The Virtues of Invisibility by icephoenixtohma

When Doughnuts Attack

~*Break*~

“If I could find you now, things would get better.”

That’s what Kagome Higurashi whispered to herself as she lay in bed, in the dark, in the dead of the night.

Yeah, sure, it was from a Yellowcard song, but that was only a minor detail.

It certainly described what she felt.

If she could find him, things would get better.

If she could find him, her One True Love, it would certainly be a miracle.

Was that miracle worth waiting for?

After all, she had her pick of boys. She had Hojo, and, well… Hojo. Who, really, wasn’t all that bad a guy. Sure, he was… Hojo… but that was beside the point! He was a good guy-

Too much of a good guy, that inner voice spat at her, disgusted. What happened to you, Kagome? You used to have such good taste…

SHUT UP!

Anyway, to get back on track, she always had Hojo to fall back on.

Who, consequently, wasn’t getting a very good deal. He was always so nice to her and what did she do? She used him as a BACK-UP PLAN! It just wasn’t fair to him, no, not fair at all.

Kagome sighed.

Man, dances sucked. Like, really-really-really-really sucked.

Kikyo had her own date - the infamous and oh-so-handsome yet oh-so-brash Taisho InuYasha. Kagome wanted to strangle her older cousin. Sure, she, that-that-that bitch! got him, and Kagome got-got-got HOJO!

(Kikyo wasn't really that bad, of course, but Kagome ceased to realize that when she went into ranting mode...)

But moving on, Kaede, Kagome’s eldest cousin, (and a senior in their high school) was going with Totosai - TOTOSAI, FOR GODS’ SAKE! He was, like… icky. Gangly, hoarse voice, straggly brown beard (if you could even call it that)… Had Kaede been smoking those incense sticks again? Oh, no-no-no! Kagome thought. For years now, Kaede had been a wonderful teacher to her-not only in all of the things that a miko should know, but also in life lessons… most of which still needed a little figuring out and fumbling about before Kagome learned. She had no right talking about who Kaede decided to choose to take to the dance.

After all, I’ve chosen Mr. Invisible. Wonderful guy.

Anyway, Sango, Kikyo’s younger-by-a-year sister had Miroku for a date (and woe! Kagome pitied her). The purple-eyed pervert was surely not going to stay with Sango for the entire evening-

-though, remembering the smooch-fest that had ensued when The Cousins (plus dates) had gone to the movies together, maybe he would.

That was yet another day that Kagome had been forced to choose Hojo.

STOP SAYING I WAS FORCED TO CHOOSE HOJO! Kagome screamed at herself in her mind. SO WHAT IF IT’S TRUE?!

Kagome remembered that date oh-so-well.

“Hey, ‘Yasha! Kagome doesn’t have a date-”

“Yeah, well don’t expect me to do nothin’ ‘bout it,” InuYasha whispered fiercely to Kikyo.

“Double-negative,” Sango pointed out sweetly.

“Shut up!”

“DON’T TELL ME TO SHUT UP!”

“Stop harassing my boyfriend.”

“Now, now. InuYasha, is Sesshoumaru-”

“Eh, out playing Corporate Jackass with Naraku.”

“Excuse me?” Kaede asked, scandalized that he would use such language with her.

“Corporate Jackass. Haven’t you seen them? They actually work. With Dad. In the office. And get paid. I swear to Dog. Sometimes I wonder what they do in that big office of theirs, all alone together,” InuYasha said, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Silence.

“InuYasha, did you just swear to ‘dog’?”

“Oh, forget it, Kaede, I’m going to call Hojo,” Kagome finally said, and went into the house.

And as usual, Hojo was there. Lovely.

“GAAAAAH!” Kagome yelled into the pillow, right before she looked at the clock. 2:45.

Wait, 2:45?!

That left… three hours of sleep…

NOOO!!!

---*---

“Gee, wench, you look cheerful today,” InuYasha commented snidely.

Oh, sure, so today her semi-secret semi-crush was picking on her.

Not a good idea.

“Hey, InuYasha, guess what?” she asked mock-cheerfully.

“What?” he asked cautiously.

“SIT!” she yelled, and yanked his tie down.

His head went with it.

“YOU BITCH! MY FUCKING NECK IS BROKEN! YOU BROKE IT!”

“Your neck fucks?” Sango asked, smirking, before she turned to her cousin. “What’s up, Kagome?”

“Three hours of sleep and a math test up next. Sango! Help me! Please!”

“Kagome, if you spent so much time up last night, why didn’t you study?”

“I don’t know!” she wailed. “I was thinking about the dance and wh-”

“Still can’t get a date?” InuYasha asked, sniggering as he adjusted his tie. His voice still sounded a little hoarse.

“THAT’S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!”

“STOP-FUCKING-YELLING AT ME!”

“Both of you, shut up,” Kikyo said calmly as she passed them. “And I thought my boyfriend had better taste than to argue with my cousin in the street. Really, InuYasha.”

InuYasha followed his girl like a puppy on a string.

Sango caught the look in Kagome’s eyes.

“He’s not worth your time, Kagome,” she whispered. “If he was, he’d have seen that you’re a little more feeling that Kikyo-dearest. Not that I’m saying anything ab-”

Pause.

“MIROKU, YOU PERVERT!”

He promptly retreated.

---~*~---

I don’t… remember any of this…

I don’t… remember ANY of this...

NOOO!

Kagome’s head went plunk on the test paper.

At the same time, her math grade went flunk.

~~@~~

“So Kagome, how d’you think you did on this test?” Hojo asked, half-trotting to keep up with her as she strode down the hall.

“Oh, the usual. Hey, Hojo, don’t you have a class to get to?” Kagome asked desperately.

“Well, no. I have a free period right now. And you have…?”

“Uhm… Global?” Well, actually, I have lunch, but I-don’t-want-to-eat-with-you!

“Oh.” Then, “May I walk you there?”

…No?

“Sure, Hojo.”

They walked to the tune of Hojo’s incessant chattering. Kagome nodded and chipped in once in a while, but… lord, it sounded a lot like he was simply talking out of nervousness.

“So, Kagome, I don’t mean to pry, but I was just kind of wondering. Do you have a date to the-”

“Oh, the class just started! Ask me later, okay, Hojo? Bye!” Kagome ducked into the Global Studies classroom, breathing her relief.

And blinked.

---+---

“Stupid, stupid, stupid, STUPID!”

With each repetition of the word, Kagome banged her head on the lunch table. Sango tried to restrain her cousin to no avail. Once the girl was set on something (not to mention something self-destructive), it was impossible to stop her.

“Eh, wench, trying to make yourself uglier than you already are?”

“InuYasha!” Sango warned. “Don’t you have something else to do this period?”

The amber-eyed young man ran to his English class.

“Kagome, will you please tell me what happened?” Sango pleaded.

“Noooo… I’m so stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid!”

---^---

“So, Kagome, what happened?” Kaede asked soothingly.

“Well, see Hojo had a free and I didn’t want him to eat lunch with me so I told him I had to go to Global but he wanted to walk me there so I let him and then we got to the Global classroom and I told him that the class had already started so I ran in and there was a class actually in there and Sesshoumaru, that evil conniving evil-person was doing some presentation and I walked in on the middle of it and half of the senior class was there staring at me like I was some kind of a mor-”

Kagome stopped short in the middle (or rather, the middle of the end) of her rant.

“Wait. Kaede. You were there.”

“Ah… Yes, I was. I just thought that talking about it might calm you down, dear.”

“CALM ME DOWN?! MY LIFE IS OVER!”

Sango sighed.

“Dude, I’ve done worse stuff than that.”

“Oh, yeah? Tell me about one,” Kagome challenged.

Pause.

“Well, I can’t think of anything right now, but just wait! I’ll come up with-with something.”

Down went Kagome’s head into her arms.

“SOCIAL SUICIDE SUCKS!”

“Triple S,” some insignificant nerd said. “Damn straight, girl.”

“Mind your own beeswax,” Kaede admonished, patting her cousin on the back. “Now, tell me, why do you care so much? Or rather, why do you refer to Sesshoumaru as ‘that evil conniving evil-person’?”

“Because I know-I know that he’s going to tell InuYasha and then InuYasha’s going to tease me or, like, not even SPEAK to me because I’m such a loser!”

“But Sesshoumaru denies that he’s InuYasha’s brother. I highly doubt that they speak often, if at all.”

Pause.

“Oh.” But… “But he’ll still hear about it!”

---^*^---

Walking home was not a lonely affair.

Damn it, too.

InuYasha and Kikyo were acting lovey-dovey (or about as lovey-dovey as they could get) and Sango and Miroku were playing that touch-and-slap game that they seemed to find oh-so-kinky. Kaede had gone home with Totosai (in his brown junkbucket car, The Three-Eyed Cow) which equaled one less person, but for once, the all-mighty Sesshoumaru Taisho had decided to walk home with them (something about Jaken needing to get all of the cars in for inspection…).

With Onigumo Naraku in tow, of course.

And of course, they were the leaders of the pack.

“Oh, hey Kagome!”

Speaking of leaders of the pack.

“Kouga…”

Noooo…

“Kouga! Touch Kagome and DIE!”

“Ooh, like I’m gonna listen to you!”

“Your petty rivalry is disgusting,” Kikyo commented, and walked away.

Tug, tug went InuYasha’s ever shortening leash.

“Grrr…”

“‘Grrr’ yourself, dog-boy.”

“THAT’S IT!”

The spectators shook their heads and walked away, including Kagome.

The Great Sesshoumaru was on the verge of rolling his eyes.

“That boy disgraces my family name with such poor fighting skills,” he commented quietly to Onigumo.

“So I see,” his dark-haired companion said quietly. “Though, I can see why he feels the need to be so overprotective of… Kagome, is it? Pretty little thing.”

Sesshoumaru really did roll his eyes this time.

“InuYasha already has a woman-does he really need a girl?”

Onigumo said nothing.

"One can never have too many concumbines," he murmured quietly. Sesshoumaru glanced at Onigumo sharply.

“Hey, where’d my woman go? Oh, Kagome! I heard that your school had a winter dance coming up. All you had to do was ask. I’ll come as your date,” Kouga finished, attempting to end his rather short monologue on a sexy note.

“Uhm, well… See… Er…”

“The dance is for students of our school only,” Sango said firmly. “Too bad.”

---~---

“Kagome…” Sango sighed.

“Kagome, why can’t you just stick up for yourself?” Kikyo stated bluntly, taking a bite out of her low-fat, low-cal, low-carb doughnut hole. “Don’t get other people to do your dirty work for you.”

“Kikyo!”

“What? She needs a little kick in the ass sometimes and I seem to be the only person worthy of giving it to her. And stop glaring at me, you little brat. I’m right and you know it.”

And she was.

“But how am I supposed to stick up for myself?” Kagome groaned into her non-low-fat, non-low-cal, non-low-carb double chocolate fudge doughnut with Boston crème inside.

“God, I can’t sit around you, Kagome. That thing in your hand and mouth is just disgusting. Have you any clue how fat you’re going to get if you insist on consuming that crap?” Kikyo muttered, and went into her living room to see what the Hell InuYasha was up to.

Kagome looked thoughtfully at her doughnut.

Then up at Kikyo’s retreating back.

And back at the doughnut.

“Hey, wench, got anymore of those crap doughnuts Kikyo hates?” InuYasha asked, poking his head into the kitchen.

No response.

“Hey, wench! WENCH! BITCH!” Then, “Ka-go-me? He-lloooo?”

Plop!

InuYasha snarled as he wiped the Boston crème and fudge icing off his face and his shirt.

“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!”

Kagome paid no heed to a frantically waving Sango.

“That was for-for-for… stuff!”

“Wonderful speech,” he said sarcastically. “Reject. You’ll pay for that.”

“Oh, yeah? How?”

~^*^~

They ogled at the receipt.

“What?!”

The lady behind the counter nodded, smiling.

“WHAT?!”

---#---

“I didn’t know dry-cleaning was that much!” Kagome exclaimed, beyond panicked.

“Dude… I think InuYasha slipped a couple of bucks to that lady just to charge us more, ‘cause it couldn’t have been that much.”

“And-and Mom doesn’t believe in allowance! I’m broke, Sango! How in Hell am I supposed to get something to wear for the dance?!”

Sango sighed, lying back on her cousin’s bed, careful not to wrinkle InuYasha’s dry cleaned shirt.

“We’ll figure out a way. Hell, I’m broke, too. And Kaede doesn’t believe in loans. ‘You have to earn everything for yourself,’ she says.”

“Should we ask Kikyo?”

As soon as she said that, Kagome dismissed it.

“No way,” the two 15-year-olds said in unison.

~~~(0)~~~

“If I could find you now, things would get better.”

So there Kagome Higurashi was. Once again wondering about her One and Only True Love.

Wouldn’t it be funny if her Mr. Perfect was right under her nose?

If he was, dammit, he’d better come out of hiding sometime before that stupid winter dance. Maybe then she’d be able to stick up for herself and… stuff.

But until then, her Mr. Perfect was, well, Mr. Invisible.

{~*~}

Author’s Space:

Thank you for reading. Review/ flame/ rant/ critique. I'll have the next chapter up ASAP.

I warn you, this is a "Setting? What setting?" story. Meaning, I couldn't decide where in hell this took place. Ha?

As a future warning, this will be a semi-Gravitation crossover. It's minimal, though, and if you don't know anything about Gravi, it's okay -- I'll explain what you need.

Love for always,

icephoenixtohma