InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ That's My Girl! ❯ The Playgroup Gang's End of Summer ( Chapter 8 )

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Disclaimer:  I do not own the characters of Inuyasha.

~oOo~

Little Kagome yawned and her eyes fluttered open slowly.  She blinked rapidly in the bright morning light for a moment, and then a frown crossed her little face and she pouted.

“Now what's that look for?”  mama's cheerful voice came as she entered the bedroom and opened her closet to begin laying out her clothes for the day.  “The day hasn't even started yet!”

Kagome sat up in bed and smoothed her hands over the blanket as she stared down at it with that pouting lower lip poking out even more.

“Today's the last day of 'group,”  she answered her mother,  “and that means I won't see Sesshoumaru again until next year!”

Her mother glanced over her shoulder at her petulant daughter with a kind smile.  “Oh, it won't be that bad, dear.  I'm quite sure that you will still be able to see Sesshoumaru on weekends and holidays and things.”

“It's not the same,”  the little girl muttered sullenly, but did as bid and climbed from the bed to begin getting dressed for the day.  She pulled on her shirt and jumper in a much more haphazard manner than usual, and then followed her mother into the bathroom so she could brush her teeth and hair and wash her face.

“Life isn't always the way we want it, Kagome.  Now smile – do you want Sesshoumaru to see you looking like this, with such a frown on?”

Kagome shook her head but was unable to find her normal smile as she headed down the stairs for breakfast – which she wolfed down.

If this was the last day she'd have to be with Sesshoumaru, she wanted it to last as long as possible, so the sooner she got done, the sooner they could go.

~oOo~

A few miles away a certain small, future daiyoukai had woken and was thinking upon the same problem.  

Because he and Kagome attended different schools this would be their last day together for some time to come.  

That fact was not appreciated.

He crawled from his bed and began dressing in the outfit he had readied last night, checking himself over carefully in order to make sure that his attire was in its usual immaculate state, and then when he was certain that it was he headed for his bathroom, ruminating on the problem at hand and his still tentative decision to correct said problem.

If I attend Muromachi Academy and Kagome attends Nobunaga Primary we will not be able to see each other hardly at all until next summer.  This is not acceptable. I will simply have to speak to father and move schools, there is no other option.

Of course, he could just as well demand that Kagome transfer to his school, but he was very well aware that all her friends went to her current school, and since he had no 'friends' at Muromachi to worry about losing, it would be easier for him to make the move.  Not to mention that it would be a much simpler matter to get his father to move him than it would be to talk Kagome's parents into moving her.

He made the trip from his room to the media room, as his father called it, and got online in a quick manner so that he could check out Nobunaga Primary's statistics so as to make sure that they were at least sufficient – he didn't want to attend a bad school, after all.  He was satisfied when he found what he was looking for – though not quite as good as the marks Muromachi had, they were more than satisfactory.

Matter attended to in a proper manner, Sesshoumaru headed for the dining room for the morning meal.

And so it was that as his family sat down to an easy breakfast Sesshoumaru looked at his father and said calmly and in an even tone as he buttered his toast,  “I will no longer be attending Muromachi Academy,”  to his sire's stunned surprise.

Not sure what to make of what he'd just heard, Touga blinked, and then blinked again at his precocious heir.  “Eh?'  he finally got out.

“You heard what I said, father,”  Little Sesshoumaru stated complacently as he finished buttering his toast and set it neatly on his plate as he picked up the second piece to do the same.

“And may I ask why not?”  the daiyoukai asked suspiciously.

“Because I will not be separated for an entire school year from Kagome,”  he replied easily.

Touga just blinked again, then looked up at his wife with a confused but resigned sigh.  She smiled at him and shrugged, then turned back to helping Inuyasha get his breakfast ready.  The little hanyou was still rather uncoordinated at some things, and eating was one of those things.

Their father watched his heir eating his breakfast nonchalantly as though he hadn't just basically told his father what he was and was not going to do, and frowned, uncertain about how he felt about the matter.  Yes, he could understand the boy's reasoning well enough, but who was the alpha here – he or Sesshoumaru?

And yet, his conscience prodded him uncomfortably before he could answer in a rougher tone than he normally spoke with, he had certainly enjoyed it when the boy had put his mother 'in her place', so to speak.  Technically, as his mother she was over him in status, and yet he'd laughed and even encouraged his son's basically thumbing his nose at his mother, hadn't he?  So how could he now become angry that the pup had made such a decision on his own and then simply told him how things were going to be instead of asking??

A little bit disgruntled with his conscience' prodding on this matter, Touga scowled at the table in general but asked his still calmly eating heir,  “And so let me guess – you wish to attend her school, instead?”

“Of course, father,”  Sesshoumaru replied as he carefully brushed the crumbs of the now gone toast from his little hands so as to make sure that none of it got on his immaculate attire.  “That should go without saying.”

Touga blinked in surprise yet again.  Had his son just basically spoken to him with that, 'Really, father, you are being remarkably slow this morning,' expression on his face?  He was beginning to wonder if he should have gotten out of bed this morning, because his heir had certainly caught him out wrong-footed today.

“But what about your friends?”

At that, Sesshoumaru really did look at him with that expression, and Touga had the feeling that the boy had actually had a hard time not rolling his eyes at him.

“Oh, right, right,”   he waved his hands with annoyance at himself for forgetting.  Sesshoumaru hadn't had any friends until this playgroup idea he'd come up with – and the ones he had now were pretty much all from the same school as Kagome.  “I forgot.  So you really don't want to continue attending Muromachi?  It is the highest-rated school, which was why you wished to attend it, after all.”

“I am aware of that, father,”  Sesshoumaru replied,  “but things do tend to change.  And I have looked over the statistics for Nobunaga Primary, which is where Kagome attends, and it has acceptably high marks and standards, as well.”

It figured his anal-retentive heir had already investigated the school – the boy was certainly good at researching and planning – even at seven.  He wondered, with a moment of almost hysterical curiosity just what the overly-controlled pup would really be like when he was older, and it didn't take but a moment for the answer to hit him.

He would be a holy terror.

With a proud smile at that realization, the Western Lord threw in the towel and simply agreed to his son's request (well, demand, really, but he wouldn't quibble over the terms today) and ate his breakfast so he could take the boys to the last day of playgroup for the year.

And little Sesshoumaru just continued eating with that same complacent expression on his face, his future laid out neatly in his mind - just the way it should be.

~oOo~

Little Kagome actually arrived at the park earlier than Sesshoumaru for once, and she wandered around 'their' side of the playground with a still pouty and disgruntled expression that surprised all the other kids entering the park.  Kagome was rarely in a bad temper, being a normally even-tempered and sweet child.

Little Sango and Little Ayame arrived at almost the exact same moment, and when they noticed their friend's terrible expression they hurried over to her to find out what was going on.

“Ne, ne, Kagome-chan, what's wrong?”  Sango chirped, her eyes wide.

“It's the last day of 'group, and I won't get to see 'Shoumaru again until next year,”  she answered petulantly after a moment, staring grouchily at the ground as she scuffed her shoes against the grass.

The two little girls nodded understandingly at that and Ayame patted the little girl on her back.  “But Kagome, remember, you guys are married.  They can't make you stay apart for all those months!  Married people have to be together, right?”

Kagome looked up at her friend and blinked, surprised.  Because Little Ayame was right.  Married people stayed together.  But even so, how was she going to make sure the adults let them do what they were supposed to do and be together?  The only way would be to change schools, and she didn't really want to have to do that, since most of her friends attended her school.  But it was Sesshoumaru...

Something occurred to her, then, and she looked at Ayame.  “What school do you go to?”  she asked.

The little girl grinned and bounced on her toes, her little red pigtails following the motion in a rather engaging manner.  “Oh, since we moved here like Kouga's family did we'll be going to the same school as you, Kagome,”  she replied cheerfully.  “I did hear you say that you go to Nobunaga, didn't I?”

With a small nod, Kagome replied,  “Me 'n Sango both go there.”

“Well, see?  So maybe you should see if Sesshoumaru would go there, too!  Then we'd all be together all year long!”

The little girl sighed glumly.  “Yeah, but how do I do that?  It's not like I can tell the 'dults what to do, right?”

Ayame wrinkled her nose at that, an adorable expression that kind of matched the one on Sango's face, and said doubtfully,  “Well, maybe you should let Sesshoumaru do the telling.  He seems to be very good at that.”

Kagome blinked.  That was true...

Just then, the little boy in question strolled through the gate of the little park, loftily ignoring his younger brother that came rolling in behind him, having tripped over his own two feet in his usual clumsy manner as several kids laughed at him.

Sesshoumaru made straight for Kagome, not looking at anything else, and a tiny frown settled between his brows as he took in her somewhat rumpled condition.  Apparently she had not had a good morning, and so the little boy set out to cheer her up and make her normally sunny smile come out.  

They played tag, blind man's bluff, samurai versus ninja's, and even duck, duck, goose, which whiled away the time in a highly fun and distracting manner, and soon he did, indeed, have the little girl smiling and laughing as they played.

But as the day began to wind down and some of the parents arrived to begin taking their offspring home, Kagome's fears all suddenly came back and she started crying, afraid that her mother was going to arrive at any moment and drag her away from Sesshoumaru.

She was too upset for him to get what was wrong from her, so he looked at her friends with a frustrated look and demanded to know what was going on.

Little Ayame took the lead and explained Little Kagome's upset, and though Sesshoumaru hated her tears more than he hated anything else he couldn't help the proud straightening of his spine that his woman didn't want to be parted from him anymore than he wanted to be parted from her.

“Kagome, do not cry,”  he started, hugging her.  “I have already taken care of this matter, so you don't need to cry.  I will see you on Monday.”

The little girl's tears abruptly paused and she pulled back and looked up into heavily lashed golden eyes hopefully, her lower lip still quivering in a thoroughly endearing manner, had she but known it.  “Really?”  she squeaked.  “How?”

“I'm going to change from my old school to yours.  I have already spoken with my father about this subject this morning, and he will be enrolling me in your school on Monday.  And I will even be sure to be placed in your class,”  he added, his expression turning satisfied as the little girl squeaked excitedly and glomped him, not upset even as she knocked him over into the sandbox, dousing him in the messy stuff.

“Yay!”  she yelled, her smile blooming across her face in a pretty manner as Sesshoumaru stared at her, entranced by the picture she made.  He blinked, the spell broken when his little brother ran over and started pointing and laughing at him for his 'messy clothes'.  

That ended the happy moment between Kagome and Sesshoumaru as the little boy carefully assisted Kagome back to her feet and then took off hotfoot after the little brat, once more determined to pound his little brother into submission.  He had a very bad habit of interrupting good moments between he and Kagome, and that could not be allowed to go unchallenged.

Inuyasha had declared war, and Sesshoumaru was going to win it.

Now completely happy and cheerful, her bad mood gone as though it had never existed, Kagome spent the rest of the afternoon playing hard with all her friends and Sesshoumaru, not worried about her mother returning to pick her up at all anymore.  (Though since today was Saturday she wouldn't be seeing Sesshoumaru until Monday, which she hated, one day was still better than an entire school year, so the girl tolerated the thought without her usual impatience.)

None of the group had paid the slightest bit of attention to the side of the playground where the 'baddies' dwelt, and so none of them had noticed Little Naraku's devious expression...

There just might be more new students for Nobunaga come Monday than the group would like.

Little Naraku was still determined to mess up Little Sesshoumaru's life, and he couldn't do that if they were in different schools.  And his devious little mind had come up with the perfect way to get his father to change his school.

He rubbed his hands together gleefully as he stared with a nasty little smirk across the playground as Sesshoumaru said goodbye for the day to Kagome, already plotting the Western Heir's downfall.

For the first time the devious little spider hanyou couldn't wait for the new school year to start.

I'll get you yet, Sesshoumaru – and your little Kagome, too!