seat belt.
He sighed. He had no idea how he had been coerced into doing this. He could have organised a town car to take her from his luxury penthouse to school but somehow, with her large pleading chocolate eyes, she had convinced him to drive her there himself. She had used the same trick to get to sleep in the same bed as him last night and now her scent clung to his skin. It was not entirely unwanted but a little annoying.
He watched as bedraggled mothers walking past his tinted windows pulled their fractious offspring away from his polished car in fear of sticky fingerprints and pissed owners.
He opened his door and exited the car with the maximum grace and minimum fuss. As he rose above his car and walked around to the passenger door to release his young ward, the other mothers in the playground swooned as one.
It was not every day that these harassed mothers saw a bishounnen such as this one and seeing a bishounnen such as him was usually reserved for television appearances.
He was out of place for a few more reasons than for just his dazzling beauty. He was clearly the most beautiful person in the playground and he was also the only male.
The women fixed their eyes on the six ft two tautly muscled man and had to pinch themselves to make sure he wasn’t some kind of mirage.
He took Rin’s arm and escorted her across the playground and through the sea of awe struck women like this happened to him everyday. Which granted this did happen a lot of the time but not usually to this scale or for this long. This silence was uncomfortable. Though usually he prayed to Kami for the humans to shut up their infernal racket now he was wishing they’d do something.
The females started gossiping again to their nearest neighbour about him and he wondered why in a brief minute of insanity he had wished for them to start clucking.
“I bet he’s rich” one murmured
“Look at that suit” another mumbled “It’s Armani”
It was like they didn’t think he could hear them but hear them was all he could do. He was an Inu Yokai it was impossible for his keen sense of hearing to ignore the chatter that revolved solely around him. It may have been strange for someone of his wealth to be seen escorting a young girl to a public school.
“Houshi-sensei, Good morning” said Rin running over to a young woman who was putting out the plastic toys for the children to play with. She was tall and had the body of an Olympic swimmer with a reserved strength about her. She had dark brown hair and violet eyes which surveyed Sesshoumaru distrustfully.
“Good morning Rin-chan” she said smiling softly at the young girl “who is your friend?”
“That’s Sesshoumaru-sama” she said grinning inanely “he’s looking after me”
The young woman glanced at him once again and her private conclusion was that this man wasn’t capable of looking after a plant let alone a five year old child.
Sesshoumaru had a good idea of what was going through her mind when she looked at him and although it made a refreshing change from being gushed over he was none too pleased at her obvious disdain for him.
“Houshi-sensei is my second favourite teacher after Higurashi-sensei” Rin told him earnestly
“Why thank you very much Rin” said a new and yet strangely familiar voice and Sesshoumaru focused on the young woman coming out from the school. She was wearing a black pencil skirt and a red blouse with an open neck and black slightly heeled ballet pumps with small diamonds in each earlobe and a silver leaf on a silver chain around her neck. Even though her bedraggled clothing was gone and her spectacles missing in action it was unmistakably the woman from the supermarket.
His expression morphed from one of cool detachment to one of snide annoyance and he glared at the young woman who chuckled. This was not the response that Sesshoumaru’s glares usually received and understandably he was a little miffed.
“Higurashi-sensei!” Rin was delirious and threw herself into the woman’s arms
The woman caught the young child and spun her in a smooth and slow circle before placing her back onto the concrete.
“I’m Kagome Higurashi” she said smiling pleasantly “Rin’s headmistress”
She did not hold a hand out for him to shake as she knew he would not take it. He nodded his head in acknowledgement.
“My name is Sesshoumaru Taisho” he said in his cold quiet and yet commanding voice.
“Taisho?” the woman named Houshi muttered under her breath as if trying to figure out where she had heard it before.
“I trust what I gave you met your standards?” she asked cocking a dark eyebrow and smiled crookedly.
“Hn” he said holding Rin’s schoolbag out to his charge
She took it and smiled “Come and get me at half past three ‘kay?” she said
“Hn” he said looking at her carefully for a moment before looking back to Kagome and then turning on his designer heel and leaving.
“He seems cheerful” Houshi-sensei muttered
“Sango” Kagome smiled “never judge a book by its cover”
“Hn” Sango said in a perfect imitation of Sesshoumaru. It was so good that the two old friends cracked up and started to laugh giddily as they welcomed the children into class.
That lunch break Kagome made her way through the scuffed hallways decorated with brightly coloured art that bombarded the senses and arrived in the staffroom to sit next to her two friends of many years: Sango and Ayame.
Sango taught the ten year olds and her ability to keep discipline was unrivalled amongst the other teachers. She had been married for a year to Miroku and was currently in the process of raising twins with him. God knows how they survived braining each other as they were known to get along like a house on fire; it was dangerous and unpredictable being around them.
Ayame was a wolf demon with red hair that she pulled into two sloppy pigtails and green eyes. Due to her slightly childish nature she got along famously with her class of seven year olds. She had a hard time with guys as she seemed to be going through a streak whereby she attracted total psychos.
“Hey” Kagome said grabbing a mug of coffee and sitting next to Sango on the browbeaten suspiciously brown sofa and pulling a green cushion into her lap.
“Hey” said Ayame putting down the magazine she had been reading and picking up her mug of tea
“I’ve got it!” Sango exclaimed and Kagome looked over at her friend half expecting her too have a crossword puzzle or something in front of her; but there was nothing there.
“What’s with her?” Kagome looked to Ayame for enlightenment
“No idea” Ayame shrugged to exercise her point “she’s been mumbling to herself since she got in here”
“I just remembered why I know the name Taisho!” she exclaimed
“Uh, duh; because it’s the name of the worldwide publishing firm?” Ayame rolled her eyes
Sango hit her with Ayame’s own discarded magazine “I know that” she grouched “but isn’t it Kagome’s cousin’s new name, you know after she got married to Inuyasha!”
“Kikyo Taisho” Kagome nodded thoughtfully
“Any relation?” asked Ayame curiously
“Could be” Kagome mused “but Inuyasha has had a bad relationship with his family since his mother died and if he was a relation surely I would have met him at the wedding?”
“She has a point” Ayame turned to Sango
“Hmm” Sango was thoughtful “but if Inuyasha has a bad relationship with his family then he wouldn’t necessarily go to the wedding now would he?”
“Maybe you’re right” Kagome shrugged pulling her spectacles from her pocket and pulling up a Sudoku puzzle that she had gotten addicted too over the past few months.
“Doesn’t it bother you?” Sango was curious “you seemed to be familiar with him”
“I met him once before” she said filling in the numbers with quick succession “but that’s it really” she smirked as she remembered the first time she had met the Inu Yokai and that she had been wearing an old cast off sweater donated to her courtesy of Miroku. She hadn’t exactly been at her best when she had seen him first. But he had been in such a foul mood she couldn’t stop herself from interfering and teasing the deadly demon.
Her school was a school for both humans and Yokai’s and even Hanyou and she was uniquely qualified to handle such an institution being a Miko or a priestess with strong spiritual powers. She masked them most of the time but they were always there. She had given her all in order to get the education board to authorise such a facility and it had taken her two years of work to prove she could handle it and too get the board to agree. She loved her school and all of the creatures inside it; teachers and pupils alike.
It was a safe haven and a place where all were welcome and none were shunned.
She had strived to set up this institute based on her childhood. When she was twelve she had been sent by her parents along with her cousin Kikyo to a private boarding academy where the students were required to stay during the school term which was where they had met Inuyasha for the first time. He had been fairly obvious with silver hair claws fangs and dog ears atop his head plus his hatred for everyone had made him pretty noticeable.
It was through friendship with the Inu Hanyou that Kagome had come to want a place where people like him and people like him could live in peace with one another. The ridicule he had put up with throughout his life struck at her heart and she knew that one weaker than him would have held their hands up to the world; defeated.
But her friend had never been one to admit defeat gracefully and simply throw in the towel and as such she was encouraged to help others that were like him but with less spunk.
Kagome sighed as the bell rang for the end of the school day and she watched the parents crowd into the courtyard and pick up their offspring. She closed the file she was working on and put it back in the filing cupboard. She had been appealing to get a money grant from the education board for a new computer suite for her pupils. It was an uphill battle against people who couldn’t care less even though they had children of their own.
She sighed and pulled her hair down from it’s sleek bun and let the ebony curtain cascade around her shoulders. She pulled her glasses from their perch on her nose and threw them onto the desk on top of the reorder forms for classroom supplies and pinched the bridge of her nose between her forefinger and thumb.
There was a short knock on the door of her office.
“Enter” she replied pleasantly
The door opened and Shippo walked inside. He was a Kitsune who worked as the teacher of the three year olds at the school and he was very popular amongst the children of the school for his bright orange hair and jovial attitude. The children loved to follow him around hanging onto his tail. He was a friend of Inuyasha’s and she sometimes saw him outside school when they all met up for drinks.
“Hey Higurashi-sensei” he said smiling. She found it amusing how he always spoke formally inside school.
“Hey Shippo-kun” she smiled back, his mannerisms were contagious.
“Houshi-sensei says she needs to see you” said Shippo nodding at her to show he had delivered his message.
“Thanks” she walked around her desk and followed him out into the corridor.
She located Sango sitting on her desk rather than in the chair behind it watching over the only two students that had yet to be delivered home.
They were sat at the table each colouring a picture. Rin glanced up from her work and smiled a little at Kagome but she sensed it was a forced smile. She was waiting for Sesshoumaru to come and get her but he was already half an hour late.
The other child was used to waiting behind this long after school due to the fact that his guardian was Kagome. He was Ranmaru and he was seven years old and a Kelpie (an aquatic horse demon) and he had been in Kagome’s care ever since he had lost his parents at birth to water poisoning and Inuyasha and Kikyo and Kagome had saved him. He had lived in peace with his human mother since then.
She walked up to the child and stroked his jet black curly hair he swivelled his black eyes up to her and she marvelled again at the beauty of those eyes with their smouldering depths.
“Hmm” Sango said brushing Rin’s hair gently and beginning to pull it back into a French plait.
“Why are you doing that?” Kagome whispered into her friend’s ear “he could be here any moment”
Ranmaru concentrated on his drawing and pretended he couldn’t hear the conversation between the two women, it didn’t matter that he could; the only person they didn’t want to hear their hushed conversation was the human child.
“Humph” Sango let her disbelief be known with that small noise and Kagome rolled her eyes.
Ayame crashed into the classroom “Hey guys I have to go now” she said “I’m meeting someone!”
“Not another blind date!” Sango yelled at their friend but she was already gone fleeing down the corridor at a rate of knots. “I hope she took her pepper spray” she said worriedly
“She’s a demon” Kagome pointed out
“Ayame-san needs to stop going out with dirt bags” Ranmaru stated casually causing both Kagome and Sango to glance down at the young demon in shock.
“Where’d you learn that expression?” Kagome was disapproving of a seven year old spouting such knowledge
“Inuyasha-ojisan” said Ranmaru simply glancing at his mother “was that wrong?”
“He’s a dead dog” Kagome growled “how dare he teach my son profanities?”
Sango snickered “He tries to sensor himself” she said, she had come into contact with Inuyasha many a time due to his friendship with her husband
“You won’t be laughing when the twins start picking up his language” Kagome warned
Sango looked grumpy for a moment and then they both looked at the clock and sighed ‘Where the hell is Sesshoumaru?’ they thought as one.
Sesshoumaru was losing the will to live. He was sat in the conference room listening to some company flunky’s relentless and unimportant babble. His face was a carefully cultivated mask of interest but if you knew him well and few did you could tell he was bored out of his mind. He was also annoyed that this meeting was taking so damn long. Rin had told him half past three and it was nearing quarter past four.
“So that concludes that” said the plebeian and Sesshoumaru nearly got his hopes up until the monotonous human clicked onto the next slide in the slideshow “and now for the...”
Sesshoumaru stopped listening and stood suddenly.
The little man who had been talking gawked at him from behind bottle top spectacles as the Inu Yokai stood and picked up his coat from the back of his chair and folded it over his arm before stalking from the room like an irritable lion on the prowl.
Jaken his advisor scurried out behind the irritable demon “Sesshoumaru-sama” he whimpered “where are you going?”
Sesshoumaru glided to a halt and turned slowly on his heel his glowing golden eyes swivelling around to stare at the small man. Jaken gulped as his insignificant life flashed before his eyes. Sesshoumaru nodding in satisfaction before returning on his escape mission from his building.
He pulled into the car park at the school to see that there was only one car still there. It was a beaten up contraption that looked like it wasn’t fit for human transportation. He sighed and walked up to the doors to find Rin stood there waiting for him.
He noticed the change in her hair and raised an eyebrow and she let out a yelp of glee and ran at him latching onto his long legs and hugging them effectively restricting his movements.
He glanced up at the stairs that led to the school to see a disgruntled looking Sango, an impatient looking Kagome and a Kelpie that he had yet to meet.
“Glad you could finally make it” Kagome was not impressed. Sango was just as annoyed but chose to say nothing as she stalked past him to the browbeaten car.
“Keys!” she yelled at Kagome
Kagome tossed the set of keys at her friend who deftly caught them and unlocked the car. Sesshoumaru spared a brief moment to wonder why anyone would lock that monstrosity of a car when it was not even worth stealing.
“Ran-chan” Kagome murmured to the boy stood in front of her with a bored expression on his youthful face “Get in the car with Sango”
He glanced up at her and then back at the Inu Yokai and walked exuding an aura of tranquillity around the older demon and opened the back door of the dilapidated automobile sitting inside.
“Please come to get her at a more suitable time tomorrow Sesshoumaru-san” Kagome chastised him “she relies on you being there”
He glared at this impertinent woman, how dare she dictate to him the great Sesshoumaru?
“It is none of your concern how this Sesshoumaru conducts himself” said Sesshoumaru coldly
She cocked her head to one side in surprise at his lengthy response “When it concerns one of my pupils it is of my concern.” She told him
She was daring to speak back to him? Sesshoumaru seethed with barely concealed anger “Rin get into the vehicle” he said smoothly “This Sesshoumaru needs to talk with Sensei”
Kagome grinned at Rin as she walked by to get into the car and Rin returned the smile gently.
“So?” she asked brazenly putting a hand on her left hip and tilting her chin arrogantly. She was doing this on purpose to enrage him further but he was too pissed to notice.
“This Sesshoumaru would thank you not to be so rude to me wench” his words were spoken coldly with a certain amount of precision. Ranmaru winced in the car as he felt the older demon’s youki crackle with rage. Kagome smirked as she too sensed his power.
“Rude?” she rolled her eyes “I’m not the one indulging in name calling. My name is Kagome”
He narrowed his eyes at her “This Sesshoumaru does not care as too what your name is” he snarled
“I thought so before” she said looking him up and down “but you have some sort of displaced resentment towards me don’t you?”
“You are looking down on this Sesshoumaru” he stated “as if this Sesshoumaru is one of your pupils needing to be mollycoddled”
She smirked “My, my” she was being condescending on purpose now
He felt his anger bubble up to boiling point as this wench patronised him yet again.
He growled incoherently and his hands twitched by his sides.
Kagome inspected his face for a moment and the cracked up laughing. It was proper gut wrenching, belly aching, unstoppable, hysterical laughter that made her start to cry.
Sesshoumaru’s eyes widened as he examined the now bent double hysterical female. She was something else; by simply laughing she had managed to alleviate all his anger. She reacted to him like no other woman did. She was not afraid of him being a demon. She stood up to him and challenged him like she was the alpha. She could meet his eyes without being reduced to a puddle of shattered nerves. She did not gush over him.
She was different.
“I don’t believe” she gasped recovering from her fit “that you let me bait you that much”
“Hn” he said calmer now and realising he had forgotten to add something to the list; she was able to make him lose his temper.
Sango got out of the car “Are you finished?” she demanded
“Yep,” Kagome was happy “Bye Sesshoumaru”
He stood in the middle of the car park for a moment wondering what exactly was going on; he felt sort of light hearted?
A few long seconds later he realised she had addressed him without an honorific and he frowned. Didn’t that suggest intimacy?
Then he shook his head in horror as he realised that he was actually wasting precious seconds of his time dwelling on the unusual female. He growled in frustration before getting into his car and angrily accelerating out of the car park.
A/N: we all know I don’t own Inuyasha, and I make no profit from this