InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Clumsy ❯ Of Boys and Their Quirks ( Chapter 9 )

Clumsy

Author's Notes: I don't know if it's mentioned before this chapter, I've decided they're going to do the "Nutcracker." Unfortunately that's Russian- not Japanese but information on ballets is extremely thin. I've actually been to the Nutcracker so it was a logical choice for me. However it's an not such a great choice because I can't remember the details about it and information is difficult to acquire in means of details. I've found 3 or 4 different adaptations of the "Nutcracker" so if it differs from one you've seen or heard about it, that's why. I've done my best to piece together one version.

You can ignore the little -Tuesday, -Wednesday, etc marks. Those are for me to keep track and I thought it was just as well to leave them in. ^_^

Act Nine: Of Boys and Their Quirks

-Tuesday

She liked it, she determined. Although given the choice she probably wouldn't have chosen a book by Edgar Allen Poe to read, she normally didn't go for the creepy mysteries or murder stories. Nonetheless it seemed to match Sesshoumaru well enough and she could understand how he would enjoy it.

She held the book in hand, she would return it at the earliest opportunity, but she wasn't going to take it to his house. She hadn't seen much of him over the last two days. Her life had returned pretty much to normal. It was now late Tuesday afternoon and her practice at Inutaisho's had ended early on account of the weather.

He didn't want the girls to have to walk home in the cold and snow. Of course it hadn't had much effect on her. Here she was walking toward the park. It wasn't actually snowing, but it was projected to snow and it certainly was cold enough for it. She shivered in the frigid air but didn't turn back.

Truth be told she didn't know why she was going to the park in the first place. She didn't have plans to meet anyone there or to do anything. The book in her pocket, she'd already read through, the stories were still fresh in her memory. So, why was she going there?

Although, she reasoned, she hadn't been there in a long while and she did enjoy it. She was regretful suddenly that she hadn't invited Souta. The walk seemed long and with the cold it seemed more forlorn than it would have normally. Not many people were out for a casual stroll in this weather, the sensible thing to do was to stay home where you were warm.

Later this week they would hold the final round of auditions for the play and then immediately rehearsals would begin. Inutaisho hated to loose time. Kagome had auditioned twice already but was scheduled for a third time with a few other girls in competition for the lead part of the play they were performing. She'd doubted she'd get but tried anyway.

She was walking along, looking straight ahead to avoid the brisk wind and hardly noticed the things around her. She was so caught up it almost escaped her she had reached her destination. She walked along, staring straight ahead mindless of the things that were out of her direct sight until she heard loud, cheerful laughter. She stopped by the trunk of a large tree and stared across the park lawn toward an old wooden bench.

It looked like Sesshoumaru, or maybe it was Inuyasha she couldn't really tell from looking at the back of his head. It had to be one of the two; no one else she knew had hair that particular shade. It wasn't the person on the bench however that had elicited the shout; it was the young girl beyond the bench running around in wide, joyful circles making piercing exclamations of happiness. It had finally begun to snow and she seemed to be thoroughly enjoying it.

Now that she got a good look at her, it looks suspiciously like that girl Rin who she'd met just recently at the studio. Kagome smiled to herself and turned to continue walking leaving the girl and the young man on the bench alone again.

She followed the path that led you around the park in a loopy circle. She wasn't in a rush to go anywhere or to do anything and enjoyed the general waste of time that she was spending.

It was nice to be alone sometimes, but she should've been at home with her grandfather. She was supposed to be practicing her archery. Archery wasn't one of her favorite activities but she was fairly decent at it. It was part of her duties as learning to be a miko at the shrine, although she didn't enjoy that either.

"Kagome!"

She glanced around, who was calling her? The sound of heavy footfalls drew her attention to the path behind her.

"Ah, I knew it was you!" Kouga exclaimed triumphantly. "Why aren't you dancing or whatever?"

"My teacher canceled it,"

There was a short pause.

"I can't believe you spend time with that looser,"

"Excuse me?" she hesitated. "Oh, you're talking about Inuyasha. I actually don't spend too much time with him."

He hardly seemed to hear. "There's an archery tournament this weekend, I signed you up, so you'll go with me," he stated in his gruff, brash manner.

"WHAT?" she all but snarled at him. "YOU DID WHAT? How do you even know I can shoot a bow?"

"I saw you," he replied indifferently. "I have complete confidence in you, you're my girl after all!" he grinned boldly, wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her against him.

She shoved him away violently, but he didn't seem bothered.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Back up! What's this 'I saw you' stuff? I don't practice archery outside of the shrine and… you were sneaking around the shrine?"

"I wasn't sneaking!" he replied and crossed his arms in a huff. "I climbed the tree in your back yard to get a better look around, trying to find you and then you came out with some old guy and starting shooting arrows."

She quivered in her anger, face turning a delicate pink, hands closed in clenched fists. "IDIOT! How dare you!" she pointed and shouted loudly, not caring if someone was watching them or if she were disturbing anyone in the park, however unlikely.

He shrugged. "Didn't think you'd mind,"

"Ahhh!" she turned with sharply and stomped off but he skipped after her.

"Hey, you're not really mad are you? I'm sure you can win,"

She ignored him.

"So… you're still gonna come then right?" he didn't wait for a reply. "That's great! I'll come by the Shrine and we'll go together. We can have lunch!"

They were fast approaching the exit. He dashed ahead and waved wildly to her.

"Bye Kagome, see you Saturday!" he yelled loud enough to tell the whole park including the girl and man on the bench who both looked in their direction.

Kagome growled to herself watching him go before glancing around. She groaned again seeing it was Sesshoumaru on the bench and the little girl behind him was waving at her.

She waved back, and Sesshoumaru peered behind him to see who she was waving at and saw Rin smiling and laughing. The girl ran around the bench and toward her.

"Kagome!"

She hugged her quickly and it surprised Kagome how quickly the girl attached herself to people. Kagome didn't ask why she was here with Sesshoumaru but instead listened as the girl bubbled on about the lack of flowers. At the first opening Kagome asked her how dance was and she brightened impossibly further.

"Come on and sit with Sesshoumaru! Rin will dance for you,"

Kagome allowed herself to be dragged toward the bench and sat down at the opposite end, smiling positively at the girl.

"Rin is going to dance for Sesshoumaru and Kagome," she announced.

Kagome watched as the girl performed some familiar basic stepped that blurred with moves and spins that only Rin knew the origin of. Kagome concluded it was over when Rin fell down dizzy from the tight circle was spinning in, and clapped.

"Was that the end?" she asked just to make sure.

Rin shook her head in agreement, probably not having the balance to start again.

"That was really good. Do you like dancing?"

"Rin loves to dance!" she grinned. "And pick flowers," she added as an afterthought.

Kagome stood up. "You did really good Rin. I have to go but I'll see you again okay?"

She pouted. "Do you have to?"

Kagome nodded regretfully. "I have practicing to do,"

"Don't you practice enough?" Sesshoumaru's curt question interrupted their little tête-à-tête.

"It's not for ballet," she announced meeting his gaze. "Oh! Here," she pulled the small book out of her pocket and handed it to him. He looked momentarily surprised to see it as it took the book. "Interesting book,"

"You read it?" he seemed not to believe her.

"Of course I did and liked it!" She felt like adding 'so there!' but didn't. "Why are you going to quiz me about it's content?"

He raised an eyebrow but otherwise ignored the fact she'd said anything.

"Well! I better go. You're here with Sesshoumaru, aren't you?"

The girl replied that she was.

"Then I am interrupting your quality time together. I'll see you later Rin. Thanks for letting me borrow the book Sesshoumaru; we can discuss it later. Next time you should borrow one of my books."

Rin waved as dramatically as Kouga had and Sesshoumaru wasn't even turned in her direction as she left.

~X~

-Wednesday

"You will never guess what happened to me yesterday!"

Sango looked up at the distressed statement and smiled at Kagome. Such emphatic remarks seemed to open every one of their conversations. "Well tell me about it while we walk, I have to drop something off,"

They began walking, and turned up a stairwell up to the second floor. Although curious why they were going up there Kagome didn't ask.

"You know Kouga? That guy with the dark hair, kind of long who's always arguing with Inuyasha?"

"The guy who calls you 'his girl' and all his friends call you 'their sister'? That guy?"

"Yeah, that's the one. He signed me up at an archery tournament this weekend,"

"Sounds nice, you should go,"

"What? Are you two conspiring together?" she huffed. "He admitted the climbing a tree in my backyard watching me practice,"

"It could've been worse Kagome, he could've been looking into your bedroom. That's on the second floor isn't it?"

She gasped. "I didn't even think of that!" she was quick to recover. "But it's not the point!"

Sango smiled at her. "He thinks you're good enough to compete in a tournament Kagome, take it as a compliment,"

Kagome looked at her dryly. "Obviously you don't Kouga well enough. It has less to do with my skill as an archer as it does having me go somewhere with him. He's just like Miroku without the perverted reputation,"

Sango sighed. "Miroku is rather 'hands-on' isn't he? Has he… you know, groped you?"

"No, you?"

The other frowned.

"You're kidding!"

Kagome erupted into laughter.

"It's not funny! Sango scolded before stepping into a classroom that was open.

Kagome was waiting alone outside the room when she noticed Sesshoumaru further down the hall at his locker. He was withdrawing books and seemed disinterested in everything else. Pulling the last one out he pushed it closed and moved out the stairwell door to his left and out of sight. Sango stepped back out of the room and promptly picked up their conversation.

"Okay well, back to Kouga. I think you should go, besides it might be fun, right?"

Kagome objected, but in due course agreed. "Maybe you're right. Maybe I should get out more,"

"They announce the parts Monday. You think you'll get the lead?"

"No way… last year I danced in the Sugar Plum Fairy group, I'll probably be there again. How about you?"

"I tried out for the Spanish Solo, you know the one?"

"Vaguely, there isn't much time to actually watch the play when you're in it," she admitted. "Good luck,"

"You too,"

They smiled and headed off to the studio. They were both excited and anxious as they stepped inside. Sesshoumaru had already arrived and was seated behind the front desk, head tilted downward in a new book. His cold gold eyes rose to greet them and just as quickly abandoned them, but Kagome was the only one of the two to notice.

~X~

Ballet that night was dull. Mostly she sat watching the other girls dance individually as they auditioned for Inutaisho. When she left the room that night, she wasn't surprised to see Miroku harassing the dancers again. His eyes brightened as he noticed them.

"Sango, Kagome!"

He walked toward them and Sango quickly ducked into the changing room leaving Kagome alone.

"I … uh… have to change,"

He started to say something but she stepped into the room too beyond his reach.

The entrance door rattled open behind him.

"Hey Miroku! Stop harassing Kagome!"

The boy turned back and waved slightly. "Ah Inuyasha, when did you get here?"

Inuyasha stood in the doorway with a glare.

"Might I ask where the lovely Kikyo has gotten to?" he asked distractedly.

"She's not here, idiot. She stayed home to practice her archery,"

"Archery? Really, I didn't know that. Is she good?"

"Keh, how should I know?"

"Did you say archery?" Kagome suddenly stepped out having just pulled some warm clothes over her leotard. She walked down the hall passing through the girls and their mothers. Sango passed by her mumbling her good-byes in a rush to meet her brother Kohaku. "Is Kikyo an archer?"

"She grew up at some kind of shrine," he replied absently.

Kagome gasped. "Really? Is she participating in an archery competition this weekend?" She walked just past the front desk, but didn't look back to see if Sesshoumaru was there, the matter currently slipping her mind.

Inuyasha turned a serious gaze toward her. "How did you know about that?"

"Well because I'm going with Kouga on Saturday,"

"K-Kouga? You're going with Kouga?!" he crossed his arms suddenly, glaring at her. "Keh! You probably can't shoot a bow anyway,"

She huffed. "I can go out with whomever I want to. So what are you gonna do about it?" she asked smugly.

"Oh yeah? What if I knock out all his teeth? Gonna go out with him then?"

"Like you coul-"

"Hey!" Both froze in their tracks at the scolding male shout. They both turned fearfully and found Inutaisho glaring at them. "Kagome you should be getting home, Inuyasha you have schoolwork to be making up!"

They both agreed and submitted as Inutaisho retreated out of sight.

Kagome stepped past him. "Jerk!"

"Idiot!"

He stuck his tongue out at her and she glared. "You're so immature!"

"Eh? Hey, wait a minute! I'm immature, it's half your fault!" he shouted after her but she kept walking.

"Inuyasha!"

He peered around, and found Sesshoumaru was glaring at him. "Didn't father tell you to do something?"

"Yes, yes, I'm going!" he brushed his brother off, stalking back out the studio doors, half wanting to track down Kagome. He was caught between asking her what possessed her to go anywhere with that dumb jerk face Kouga and the other half wanted to yell at her till she dumped him and their date.

But, Inuyasha thought evilly, he was going to that tournament with Kikyo, he'd keep an eye on her! He wasn't about to let the dirty pervert to touch Kagome! She deserved better, and if she didn't want him he'd be damned if she was going to end up with a jerk like Kouga.

~X~

Closing Notes: Okay, that's it. I've been a little busy and a little anxious for the past week or so after my mother 'volunteered' me to work at the polling place on Nov. 5.

I didn't revise this chapter (I don't think) so please excuse any grammatical errors. It's entirely possible that chapter 9 will be rewritten and replaced. I already rewrote this chapter once and this version is amazingly different from the first.

I wasn't feeling very well and I've really caught a snag with chapter 10, so if anyone has any suggestions. I can assure you I am very interested. I've been stuck for a while as to what to do with Sesshoumaru and Kagome...

By the way, thank you to everyone who reviewed this story so far. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading people's comments on it. ^_^