InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Dead Famous ❯ The Guest List... ( Chapter 30 )

Author's Notes: Sorry about the long delay, but I had a little unforeseen disaster. I got locked out of the house on Monday and spent seven hours (11am - 6pm, roughly) sitting on a bench in the park with no phone, no keys and no decent neighbours to give me a hand… I also had a dog that kept fainting on me (get's tired very easily, poor thing). The weather right now can rival that of the Antarctic, I swear, so naturally by the next day I had a horrible cold that I'm still recovering from a week later. My mother's in Arizona and my Dad is off working for most of the daylight hours (either that or he's having another affair ¬_¬;;) so I have no one to pamper me and bring me food and chocolate.

It's been a struggle, but I'm back at last with a new chapter. Though be warned… in a few weeks (bang on the Easter holidays) I'll be heading off to Arizona myself to spend time with my grandmother so updating will stop for two or three weeks while I'm gone (grandma had a run-in with the FBI involving drugs… that woman needs 24 hour care). But that also means I'll miss my Birthday T_T (Easter Monday). But I promise to try and have Dead Famous finished by then (along with Bottled Genius and Life Exchange)

Life really sucks… unless I catch a few dubbed episodes of Inuyasha on Cartoon Network while I'm in America. In which case life won't be so sucky! Viz doesn't have the licensing rights to distribute the anime into England so you'd never be able to go to any shop in this country and get a book or DVD of Inuyasha - we've never had Inuyasha on Tv and we never will! So believe me when I say I'm looking forward to just turning on the Tv in Arizona and getting a free Inuyasha episode ^__^

Dead Famous

Chapter 30

The Guest List…

"Good morning, honey." Mrs Higurashi greeted her daughter as she came down the stairs the next morning. "How did you sleep?"

"Not well…" Kagome said groggily as she sat down at the kitchen table. She was still in her pyjamas, but then again, so was her brother. He was sat opposite her, wolfing down his breakfast while reading the back of the cereal box, kicking his feet against his chair in time with a rhythm only he could hear. Grandpa was there as well, reading the Sunday paper and wearing his usual shrine togs. Kagome vaguely wondered if he ever took them off.

"I woke up this morning…" Kagome informed them all, breaking off momentarily to stifle a yawn. "… and I thought I was still in the villa 'till I opened my eyes…"

"That's not too strange, dear." Mrs Higurashi planted a cup of orange juice down in front of her daughter. "You've had a rough week - it's no wonder you're disorientated."

Kagome yawned again as she reached for her juice. "I've had enough excitement for one week… I just want to settle down and have a normal day for once."

"No luck there, sis." Souta pushed his cereal box aside to look at his sister. "Someone called Sango rang a little while ago."

"Sango?" Kagome cocked her head. "It wasn't anything about a hanky, was it?"

"Nope." Souta shrugged, still kicking his feet. "Something about a party, I think."

"A what?" She frowned at her younger brother.

Mrs Higurashi came over with Kagome's breakfast: two slices of toast. "That's what she said. Party starts at six o'clock and you're allowed to bring three friends."

Kagome stared at her mother in surprise. "At the villa? Tonight?"

"Yes." Mrs Higurashi smiled cheerily at her.

"And you're ok with that?"

"Oh, I don't mind you going for one little party… as long as you bring Yuka, Eri and Ayumi to look after you."

"Hey!" Souta cried indignantly. "What about me?"

"What about you?" His mother blinked at him innocently. "You're too young to go to a house party."

"She's right." Kagome added, joining her mother's patronisingly adult tone. Then she suddenly realised something. "What? Wait, house party?"

"Mm hm." Her mother nodded. "Maybe now you can wear that pink dress you were telling me about last night?"

~*~

Inuyasha was beginning to break a sweat by the second circuit of the villa grounds. It was probably too hot outside to be going for such a hard run, but he didn't want to hang around the gym. Kikyo was in the middle of organising the party, and on such short notice she was working herself harder than usual - winding herself tautly with stress.

It was probably best to keep out of Kikyo's way at all costs. A wound-up Kikyo was a ticking time bomb.

But by the time he'd passed the pond on the third lap, he was beginning to get a little bored and overheated from running so hard for so long. Bess was keeping him on his toes, galloping off ahead of him and forcing him to keep pace of risk getting left behind. In her mind, she probably thought that she was taking him for a run.

He stopped for a moment to catch his breath and pull the shirt off over his head to tie around his waist.

"One, two, three - DIVE!"

Inuyasha straightened up a little to squint behind him at the distant pond.

The previously clear surface had now been broken with choppy waves and three little boys - one with a pot still glued to his head.

How long had they been underwater for?

"What the hell are you doing?" Inuyasha called out to them.

"Playing submarines!" two of them called back as they attempted to hold the third brother under the water. Inuyasha hazarded a guess that Jiro's casserole pot was acting as the submarine with the pocket of air beneath to keep him breathing underwater… for a few seconds at least.

"That's cute." Inuyasha said flatly as he watched his nephews frolic in their rather malevolent way. He mooched back to the pond and squatted down at the water's edge, nonchalantly drawing a slightly crumpled cigarette out of his pocket as he did so.

The moment he flicked on the lighter, all three triplets stopped their floundering and looked over. Like moths to a flame, they came paddling over - Jiro and his pot in tow. "Didn't Kikyo say that you were supposed to be quitting the fags?" Mo piped as he drew near.

"Whatever gave you that idea?" Inuyasha glanced over as he spotted Bess come trundling back towards the pond, obviously disgruntled that he was holding back their progress. "Haven't you got that pot off Hiko's head, yet?"

"My name is Jiro." said a disembodied voice from under his pot.

Inuyasha quickly flicked a glance at the other two triplets, making a mental check of the little moon symbols on their foreheads. "Just keeping you on your toes." he said after deciding that perhaps the triplet was right.

"Uncle Inu?" Mo asked sweetly in the voice all children used when they were about to ask for something.

"What?" Inuyasha skewed a suspicious look at him.

"Can I have a cigarette?"

"Sure." Inuyasha began reaching for his pocket, then quickly froze. "Wait - how old are you guys?"

"Mo's thirteen, I'm fourteen and Jiro's fifteen." said Hiko.

"Not till you're sixteen or your dad will try and flush my head down the toilet again." Inuyasha told them, flicking ash from the end of his cigarette into the grass beside him. Bess snuffled at it eagerly. "So what do you want to smoke for?"

"Dad…" Hiko sighed.

Inuyasha scowled. "What's that about?"

"Things got weird…" Jiro's muffled voice said. "Dad doesn't seem to care about what we do anymore."

Hiko scowled as he clung to the tufts of grassy on the pond's edge. "He's letting us get away with murder… why isn't he bossing us around like normal?"

Inuyasha shrugged. "Maybe he doesn't love you anymore." He distractedly blew a thin cloud of smoke into the air above him.

"That's what we thought. Like maybe he'd forgotten about us." Mo said. "So if we smoke, maybe he'd remember to boss us around again? It's kinda creepy that he doesn't care."

Inuyasha sighed and stubbed the last of his cigarette into the ground before slinging his free arm around Bess' neck. "Smoking is bad for you and it will make you die a horrible and painful death." He said drolly, quoting Kikyo's exact wording. "So not till you're sixteen."

"Nuts…" the three boys tutted angrily and glowered moodily under lowered brows.

Inuyasha smiled patronisingly and patted each one in turn on the head or in Jiro's case, the underside of the casserole pot. "Don't stress it. Just have fun at the party tonight…" he winked conspiratorially at them. "If you know what I mean…?"

An expression of surprise, then delight graced the boys' expressions. Jiro nudged Hiko. "Did he just wink at us?"

"Yes."

"So are we gonna trash the party?"

"Yes."

"And that will get Dad to punish us like he usually does?"

"Yes."

"Oh good?"

Inuyasha smirked and got to his feet. "Plan well, stooges." He patted his thigh and clicked his tongue. "Come on, Bess!" He left the triplets to start conniving a deadly plan as he set off on another trip across the gardens.

It didn't really bother him if the triplets ruined the party or not. As long as Kikyo didn't link it back to him, then all would be well. He wasn't particularly looking forward to the hoards of people who would be arriving in just a few hours, when all he wanted to do was put his feet up and have a good night's sleep. He was still tired from yesterday and his arm had only just finished healing. A small scar marked the entry of the bullet, but other than that he was back to perfect health.

That still didn't mean he felt like greeting and meeting over a thousand people that night.

Of course… there was just one consolation.

Kagome would be coming, too.

Somehow, just the thought of seeing one familiar face in that sea of thousands of strangers was oddly comforting. She wouldn't be gushing over him, showering him with praise or sympathy for the ordeal he just went through. She'd probably just treat him like she usually did…

Now that was something to look forward to.

~*~

Kagome sighed as she held up her hand to regard the ring on her thumb. The polished silver caught the light of the street lamps that flicked past the limo window at short intervals, making the etched out figure of the woman seem like it was moving. The orange glow from the lamps gave the little stone an strange tint.

Vaguely she wondered if she was looking at a brand new colour of the spectrum.

"I can't believe this! I can't believe this! I can't believe this!" Eri was beside herself with excitement, as were Yuka and Ayumi. Every now and then Ayumi would burst out with sporadic fits of giggles and squeals whereas Yuka was more likely to just grin very happily at anyone or anything that moved inside or outside of the limo.

They could only be a couple of minutes away from the villa, and every second that passed mounted the tension and excitement even further.

So far everything was going to plan. The limo had arrived to pick Kagome and her friends up from the shrine to be taken to the party. As planned, Kagome had chosen to wear the pink dress and matching shoes. It wasn't anything as elaborate as the red dress that had once belonged to Inuyasha's mother, but it was simple and cute. Pink ribbons trailed the apex of the v-neck and from the ends of her cropped sleeves. It was more Kagome's style than any of the other dresses she'd been forced to wear over the past two weeks.

But the blue ring was beginning to weigh on her mind.

Kagome wasn't so convinced that the stone was a diamond, let alone a blue one. To her, it looked like an ordinary sapphire, like the fairly cheap ones she saw in the jewellers shop in town. But then again, she'd done her research that afternoon.

As it turned out, the library had a whole section dedicated to rocks. Pink diamonds were rarest according to the book, white were most common, and the intensity of blue diamonds could range from a faint blue tinge to a strong blue. But no matter how much Kagome had stared at the pictures of the blue diamonds and the gem on her thumb, she couldn't begin to tell if she was really looking at the same type of rock.

Aside from that, she wasn't sure how she should feel about Inuyasha giving her such a treasured piece of inheritance. If it really was a diamond that would only make her feel worse.

It felt like stealing.

"I think I can see it!" Ayumi suddenly screeched, making Kagome start in her seat. Looking out the window she recognised the distant villa on the cliff, flooded with lights as it usually was at night time.

For some reason, Kagome was getting butterflies.

What's the matter with me?

Was she really that nervous about seeing Inuyasha? Maybe it was because she was subconsciously worried about his reaction to the theft of his underwear…?

"Maybe tonight's a good night to ask him if it's a diamond?" Yuka whispered to Kagome.

"What? Oh… maybe." Kagome glanced down at the ring and twisted it around her thumb distractedly, chewing her lip in deep thought.

The usual hopeful gatecrashers were hanging around when they arrived at the entrance. Obviously, the screaming fans gathered around the gates hadn't had an invite but had decided to come along anyway. Kagome doubted they would manage to slip past security after all the effort Kikyo had put into strengthening it.

"Cool! We have fans!" Eri chirped as she waved to the screaming people beside the limo.

"They're not our fans - they're someone else's!" Kagome cried in exasperation, willing the gates to open just a little bit faster so they could escape all the camera flashes and screaming people. "They probably think we're Joi Ito or something."

"Why, is she coming?" Yuka demanded, hungry for more famous people to meet.

"I don't know. Maybe."

Finally, the limo was waved through the gates by the standby security guards and away they went down the narrow driveway that seemed to stretch a whole mile.

Eri had gone back to chanting "I can't believe it" and Yuka was back to grinning rather maniacally. Ayumi was giggling again.

Kagome had never realised how fangirl-ish her friends were. This was exactly how Inuyasha expected everyone to treat him… no wonder he'd been so shocked when she'd turned on him in the beginning and decided to dislike him. It wasn't that she regretted it or anything; Inuyasha was still pretty much a jerk. At least he was a jerk who was a little nicer to her personally…

Now if she had any financial difficulties later on in life, she knew who to turn to.

The villa drew nearer and Kagome's butterflies increased in number. It was only then that she was actually worried about her friends meeting Inuyasha. What would they say? Would they embarrass themselves or just embarrass Kagome? What would Inuyasha think of her to hang around with such fangirls. They were nice girls… but around rich, famous and good-looking teen icons, they tended to lose their heads a bit…

It was too late to ask the driver to turn around now. They were already pulling up into the main plateau-like driveway in front of the villa.

The multitude of other limos in the driveway was astounding… Kagome hadn't realised just how many stretch vehicles could fit in there. There were already people getting out their limos - women and girls wearing stunning and highly fashionable clothes from top designers and men ranging from old to young who were dressed in casually smart clothes.

Kagome was, once more, feeling rather overwhelmed and insignificant.

Her friends, on the other hand, seemed to feel over the moon.

"Come on! Come on!"

"Let's get inside!"

"I can't wait to meet him!"

"And everyone else!"

They didn't bother waiting for the driver to get out and open the door for them since patience was none of their virtues. Ayumi haphazardly threw the door open and the girls scrambled out one after another. Yuka grabbed Kagome's arm at the last minute, making sure to drag the reluctant girl with her. "We're not leaving you behind, Kagome." She winked.

Kagome just remained tense as her friends pulled her along, weaving their way between limousines, Porsches and several other expensive cars designed for the rich and famous.

Kagome didn't recognise the people around her who were moving in the general direction of the wide open front doors. Neither did her friends, otherwise they would have been stopping to get an autograph. Instead, they made a beeline straight for the steps, scurrying up them as fast as possible, only to be halted by the bouncer of sorts.

"Name?" Miroku asked with a hint of a poorly suppressed grin.

Kagome rolled her eyes. "Don't act like you don't know."

"Kagome Higurashi, isn't it?" Miroku smiled; the epitome of male charm. He ticked off her name on the list in his hands. "And the names of your three guests?"

"Yuka, Eri and Ayumi." Kagome pointed to each in turn.

"And their phone numbers?"

The girls giggled in amusement, probably thinking he was joking. Kagome knew better and quickly ushered them past Miroku and into the villa. The less they knew of Miroku the better. Now all she had to do was to try and separate herself from her friends before they crossed paths with a certain white-haired superstar.

~*~

"Yep, you're on the list, in you go."

"Thank you."

Miroku smiled as he let the rather lovely Joi Ito inside. If Kikyo hadn't warned him that Inuyasha had first priority to her, he would have asked for her number, too. Not that it mattered, since he already had someone else in mind…

But she hadn't arrived yet according to his list.

"How's it going?" Sango asked as she appeared beside him. "The place is practically bursting at the seams… there can't be many more people coming, right?" She sounded tired and drained already.

"Still got about fifty guests pending." Miroku estimated, eyeing his clipboard. "But it's not guaranteed that they'll show. Sometimes they drop out at the last minute."

"Good!" Sango said, folding her arms. "We already have more than four thousand people in this place and they all seem to be in the classic room."

"Make sure they don't steal anything from in there." Miroku flicked through the list to one name in particular. "Man… I sure hope Jacky Tai turns up tonight…"

"Who?" Sango asked in a slightly shrewdly, leaning over to look at the name. "Who's she?"

"The woman I'm going to marry."

Sango stared at him dryly. "Oh? Have you even met her yet?"

"No. But that's not important." Miroku said flippantly. "She's the perfect woman for me! When Kikyo gave me the guest list, I checked out her name and you know what?"

She sighed. "What?"

"She owns a seventh of the chain of those crystal restaurants that everyone's raving about! I bet she makes a mint! She's single, rich, not too famous and likes Dido. We're soul mates, I know it."

"Right. Sure." Sango turned to go back inside. "But when she turns up with wrinkles a couple of harelips don't come running to me."

"I bet she's gorgeous." Miroku chortled. "I won't be running anywhere except into her arms."

A shadow fell across him and he looked up.

An astoundingly leggy, fantastically blonde woman stood before him. Eight feet of leg and a head on top, real model material. She wore a purple dress that swept the steps behind her and a pair of dark yellow shades that hid her eyes. "Kojin Adia." She announced herself.

A shame she wasn't Jacky Tai because Miroku was sure that this girl could be his soul mate, too. "Kojin…" He ran a finger down the list. "Oh yes. Go right inside."

"Thank you so much." She smiled and went on ahead.

~*~

It had been easier to lose her friends than she'd thought. The moment they had spotted their favourite actor from their favourite soap opera, they'd dashed off to get an autograph, leaving Kagome with the perfect opportunity to slip away. She'd half-heartedly been searching for Inuyasha, but with the multitude of people now swamping the villa, she had no idea where to begin.

She was too distracted by all the famous and familiar faces she saw around her.

For some reason, she wound up in the classic room. Kagome looked around for a moment, trying to pick out a white haired guy among the dozens of multicolour she saw. A woman over by the window had bright red hair and two silver haired gentlemen were chatting away by the glass cabinet of awards and trophies. But Kagome didn't spot her Inuyasha and sighed in defeat.

Looking around, she also noticed how fake everything seemed. Nearly everyone who was smiling wasn't really smiling. After Miroku's tutoring on how to give the most genuine smile, she could easily pick out who was just wearing a pleasant mask. Barely anyone's smile reached their eyes…

People were all making an effort to dress in the most noticeable and sometimes downright weird ways to be the centre of attention. The few people who had established their place at the top of this food chain were plain to see… and it was equally plain to see the people trying to suck up to them.

Fame and riches were fickle and it was obvious that everyone in the room was making a real effort to come out on top.

This wasn't so much of a party than an ultra polite game of politics. One wrong step and you could fall off the edge into disaster, but success was apparently worth the risk.

Kagome couldn't even contemplate wanting to live like this…

Forcing a child like Inuyasha into such an existence… no wonder he'd already tried to commit suicide before age twelve.

"Excuse me, are you Kagome Higurashi?" A young woman with purple streaks in her hair caught Kagome's arm.

"Uh… yes." she answered uncertainly. Somehow she doubted that she would ever get used to complete strangers knowing her name.

"Oh hi! I'm Tsuki Hirata, I'm from 'A Song and a Prayer'."

Great. Another soap star actress.

"Oh hi…"

"You're the girl who won the competition, aren't you?" The girl was obviously pitching herself to get a conversation out of Kagome. "I entered that competition, you know."

"Really?" Kagome tried to sound interested.

"Who didn't? Did you know that your chances of winning the lottery were much better?" The actress smiled. "Maybe you should invest in a couple of lottery tickets?"

"Maybe."

"Hey, Daisuke!" the actress called out to some guy across the room. "Look who's here!"

"Oh, Kagome Higurashi, isn't it?" The guy wandered over.

Kagome seriously wanted to slink off and find Inuyasha, but it was too late. She was trapped now.

"So you spent two weeks with Inuyasha - what was that like?"

"Getting kidnapped? What was that like?"

"Why did you come back for a second week? I thought you were only meant to stay for seven days?"

"How did you escape from the kidnappers?"

"Is it true that Inuyasha actually killed someone?"

More and more people were coming over and no sooner had Kagome entered the room than she was suddenly the centre of attention.

It was extremely uncomfortable.

Despite being under scrutiny, she managed to hold up well enough, answering all the questions that were fired at her and laughing politely at a few of their jokes. Fortunately, she couldn't be topic of conversation all night, especially among such vain narcissists. Eventually the subjects changed…

"This really is a beautiful room, don't you think, Kagome-chan?" the actress whose name Kagome had forgotten asked her.

"Sure is." she replied, looking longingly at the door.

"You know what would really spark up this atmosphere?" The actress wandered away, slipping through the crowds of chattering people who had once been interested in Kagome. "This piano… if someone could play this thing it would really make the life of the party."

"Maybe someone could get Joi Ito down here?" another nameless actor said from nearby.

"No need." Someone drawled from the doorway. "Kagome can play better than her."

Kagome's insides froze as her heart leapt into her throat. Conversation around the room was dwindling to a lull of silence. Ever so slowly she inched around to look behind her.

Inuyasha, of course. A couple of his female groupies had followed him inside. Now he stood only a few metres away, boldly declaring that she could play piano better that the infamous musician Joi Ito.

How did he know that?

"Oh, Inuyasha!" The soap actress with the purple streaks swept forward to greet him. "It's been a while!"

"Sure has, Tacky."

"That's Tsuki." She smiled nonetheless. Kagome couldn't help feel a twitch of annoyance. Why did people take that kind of treatment from him? Just because he was famous didn't give him the right to view everyone as ants.

"Higurashi-san can play piano?" the guy named Daisuke asked.

Kagome groaned inwardly again. Hadn't they forgotten that by now? "I'm not that good…" she responded modestly, trying to dull their interest.

"Of course you are." Inuyasha interrupted before anyone's attention could wander. "I've heard you."

"Let's have a song then!" Tsuki the actress cheered, as did the majority of people in the classic room who were missing some background music.

Kagome felt the panic beginning to well up inside her. She didn't want to play in front of so many people. She'd never played in front of anyone in her life! She was still reeling from shock that Inuyasha had heard her play. How? When? Why hadn't he said anything earlier?

Maybe it was selfish… but she just didn't want to share her songs with anyone. Plus, she was terrified to do so.

"Come on, Kagome-chan! Let's hear what you've got!"

She opened her mouth, lost as of what to do.

"Just one little song, Higurashi."

"I'm sure you play wonderfully - Inuyasha isn't one to hand out compliments so easily."

Hands were guiding her, ushering her towards the grand piano towards the centre of the room. Kagome didn't have the initiative to pull away. She could risk being a total spoil-sport and put her foot down. But she couldn't bring herself to do that, and before she knew it, she was sat down in front of the lines of black and white keys, listening to a distant roaring of blood in her ears.

Inuyasha was behind her. "Go on. Play that song you normally play."

Kagome swallowed hard.

She hated him with every fibre of her being right at that moment.

Shaky fingers reached out towards the keys she normally started off with, but she hesitated. The chatter and cajoling was dying down. Everyone was waiting for the wondrous music that could beat Joi Ito.

She could still back out if she really wanted. She could just pull her hands back and get up and apologise…

But she was already playing.

Inuyasha listened as the usual sweet notes of that familiar tune filled the quiet room. The acoustics were much worse than usual, what with so many people filling the enclosed space. But everyone was listening and the music carried well enough.

It was exactly the same tune that she played in the middle of the night when she thought no one was listening.

Except it was falling flat. Lifeless. Emotionless.

It was a hollow imitation of normal playing that surprised him. The tune sounded mechanical. It was like the Blue Danube: Mass produced and played by amateurs everywhere, losing it's individuality and spark. She might as well have been playing it straight out of a book for all the uniqueness and individuality it held. Suddenly, it wasn't her song.

It was just a simple tune.

Her fingers didn't slip once and her timing was perfect… yet Inuyasha couldn't help but shift uncomfortably as the music left him feeling indifferent and rather unaffected. It was hard to believe that this was the tune that had inspired all kinds of emotions in him and made him stay up at night trying to remember how it went.

The last few notes were struck and slowly died. Kagome snatched her hands off the keys as if they burnt as everyone around the room broke into applause.

"That was beautiful!" several people complimented.

They weren't wrong. It was a beautiful tune. But it was plain and ugly compared to its usual form.

Kagome smiled, but she seemed timid and flighty all off a sudden. People were gossiping to each other, talking about the song, or talking about completely different things. No sooner had their attention slipped than Kagome scooted off the stool and turned to face him.

He opened his mouth to compliment her, despite feeling short-changed. But his throat seized up when his gaze locked with her cold glare. She was livid.

Whatever he was about to say was forgotten as she pushed past him callously and stormed out the door. No one really noticed her huffy exit apart from him…

He'd upset her?

"Inuyasha!"

He whipped back around and came face to face with a rather recent ex-girlfriend.

"Ruiko!" He blinked in surprise.

As he watched, her face practically dissolved into tears. "How could you?" she whimpered.

"What?"

With a small choked cry and a sniff she tore past him and ran out of the room in much the same way as Kagome.

"Weird…" He began to turn around but bumped straight into ex-girlfriend number two. "Oh… hello, Rushi…"

"Who was she?" she demanded, but her voice wobbled in the same way as her chin. Her eyes were brimming with tears.

"Rushi…" Inuyasha patted her shoulder. "I know breaking up was hard… it was hard on me, too… how about I give you Ruiko's number? She just broke up with her boyfriend, too. Maybe you could help each other through this?"

She huffed and darted out of the room with increasing sniffles. Inuyasha watched her go without much regret. Three upset girls in the space of thirty seconds. That must have been a completely new record…but no sooner had the last girl disappeared out the door than he felt a stone cold aura of malice behind him.

Ever so slowly he turned back around. "Hello… Eiko…"

This actress wasted no time questioning him or crying. She drew back her hand before whipping it against his cheek so hard the cracking sound of palm on face brought the room to complete silence. Inuyasha winced slightly and touched his cheek tentatively. "Glad to see you're handling this well."

"Asshole…" she muttered as she stormed past him and marched straight out of the room.

Inuyasha was left in the stunned silence of the classic room and all its occupants. He smiled and started backing towards the door. "Feel free to talk amongst yourselves." he offered before ducking out.

Once outside in the corridor he rubbed his cheek with a hiss, cursing Eiko and her insane girly strength. But he didn't give a damn about the girlfriends - he just wanted to find Kagome. So far they had only exchanged a few words and she now was back to hating him.

Because she'd played the piano? That was ridiculous. It wasn't like she'd never played in front of anyone before, right? With a talent like that she was probably playing for everyone all the time.

Right?

AN: Alas… Inuyasha… a few shards short of a shikon jewel.