InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Difference Between Time and Distance: A Sesshoumaru Tale ❯ The Boy in the Photo ( Chapter 1 )

Note: second one up, I hope you will enjoy it. Also, for those of you that noticed, I made a mistake with the name in the little summary thing. Sorry, I fixed it. And if you like my stuff, I have an account on www.quizilla.com with a few series going. The earlier ones aren't good at all, but I like to think the later ones have improved. My username is the same in both of my accounts. Enjoy!

 

The Difference between Time and Distance: A Sesshoumaru Tale

By: emeraldoni

 

 

Ayame stood nervously in front of the school, picking slightly at her sleeves. She kept looking back and forth at all the students passing her. She was waiting for her `student', who was supposed to find her. Ayame was low luck though, and the girl had yet to show up.

 

Aya kept her eyes trained on all the groups, curiosity passing slightly through her head. Some of the girls were speaking so quickly that she couldn't even understand what they were saying. One group was whispering conspiratorially while glancing at another girl standing next to a boy. It was obvious the girl was uncomfortable with light haired boy, though she put up a polite façade. The whispering girls looked disappointed and ran over to intervene.

 

Ayame sighed, bored out of her mind. As the flow of student dwindled she became more impatient. Her tight shoes seemed to itch and blister against her ankles, while her jacket chafed against her arms. Aya was slightly grateful though. Seeing what the junior high girls had to wear, she felt a strangled sort of pity. Aya would have jumped into a polluted river and grown an eye before she had to wear that… thing.

 

It was a sailor suit type, or at least that's what it resembles, though Aya. It had green trimming and slightly to short of a top. It seemed horribly uncomfortable. Aya flanked down at her attire. The long black skirt sat a little too high above her ankles, and the blazer draped loosely. Aya realized her disheveled appearance, but acted as though it was meant to look that way.

 

The skirt the school had provided—on such a short notice—obviously wasn't made for one her height. She also liked slightly baggy clothes—which the school disapproved of—so her blazer was perfectly oversized.

 

Ayame began fidgeting against the wall. Frustration was building up inside of her, why couldn't the girl just come already? The school must have told Higurashi what she looked like, could the girl have seen her and ignored her? This was the problem with being a foreigner, everybody saw her, but she couldn't recognize anybody. If she was naturally from here, the teachers would have formally introduced them and blah blah blah. She growled silently, her gaze becoming slightly more erratic.

 

Ayame turned her attention back to the group of girls and the boy. The one girl was trying to escape, while the other girls urged her forward. The boy smiled, leaning on his bike, totally oblivious to the happenings before him.

 

If Ayame actually expressed her self she would have laughed out loud--as it was, she just twitched her lips. Then the girl looked at her. Startled Aya looked away, totally embarrassed. This always happened! She wondered if she had a heavy gaze or something, because whenever she looked at someone they always had to look back at her. It was creepy, and just a bit disturbing.

 

Ayame went to diligently studying the ground, her face feeling really hot. She knew she was probably blushing. Another problem with being a foreigner, her pale skin allowed her to blush really easily. Aya glared at the ground, feeling foolish and slightly upset.

 

She released another long string of sighs, then looked up. And jolted back against the wall, totally startled. The girl was coming towards her, smiling slightly. Oh great, someone was going to confront her, she should just learn to not look at anybody at all, she thought, it wouldn't be that hard, she already had bead enough eye contact as it was.

 

The girl gave Aya a friendly wave, “Hello, you don't happen to be Takashi-sama do you?”

 

I stared slightly at her, “Uhm, yes… are you Higurashi-san?”

 

The girl nodded enthusiastically, her pretty hair bouncing softly behind her. Ayame felt a little envious, the girl was so pretty. And she was obviously outgoing, the total opposite of Aya's antisocial tendencies.

 

“Well,” said Higurashi gently, “you're my tutor, right?”

 

Aya nodded again shyly. She shouldn't be this way, she was a few years older, but the girl was overwhelming.

 

“Yeah, uhm, I'm not really sure how were doing this, they didn't really give me much information.”

 

“Well Takashi-sama—wait, should I call you sensei instead?”

 

Aya waved her off, “You don't have to use an honorific, just call me Ayame, I'm not really used to it anyway.”

 

“Oh—okay…Ayame, you can call me Kagome, `kay?”

 

“Okay, so, where are we supposed to do this?” Ayame asked.

 

It was getting later and Aya wanted to get it over with. Her apartment and a nice meal were sounding really nice right about now. She shoved that into the back of her mind and turned to the problem at hand.

 

“Well, we could go to your house, the library—”

 

Kagome cut her off, “The library! Defiantly the library!”

 

Ayame stepped back, slightly startled, then shrugged, “Okay, let's go.”

 

 

“So, Ayame, where are you from?”

 

Ayame glanced up at the girl. She was obviously not paying attention the work. A few times Aya had caught her staring with—was it? Was it?—panic out the window. She corrected myself and figured the girl was just as anxious to get this over with as she was.

 

“Well, a little island in-between Europe and America, it's called the Azores.”

 

Kagome nodded, her attention drifting back to the window as the sun set. ayame sighed; they weren't going to get anymore accomplished, not like they had anyway, but, oh well.

 

“Okay, were done for today. Review the stuff we did today and we'll meet again the day after tomorrow, is that okay?”

 

The girl looked hesitant, her eyes darted to get to the window again, Aya began to wonder whether Kagome had an attention defecate disorder or something.

 

“Well, maybe, I'm not sure. Depends on how I fell, I guess.”

 

She didn't really know how to answer that so she just shrugged, “Okay, whatever, here's my phone number. We'll plan on it, and if you can't- call.”

 

Kagome took the scrap of paper, stuffing it in her pocket, grabbing her stuff, then rushing out. Ayame let out a tense breath, slouching against the unforgiving chair. It was almost time for the library to close, but she didn't feel like moving just yet. The lights flickered in the aging building, and the chipped table shone with the slowly dimming sun.

 

Ayame's eyes roved over her belongings. The lacrosse gear (which was really heavy, bulky, and altogether in the way), the book bag (which killer her back), the cute pink wallet…wait-a-minute—that wasn't hers. Ayame groaned. She opened it up. It was Kagome's. Ayame folded it up the little leather thing, but paused as a little picture fluttered out. Ayame didn't like to pry—actually she did, she just didn't want to be caught, she was quite curious actually—but she looked at it anyway. It was one of the booth types of pictures, and it showed a girl and a boy. The girl was Kagome, telling furiously at a boy.

 

The boy though… he was different. His eyes were golden, a color Ayame had never seen before, and his hair was silver. He wore a bright red outfit, though its name slipped her mind. She examined it a bit more, then shoved it back into the wallet. Like everything, she shoved it to the back of her mind. Unfortunately it kept trying to wiggle and bite at her, wishing for her to find out the secret of the odd looking boy.

 

“I hate you.” She growled at the offending object, swiping it—and her other stuff—hurriedly.

 

Aya quickly recalled their stunted conversation on the way to the library. She recalled Kagome mentioning her house being at a shrine. Aya didn't know this place all that well, actually, not well at all, but she had an idea where Kagome lived. Instead of turning left at the three-way, she turned right. Nice houses slowly replaced the dingy apartments, until finally Aya reached her destination. At least she hoped it was.

 

Ayame was becoming increasingly nervous as she pulled herself up the tremendous staircase. Her breath also became a little out of sync, those bags—as well as the lacrosse stick—were freaking heavy!

 

After a few more minutes of torture Ayame finally made it to the top. She resisted the urge to lie down, and made her way to the house that could only be where Kagome's family lived. It was actually a nice little area. A large tree offered shade for when the summer heat pressed down, and small little buildings littered around the edges. Ayame stared at grounds longingly, but quickly tried to forget about it. She would never live in a place remotely like this.

 

Aya straitened her shoulders and steeled herself, in case this wasn't the girl's home, but she made her way to the doorway anyways. Her hands trembled as she knocked, and she was ready to flee, except the door opened. A lady with a kind face answered the door. She was wiping her hands off on a dish towel that had a faded, but cute, floral print design.

 

Ayame stared into at her nervously, not making eye contact, “Uhm, does Kagome Higurashi live here?”

 

The women smiled warmly at Aya, “Why yes, you must be one of her friends. Here, come in.”

 

Aya stepped in, becoming even tenser, “I'm sorry to bug you at this time. Kagome forgot something at the library.” She held out the little pink object. Ayame blushed as she realized her fingers were a few shades redder than the little wallet. It was pretty cold outside.

 

“Oh! That's wonderful! Kagome would be so upset to lose that!”

 

The women, Kagome's mother she assumed, called up the stairs, “Kagome dear! A friend of your is here!”

 

I few moments later the women turned back to Ayame's hands, “You poor thing! Here, set this stuff down, you must be freezing! Dinners almost ready. We would be honored if you would join us.”

 

Ayame twitched, “Erm…sure. Thank you very much. I'm not imposing am I?”

 

“Not at all, make yourself comfortable, what was your name again, dear?”

 

“Ayame, Ayame Takashi.”

 

“Well, Ayame-chan, Kagome should be down any moment. She's been studying so hard lately!”

 

Ayame nodded and smile timidly, then turned to look up as Kagome came roaring down the stairs. For such a delicate looking girl, she could really make some noise.

 

Kagome looked surprised as she saw Aya, her eyes widened at least.

 

“Ayame! What are you doing here?” Ayame could tell her undercurrent of though was, how did you know where I live?

 

“You told me on the way to the library where you lived. And you sort of forgot this.” Once again Ayame held out the wallet.

 

Kagome gasped, “Omigosh! I'm so glad you found that! I would have regretted so much I lost it!”

 

She ran down the remaining set of steps and grabbed the wallet from Ayame's numb fingers.

 

“Kagome dear, I invited Ayame-chan for dinner, okay?

 

“Oh! And should be done right now! Kagome! Take our guest to the table!”

 

Kagome nodded and smile again, “Sorry, my moms a little weird, c'mon.”

 

Ayame nodded, a small sad smile rested upon her features. She just wished she had a mom. Kagome was truly a lucky girl.”

 

 

Ayame was in shock from Kagome's oddly assorted family. Actually, it was mostly her grandfather who caught Ayame's interest. She always loved mysteries, myths, and such, and this mad seemed full to bursting with these tales.

 

At the table he babbles about a set of cursed wind chimes. Whenever the wind blew, they would emit a beautiful woman's voice, which would slowly merge to screams. Ayame was enraptures. She was put off as Kagome shut him up.

 

“We don't care, gramps”

 

Silence ensued. Finally Kagome's mom began to ask questions about the girl's day. Ayame shifted uncomfortably, not used to eating her meals on the floor, especially in such unfamiliar surroundings. She was beginning to drown out the meaningless conversation when some footsteps caught her attention.

 

The other diners had yet to notice them, not until they stopped right in front of the sliding door. Before Aya could twitch the door was shoved open and a loud figure barged in.

 

“Kagome! What are you doing!? You're late!”

 

Silence.

 

Kagome had a look of utmost horror upon her face, and the rest of the family looked shocked as well. Ayame stared at the boy, her eyes as wide as her rice bow. It was the boy in the picture, but in that photo he had a hat on. He didn't know, and on his head wriggled a pair of fuzzy looking ears.

 

There was a loud crash and a shriek, “Inuyasha!”

 

The boy just proceeded to grumble.