Eye of the Beholder

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or the following songs:

Ain’t No Way – Chris Brown

Say Something – Drake

Chapter 10: Monday Blues

Kagome woke up on Monday morning expecting it to be a normal boring day. By the end of the day, however, she wondered how she could have ever been under the delusion that she, Kagome Higurashi, could ever have a normal day. Sure it had started off wonderfully dull, but by lunchtime her life had definitely taken a dive down the rabbit hole.

She was sitting at the lunch table, tossing carrot sticks at the chess club with Sango, when all of a sudden Sesshomaru stood from his table and the whole cafeteria became quiet. He and his band dispersed to different parts of the room. One of them left the room while the others grouped around the lunch lady’s microphone (that the teachers used to make announcements), while Sesshomaru remained where he was at his table. Kagome’s gut rolled about with bad feelings. There seemed to be something small and black clipped to his shirt collar. Before she could get a better look the music began to play over P.A. system  and Sesshomaru began to sing all the while dancing his way to her.

“Girl ain’t no way I will let you down. If you let me I will show you how.” His golden eyes were locked on hers and she forgot where she was. “Ain’t no way I’m gon’ let you down. I know it’s hard right now to say yes to me, but I’m gon’ make you say you love me.” He was right in front of her now. “ The way you look to me now. We need to get down. You don’t know, but I’m gon’ make you say you love me, girl.” Sesshomaru Nishizawa was kneeling in front of her, his golden eyes were swirling with emotions she couldn’t identify. He was singing to her in front of everyone. What on earth had she done to deserve this? She was so lost in her roiling emotions that she hadn’t noticed that he had stopped singing until he said, “So, what do you say?”

“Huh?” she blinked.

He gave her a look that gave her the feeling that he would roll his eyes if only he was in the habit of doing so. “Will you be my girlfriend, Kagome?”

She gave him a look that was a mixture between a glare and a smile and replied, “You’re awfully corny…and dramatic, but yes, I suppose I could be your girlfriend.” The people in the cafeteria began to clap and more than a few girls groaned with disappointment. Sesshomaru smirked and took the empty seat next to her and putting an arm around her shoulders he nodded his appreciation to the crowd and everyone went back to eating lunch. But their peace did not last long because the P.A system crackled to life. Instead of music, Naraku’s voice was carried through the room.

//I must say that such a wonderful performance and declaration of love is hard to follow// Kagome looked at Sesshomaru to see the microphone clipped at his collar. //But I have the results from the first challenge// Everyone at the table became very still. //In fifth place with 21 points are the Dead Witches. In fourth place with 35 points are the Speed Demons. In third place with 43 points are the Perverted Dogs. In second place with 61 points are Gods of Tokyo.// There was a loud intake of breath at this news and Sesshomaru’s face went blank. //And the winner of the challenge is TANK with 65 points. Congratulations and thank you all for your time. Bands meet today for the assignment of the second challenge.//

Everyone was shocked by the news. Sango was slack-jawed while Kohaku was staring of into space. Akari seemed to be excited, but a little afraid to show it in present company. Masurao was busy texting the news under the table, but Kagome didn’t know how she felt about it. She never expected to win. This must be humiliating for Sesshomaru. Everything was fine as long as he remained top dog in the school, but now his public girlfriend had beaten him in the challenge. Well, this is certainly going to throw a wrench in things.

***

After school, all the bands gathered in the lecture hall to hear about the second challenge Kagome sat next to Sango and watched Sesshomaru sit his band. He hadn’t spoken to her all day and his fan girls were prowling around the border of their relationship looking for signs of weakness like starving hyenas. Once Naraku arrived her bad day got even worse. He yelled at them all, especially at Sesshomaru and his band, for not following the challenge criteria. He told Sesshomaru that he had failed as the previous winner to show how his experience had affected his music. He told Sesshomaru that he had gotten lazy and that he let his fame go to his head. He said, “If you ever want to regain your respect you have to go back to basics. Show me that this was just a momentary slip.” Sesshomaru was stony-faced through it all.

“The second challenge will be challenging I hope. I want you all to dig deep and find something of substance within you. I want you to come up with songs that have meaning. I want you to pull at my heartstrings, make me cry, touch me in ways that I have never been touched. Mind out of the gutter, Koga, please? I will see you all again on Friday and I hope to see some improvement.” With that he left the room, leaving them to stew in his words.

Sango stood up suddenly and turned to her band-mates. They all looked a little offended and worried. She cleared her throat and said, “We better get cracking so let’s meet up at my house in fifteen minutes.”

***

“What exactly do we all think is important?” Akari asked after a while of silence.

“Well, I think world peace is important.” Masurao piped in.

“Thank you for being a beauty queen, but we need something that smells a little less like bullshit.” Sango quipped from across the room.

“Ok, so we’re back at Akari’s question. What do we think is important? What do high school kids care about?” Kagome asked as she flipped through one of Kohaku’s notebooks.

“Let me think, they care about: sex, popularity, sex, relationships, dating, the opposite sex, sex, having fun, and I think sex is about it.” Masurao supplied while staring at the ceiling.

Kagome glared at him. “That wasn’t helpful, you jerk!” She was about to turn the page of the notebook when she froze.

“What is it?” Akari asked looking concerned.

“This is it. I found our song. Kohaku why didn’t you say anything? Oh yeah I forgot, nevermind.” Everyone stared at her in confusion so she explained, “Kohaku has lyrics written in his notebook and it’s a beautiful song. I think we should do it for the challenge.” She passed around the notebook so everyone could take a look.

When it got around to Sango she said, “Let’s vote. Who wants to use this song?” Every hand flew into the air.

***

Sesshomaru was silent next the day too. Kagome waited for him by his locker. When she saw him walking up the hallway she smiled, but it faded at the look he gave her. It was icy and she knew that he blamed her for everything that happened. She wanted to explain, she wanted to throw a chair at his stony face, she wanted to scream, but most of all she wanted him to snap out of his pity party. Second place isn’t so bad. She would have loved to be in second place, but then she wasn’t the one expected to get first place.

She waited silently while he got his books and they headed to her first class. He gave her a cold peck on the cheek and without a second glance his long silver hair whipped around the corner. Kagome watched him go and her insides twisted painfully. She didn’t think that she would care so much. She should be happy and gloating about her victory, but instead she felt guilty for winning one round in the challenge.

***

She had stewed all day and now she was boiling hot. She pressed a slender finger on the button of the doorbell and waited. Unfortunately, it was Inuyasha who answered the door. He wasn’t looking at her, he was looking back down the hall, laughing. When he looked at her he was still smiling, but it was quickly replaced with shock and a tinge of fear. “You’re not here for me, are you?” He asked while clutching the door as though he was prepared to shut it in her face if the scowl on her face was intended for him.

Her eyebrow twitched before she replied, “No, you’re safe. It’s with your brother that I have a bone to pick.” Inuyasha let out a chuckle as he stepped to the side and let her in. He watched her walk up the stairs with her arms crossed, then he shook his head and made his way back down the hall where the rest of his family was having a good time.

***

As Kagome caught sight of Sesshomaru’s door she began to go over what she wanted to say.  This whole situation brought a song to her mind. She tried to push it aside, but it wouldn’t budge, it was stuck. ‘This shit was all I knew, you and me only and I did it al for you, still you were lonely. We could’ve worked it out, but I guess things change. It’s funny how someone else’s success brings pain when you’re no longer involved. That person has it all and you just stuck standing there. But I’m gonna need you to say something baby…’ This made her more frustrated because this was just another problem added to a long list. Sesshomaru wasn’t speaking to her, she was stuck in a pretend relationship with him, fan-girl vultures were circling them and waiting for a moment of weakness and now there’s a song stuck in her head right when she’s about to confront Sesshomaru. What did she do to deserve this?

Standing infront of his door she thought, ‘I really should knock, but screw it. He better not be beating his meat or I swear I’ll…’ And with that she walked in.  To her good fortune, Sesshomaru was sitting at his desk studying, but he was shirtless. Without looking up he said, “I already told you, I don’t care how funny it is, I don’t want to watch Hangover.”

“So we’re done with the silent treatment then?” He looked up at the sound of the unexpected voice, but gave no reply. “Are you done with the silent treatment? Because I’m done with you not speaking to me. All day yesterday and today you haven’t said one word to me and, frankly, it’s getting a little old. So, are we done here? Are you going to start speaking to me again?” Sesshomaru gave her a quick once over and then swirled his chair around to continue working, leaving Kagome to stare at his back. She was surprised by this and was unable to hold in her anger. “Oh no! Not this time. You are going to say something because I’m not going to stand here and let you treat me like this. You’ve got your panties all in a bunch because you came in second on the FIRST WEEK of a YEAR LONG competition! We have so many weeks left in this stupid competition that you shouldn’t have a bitch fit because you lost THE FIRST WEEK!”

Without looking at her Sesshomaru gave a barely audible response though his rising anger was evident, “You don’t understand.”

Kagome huffed and snapped, “Well, why don’t you help me understand, so we can get on the same page because right now I think you have a really fucked up idea of what’s going on. All I did was join a band and sing a song. It’s not my fault you didn’t bring your ‘A’ game. Maybe you should stop slacking off and step it up this week!”

Sesshomaru stood so quickly that Kagome had to take an involuntary step back. She had really stepped into it this time. His eyes flashed red then faded to normal before he spoke, “I’m going to say this once so you better pay very close attention.” Kagome gave a weak nod and he continued, “I will admit that my arrogance got the better of me last week. I believed that I could win no matter what I did. I was wrong, but that gives you no right to attack me. I haven’t spoken to you all this time because I was afraid that I would take my frustrations out on you. It is not my intention to harm you or belittle you in any way because I have failed myself. I do not blame you for me failings, in fact, I respect you. It could even be said that I needed you. I had this whole school under my thumb and then you blew in and shook up my world. This competition has become interesting again and I want to thank you for inspiring this new change in me.”

A silence fell between them. Kagome look hesitant for a moment, but deciding that now was not the time to turn timid, she asked, “So… you’re not mad at me?”

Sesshomaru gave her a pointed look, “Of course not.” He smirked, “It’s just a little healthy competition.”

Kagome looked down at her shoes. “So, there really wasn’t a need for me to come here, huh?”

“No, but you’re welcome to stay. I’m almost done with my homework. If you give me a few minutes we can watch a movie downstairs.”

“You’re family is down there watching Hangover, remember?”

“Then we’ll watch something up here.”

“Alright, that’s cool.” She hopped onto his bed, “What are you working on?”

Chapter 9

Chapter 11