InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Difference Between Time and Distance: A Sesshoumaru Tale ❯ Restraint and Chaos ( Chapter 3 )

“You really need to get out more, you know that?”

 

Ayame glowered at the girl sitting next to her. She had long black hair and dark thin eyes, and she was as sweet as a bee. Well. She had a sting, but she could be friendly. She was also the first friend Ayame had made when she moved to Japan.

 

Ayame glanced nervously around the crowded and rather rambunctious classroom. It was her first time in another county, first time being on her own. Unintelligible conversations rose around her from fast moving mouths. The curious glances didn't make it any better.

 

In the end Aya had resolved to be quiet, staring at her desk while blinking rapidly. One figure moved into her vision though.

 

“So you're new eh?”

 

Ayame stared, slightly surprised, then nodded with a shy smile. The girl scrutinized her, giving her a once over, then smiling.

 

“So, where are you from?”

 

That was when Ayame truly realized how looks can be deceiving. Mai, the girl, turned out to be… well, she liked to tease. Luckily, Ayame was pretty good at deflecting the dagger like comments.

 

“I don't see what you mean. I go to school don't I? That's seven hours out of my day right there.”

 

Mai rolled her eyes, “You're tutoring a middle schooler,” she replied flatly, “you need a hobby. Or a boyfriend.”

 

It was Aya's turn to roll her eyes, “No, I think you need a boyfriend, then you could waste your time bugging him.” She said dryly.

 

“Oh, ha ha. Anyway, are you doing anything after school?”

 

“You know I am. I have to tutor a `middle schooler!'” She mimicked, “as you so eloquently put it.”

 

“Fine, have it your way. Maybe I'll accidentally bump into you at the library.”

 

“Oh, too bad, we won't be there.” Ayame smirked.

 

“If you going to a movie, by Kami…”

 

“We're studying at her house.”

 

Mai snorted, “Whatever, have fun with your pupil, oh great master. The teachers coming.”

 

Ayame let loose another roll of her eyes.

 

 

“So, um…yeah.”

 

“Sorry, I know this isn't the best study environment.” Kagome glowered at the figure behind her, which prompted a “feh!”

 

“Uh, no, don't worry about it.” Ayame leaned back, dropping her pencil on the table. She sorely needed to stretch. Sitting on the floor for even a half an hour was too much. She didn't move though, just kept twisting and popping her back, which seemed to be ignored by the inhabitants of the room, thankfully.

 

“To tell the truth, I don't really think you need that much help. You seem to have most of it down, especially for being gone so much.”

 

The boy, InuYasha, grumbled, “She better. She looks at her stupid books enough.”

 

Ayame twitched, still a bit nervous. She had no idea how to act around him, InuYasha. He didn't even put up a pretense of being friendly. At the same time though… he didn't seem mean. She just didn't know how to act around him. She was used to putting on her mask, avoiding people's gazes, and giving out timid smiles. This just didn't seem to work for him.

 

And then the fighting. Ayame knew that the two teens weren't really serious when they fought but it still made her uncomfortable. Amidst their shouts and snaps she would fidget silently, grimacing and keeping her eyes trained on some inanimate object.

 

“Shut up InuYasha, we've talked about this. Anyway, it's not like there's anything else a really need to do.

 

This is when things got a bit confusing for Ayame. The boy, his arms wrapped around the sword would act like she had to go somewhere. Which didn't make sense because, wasn't Kagome supposed to be sick? Kagome would then get an odd look in her eyes and InuYasha would back down, not without some complaints though.

 

Ayame shook her head and began to gather up her stuff, “I guess I should go now…”

 

“Thanks for the help Ayame,” Kagome smiled, her annoyance with the weird boy gone, “you sure you don't want to stay for dinner?”

 

Ayame smiled and shook her head. She really didn't need to stay. She felt as though she was a burden, and outcast in their family. To put it simply, she was uncomfortable. She sighed and stretched her legs, suppressing a groan. `I wish they had chairs!'

 

Kagome escorted Ayame to the door, helping her sling her junk on her shoulders. Carrying around a sports bag, school bag, and lacrosse stick was no mean feat. Ayame wondered that she hadn't collapsed from the fatigue already.

 

“I'll see you the day after tomorrow, right?” Kagome asked.

 

“Sure, same place?”

 

“Yeah, I'll try to get out quicker,” Kagome said, “my friends seem insistent about… uh… keeping me preoccupied.”

 

InuYasha `feh'd' again, glowering at the wall. Ayame wasn't blind. She saw the boy who was trying to `woo' Kagome. Her friends seemed to hold their un-proclaimed hook-up in high regard: this little ritual also made Kagome late everyday.

 

Ayame waved goodbye, “See ya', Kagome, InuYasha…” Then began to make her way tot he daunting stairway... at least she was going downward, instead of ascending the stupid thing.

 

About halfway down though she groaned.

 

`I forgot my stupid text book!' She let out a stream of some unseemly curses, the sighed and turned around. Her legs were being put to new levels of stress. Wonderful.

 

Ayame paused though as she reached the top of the stairs. Although it was dark, the sky was clear. The moon lit down upon the ground it evanescent rivulets, making visibility much more clearer than normal. For this reason, Ayame had no hardship in seeing the two figures making their way towards the small little shack.

 

Her words died on her throat as she watched them silently. Weren't they supposed to be eating dinner? What were they doing?

 

Ayame shook herself. She shouldn't be nosy. Curiosity killed the cat right?

 

`But satisfaction brought it back.'

 

Ayame ignored that and decided to call out, following them as she did.

 

“Kagome!”

 

She jogged over, but they had already disappeared into the worn down building. Ayame sped up, hoping they weren't doing anything she didn't want to see.

 

She was lucky, maybe a little too much. The little room was empty.

 

`That's not right… I swear I saw them come in here…'

 

Ayame walked over the rough for timidly, holding her hands out in front of her to ward of any unsuspecting walls, or something like that. Suddenly, it seemed much darker.

 

“Kagome? InuYasha?”

 

Nothing. Silence.

 

Her hands caught a railing, and the tip of her toe caught the edge of a staircase. From her watery eyesight, the ground seemed pretty close.

 

After some careful maneuvering and some whispered obscenities Ayame finally reached the shadow in the middle of the room. From what she could see, it looked like and old well. As she loomed over the side, the shadows seemed to reach out to her.

 

They taunted and cackled, laughing at her obvious fear. Ayame's chest squeezed and she tried to stumble away. The shade just seemed to be getting bigger. She whimpered. Why had she done that? She was never afraid of these types of things. What was wrong with her?

 

Ayame's mind reasoned, but somehow her body wouldn't listen. Her fingers shook. In the slow motion of life altering events, her fingers trembled. Her lacrosse stick fell. Ayame reached to get it, but in a preordained destiny, she followed after instead.

 

The darkness swallowed her, and silence was all that was left.

 

 

“Sesshoumaru-sama! Sesshoumaru-sama!”

 

Sesshoumaru tilted his head slightly and acknowledged the young girl as she ran up to him grinning. Her dirty face brightened as she noticed his attention was directed at her. He always seemed a little bit kinder away from the fortress.

 

“Look what I made for you!”

 

The Taiyoukai's hand clasped the small fragile object Run had shoved into his fingers. It was a ring of flowers, weeds really, sticky with fragrant pollen. Rin grinned, proud of her achievement, and laughed, “I think Jaken will like some too.”

 

“Hn… Thank you, Rin.”

 

Rin let out an obnoxious giggle again, then ran away to spend time with Jaken and Ah-Un. Sesshoumaru watched the girl go, her delicate arms strait behind her as she attempted to run like a samurai.

 

Sesshoumaru turned back ahead, careful to avoid low hanging branches and other material that could possible steal his pride. The sun was slowly lowering in the sky, casting a hazy hue of red and gold. The forest was thin enough to be easily accessible to the never-ending roof of earth.

 

The demon turned inward to his thoughts. It was a relief—or what he would allow of it—to be away from the stone palace. The place was confining, his senses dampened. The smells that had fused into the ground and walls disturbed him as well, though he did little to show it. Really the only indication—a fairly obvious on e at that—that showed he hated the place was the fact he never spent time there. In any case, the place was mostly empty anyway. While the castle had held courtiers, advisors and other youkai of high import before, those times were passed. The halls now seemed narrower now, darker, emanating a claustrophobic sense.

 

The only thing that kept him there at all, really, was the old doddering fool that still wandered the passageways.

 

The last few times it been almost impossible to leave the aged youkai behind. Sesshoumaru could only tolerate one bumbling servant, his patience was tried beyond that. In the past he could use Naraku as an excuse to only bring along his closest companions. But now Naraku was dispatched, brought down bay a rag tag group, which Sesshouamru was ashamed to say that he was part of.

 

And he hadn't delivered the final blow either. It had been his half-breed brother and his little miko that had final brought the evil hanyou down.

 

How unfortunate.

 

Really, to put it simply, Sesshoumaru was bored. All the youkai around now were weak little creatures that Sesshoumaru could slaughter in an instance, and humans were no better. Maybe it was time to pay a visit. Maybe it was time to relive some of his tension.

 

Sesshoumaru veered of the path, taking a new direction. His group followed, used to these unexpected, direction-less turns.

 

Oh, he should hate himself for this, for ever even admitting this. But there was only one place to go to get a good fight. Sparring was perfect for reliving his wound up energy, tight like a coil in his chest.

 

Stupid baka, he would have to do.

 

InuYasha.

 

 

Kagome sighed with frustration at the hanyou in front of her. It seemed as though he would never learn, though she deemed herself to be the only one who should try.

 

Really, why did he constantly challenge her? There he was, sitting in the shadows of the fire, and acting like a ten-year old boy. All she had said was they were out of ramen. It was his fault, not hers.

 

“InuYasha, it won't hurt you to eat healthy just once. We've barely been gone for a few minutes and your already acting like a spoiled brat!”

 

“Feh! You were supposed to get ninja food!” He whined.

 

Miroku and Sango, languidly relaxing against the rough wall of Kaede's hut rolled their eyes, but kept their silence. Shippo had a smug smile on his face. His ego was always boosted a little when InuYasha got scolded. Now he was just biding his time for `the word.'

 

“You know I didn't have enough time! You were there with me, and we were always doing something. You're the one who pressured me to go. If you had been a bit more patient, waited one more day, we could have bought some.”

 

InuYasha avoided looking at Kagome, staring intently at the corner instead, his arms tense around Tetsuaiga.

 

“Keh!”

 

Kagome threw her hands up in the air, “Fine! Were going right now to get you precious ramen. Actually I'll go by myself! You stay here and pout like the five-year old you are!”

 

With that the angry miko stomped out the door, leaving a stunned hanyou, a few slightly amused humans, and a slightly disappointed kitsune.

 

Kaede stuffed her grin and said in her wizened voice, “I would go get her InuYasha. Maybe you should apologize, before she gets even angrier.”

 

InuYasha cringed at the thought of the girl's anger. He got up stiffly, glaring at all those inhabiting the hut, then stomped out after the fuming human.

 

It was only a few seconds before the chuckling ensued.