Tiny Dancer by Kae
Shattered Concentration
A/N: Here's another idea I came up with. I've been getting hit with plunnies left and right. I can't concentrate myself! Well, please enjoy!
DISCLAIMER: The amazing characters in this story belong to the talented Rumiko Takahashi. I do not take responsibility for her genius.
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She was stunning. Absolutely dazzling. And try as I might, I couldn’t keep my eyes off the girl for long. I tried to focus on my sensei, I really did, but my gaze kept drifting away from him back to her magnificence. Her body twirled and arched so gracefully. As long as she moved, I couldn’t concentrate.
“Sesshoumaru!” I started at the angry call of my sensei.
I immediately straightened and turned my attention back to him. “Hai, Sensei?”
Sensei’s expression was stern, his nine tails flicking in irritation. “How do you expect to become a good swordsman if you don’t pay attention?”
“I am sorry. I will not allow my attention to waver again.”
“See that it doesn’t.” And he returned to the lesson’s demonstration.
I fixed my eyes on the lesson but the movement in my peripherals was too distracting. I didn’t get anything out of what I was watching.
After the demonstration was complete, Sensei asked us to split into teams of two. He wanted us to do a practice spar using the techniques he just demonstrated. I am the most skilled student in class and our class has an odd number of students. Because of this, I’m almost always partnered with Sensei or his seven-tailed assistant, Hoshiro.
Hoshiro came over and handed me a shinai. So I would pair up with him today. I took my stance and we started the spar. All of a sudden, the girl made a leap and my eyes followed her graceful movement as she soared through the air. Next thing I knew, my sword was out of my hands. Damn. Hoshiro disarmed me. I mentally berated myself for my lack of discipline. I haven’t been disarmed since the early days of my training. I steeled myself so that it would not happen again.
However, despite my resolve, he disarmed me twice more in a matter of minutes. The girl just kept doing the most spectacular things. Always at just the exact moment when my attention shouldn’t waver.
When I lost my grip on my sword for a fourth time, Sensei came over and pulled me to the side. I thought he was going to scold me but he surprised me when he spoke in a gentle voice. “Is there something wrong, Sesshoumaru? What has your attention so splintered?”
My gaze flickered over to the ballet class at the far end of the gymnasium before I dropped it to the floor. Apparently, Sensei noticed my glance.
“Ballet? You couldn’t possibly be interested in that. You’ve practiced beside the ballet class for years and never showed any…unless, its one of the dancers?”
I felt my cheeks warm a bit and hoped it wasn’t visible. I kept my eyes on the floor.
Sensei leaned back. “I see. You are getting to that age, aren’t you?” He sighed. “A starry-eyed, lovesick dog is useless.”
I glared up at him with a growl. “I am not lovesick!”
“No, of course not.” His voice dripped with sarcasm and humor. “You seem to forget, Sesshoumaru, that I grew up with your father. I know all of the signs.”
“I am not lovesick!” I repeated.
“Okay, maybe not yet. But you will be. First she holds your eyes, soon she’ll hold your heart.”
I growled again. “She is human.”
“Your father mated a human after your mother passed.”
“And created an abomination to demon kind. I am not my father.”
“Your brother isn’t that bad. But you’re right, you always took more after your mother. Though you’re more like your father than you think, Sesshoumaru.”
I crossed my arms, twisted my face away and turned up my nose. “Hn,”
Sensei chuckled a bit at my show of defiance before he said, “Class is almost over, why don’t you pack up and go home?”
I looked up at him to ascertain if he was being serious or not. Sensei has never let us off early in all the years since I came under his teaching. It seemed like he was serious. “Alright. I will.” With that I turned and headed into the locker room. I expected him to call me back and order me back to practice but he never did. So I took off my sweaty kendo uniform and stepped into the shower to rinse off the sticky perspiration. When I had finished with my shower and was almost completely dressed in my street clothes, the other boys came into the locker room. I watched as they deposited their protective armor in the designated bins. I shook my head. I didn’t wear the armor anymore. Since I was a demon and in the advanced stages of my training, I no longer required them. Sensei promised that one day I’d be able to graduate to using a real katana for practice. I looked forward to the day.
“Hey, look! It’s ‘Mr. Perfect!’” one boy said after spotting me.
“Not so perfect today now were you Mr. Perfect?” another boy piped up.
I ignored them. Their comments were idiotic and didn’t deserve a response.
“Nah, he was too busy drooling over that sexy ballerina!” a third boy laughed.
Before I could even think to stop myself, I had the boy by the throat. I pressed him up against the wall and growled in his petrified face.
“Hey, Sesshoumaru, calm down man. We were just joshing you. You know, poking fun. He didn’t mean it.”
I growled at the boy some more before I released him. “Do not talk about her like that!” I spit at him as he gasped for air.
The room was completely silent as I grabbed my school bag, slammed my locker and stormed out. When I was out of sight, I heard one of the boys say, “Man, he’s got it bad for that chick, huh?” I heard the murmured agreements of the other boys as I stalked away.
The gym was empty now, both classes had ended, except for one person by the mirror wall doing stretches. It was the graceful girl that had distracted me all afternoon. I wondered what she was doing all by herself. Her class was over, shouldn’t she be leaving?
“What are you doing?” I had drifted closer without realizing it and the question left my mouth without permission.
She looked up at me from the middle of her stretch and smiled. The expression all but knocked the air out of my lungs. When she smiled, her beauty was incomparable. She straightened and answered my question, though I had forgotten what I had asked.
“Cool down stretches. You should stretch before and after exercising your muscles. Before keeps the muscles from locking up and cramping during the exercise but after prevents them from seizing and cramping later,” she explained.
“Oh. I see.” My heart took off at a gallop when she smiled at me again. I swallowed thickly. “My name is Sesshoumaru Taisho. May I ask your name?”
She giggled. The little laugh was like tinkling bells. “Nice to meet you, Sesshoumaru. I’m Kagome Higurashi.”
I heard the other boys exit the locker room. One of them whispered, “Mr. Perfect is talking to that ballerina!”
Another whispered back, “Whoa! Way to go, Sesshoumaru!”
“Go for it, Taisho!” another whispered.
I smirked. “Are you new here? I have been taking kendo here for a long time and I am pretty sure I have never seen you before.”
Her smile vanished and I wondered what I said to upset her. “Yes. I just moved here. When my father died my family moved in with my grandfather at Sunset Shrine.”
I nodded solemnly. I understood the pain of losing a loved one. “I am sorry for your loss. Do not worry, time dulls the pain.”
She looked at me with such sad eyes. “Who did you lose?”
“My mother.”
“I’m sorry.”
I nodded. What else is there to say about that? She still looked so sad so I searched for a change in topic that would bring back that dazzling smile. I cleared my throat. “You are an excellent dancer.”
Her smile started to return. “You think so?”
Again I nodded. “You are very graceful.”
“Really?”
“Hn, you rival the grace of a demon.”
An exultant smile broke out across her face and I forgot how to breathe for a couple seconds. “Thank you! That is the most wonderful compliment I’ve ever gotten!” All of a sudden she wrapped her arms around me and buried her face in my chest. I fought against the blush that was creeping up my neck to flood my face and didn’t quite win. I heard the boys behind me snickering.
“Um, you are welcome.” I said patting her awkwardly on the back.
She stepped away from me then. “I should be getting home now. It was nice talking to you. See you later, Sesshoumaru!” She called the last part over her shoulder as she headed for the girl’s locker room.
It took me a moment to recover. “Right, later.” I murmured. And I escaped the gym before the other boys could converge on me.
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=EDIT= fixed tense consistency issues. Added disclaimer. - 10/18/11
=EDIT= edited 3/22/16
A/N: So what'd you think? I know Sessh is a little OOC but I want and like him this way. This is an AU anyway. If you don't like it, you can just not read and if you read it anyway and still don't like it, well, bite me.