InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ This Mess We're In ❯ The Freeway ( Chapter 3 )

This Mess We're In

Chapter 3: The Freeway

Disclaimers: I own nothing.

Rating: PG 13 for now, but will probably be changed to R or NC17 later on. (NC17 material will only make it into my MediaMiner.org posts)

Summary: Kagome has gone back where she belongs, but so has someone else. What exactly happened? They don't know yet either. K/Sess.

Chapter Summary: A new villain appears in the modern age with the power to both deafen and blind. Sesshou and Kagome encounter one another again, but one burning question remains unanswered.

Edited again and reposted. This time I punched up the meeting scene to make it a bit more natural, and changed Kagome's eyes to brown. Why didn't anyone tell me? I never notice these things. I now have half my keyboard indented in my forehead. Later!

*****

---Present Day---

He was going to kill her.

If that girl in the row behind him didn't stop her obnoxious giggling, Sesshou fully intended to reach over, grab her by the neck and shake her until her (probably still giggling) head popped right off her body.

A rare and genuine smile crossed his face as he imagined the blessed silence that would follow his act of fully justifiable manslaughter. Maybe he would finally be able to hear one full sentence from the professor without that horrible squeaky voice drowning out every other word.

The voice escalated into a grotesque parody of a stage whisper.

"He's SO HOT! I've been checking him out ALL SEMESTER! He's TOTALLY my boyfriend."

Sesshou winced at the renewed assault on his sensitive ears. Shouldn't something that high-pitched be supersonic?

"I just want to run my fingers all through that white hair of his! OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD! I can totally see his muscles under that sweater! RRROWL!"

More giggling followed.

Sesshou groaned inwardly, glancing surreptitiously from side to side and seeing no other head of hair that could be described as white, and no other male in the vicinity wearing a sweater.

Oh.

Oh gods, no.

They were talking about him.

The urge to flee the room blossomed in his heart. He knew her type. He'd have to make a quick escape after class to avoid the possibility that, god forbid, she would try to talk to him. He would probably end up being incredibly rude if she did. He had been told that, when annoyed, he could induce permafrost in the middle of summer.

He looked towards the aisle for an easy escape route, since trying to hear the lecture would evidently be a futile exercise. Unfortunately, the row was full. Leaving now would entail wading through a mass of legs and backpacks. He also noted that some of the men in the surrounding seats were looking at him enviously, for reasons he could not comprehend. He would gladly have paid money to trade places with any of them.

Sesshou did not make friends easily, and the girls who didn't find him unapproachable were usually far too brazen for his tastes. He'd been accused of being snobby, but he liked to think of it as having standards. He focused on his work, and, as a result, was less interested in dating than others his age. It felt to him as though he was waiting for something. If he met an intriguing girl, he guessed that would change.

Someone with a nice laugh, he thought distractedly.

Inexplicably, his thoughts turned to the woman he'd run into on the way to school today. He'd somehow known her name.

He pushed his sleeve up yet again. The stripes had not reappeared. Perhaps his sleep deprivation was causing his mind to play tricks on him. Lately, he really hadn't been as sharp as he should be. It could have been his imagination, he thought doubtfully.

However, that girl - how had he known she was named Kagome? Had he met her before? He tapped his pen against his notebook, trying to think back. Such deep brown eyes, and coal-black hair that fell against her face like a raven's wing - he would have remembered. Her vivacity had been even more arresting than her beauty. It seemed like her every action was utterly natural.

He was slightly envious of that quality.

His thoughts were interrupted by yet another piercing squeal. "He IS adorable, but you can't have him, he's MINE!" Horrendous giggle. "I'm TOTALLY going to ask him out after class. Maybe he has a friend to hook you up with though!"

Sesshou winced. Why was this insipid girl in an upper-level political science course anyway? He hoped that she didn't aspire to public office. Japan did not need a legislative amendment providing underprivileged children with state-funded supplies of Final Net.

He felt a moment of regret about coming to this school. Granted, it was small, and not very prestigious, but it had seemed like the thing to do at the time. He'd enrolled despite scholarship offers from other universities, wanting to stay in the area. It was the best option with his limited funds. He had come here with the rationale that if he wanted to do any post-graduate work, he could take a scholarship offer and attend a better school. His grades would certainly allow that possibility.

Just now, however, he wasn't ready to move. His adoptive parents' home was a short distance away. The small house they had left to him was all that he had left of them, and the first place he had ever been happy. He wanted to remember that. They had passed away not two years ago, within months of one another.

A gradual awareness of rustling and thudding noises washed over him. Looking around once more, Sesshou noticed that lecture had ended and people were collecting their books in order to leave.

Oh, no.

Five more seconds in here, and she'd fall upon him like a rabid wolf.

He grabbed his notebook and turned to get into the aisle of the lecture theater as quickly as he could. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a girl with incredibly big hair and a lime-green miniskirt waggling her fingers at him flirtatiously. She seemed to be busy shoving handfuls of lip-gloss tubes into her capacious pink bag. Taking full advantage of his head start, Sesshou quickly reached the aisle and made for the double doors.

"Hey, cutie! WAIT UP!" That awful voice was closing in fast.

He picked his pace up, and the voice faded as he exited the auditorium and hurried into the hallway. Throwing a glance over his shoulder, he failed to notice that people were still emerging from the room opposite. He walked head-on into someone, and instinctively caught hold of her shoulders to keep her upright. His head remained turned towards the double doors, keeping an eye out for the abhorred giggle-monster.

Kagome's glanced up from the book bag she'd been searching through. An apology was about to escape her lips when her eyes hardened in shock.

It was that guy again.

Her brain whirred. How was it that she had managed to collide twice today with the same person? How did he know her name? Why on earth wasn't he letting go of her shoulders?

She waited a moment, growing more irritated with each passing second. The way he was looking over his shoulder could only be described as shifty.

Sesshou, head still turned, exhaled with relief. He could find no sign of the hair-bomb that menaced him.

There was a moment of silence before he heard someone speak.

"Okay. This seems a little too familiar."

He turned to see Kagome, the girl from before. This time, instead of stammering her apologies and babbling ingenuously, she was standing with her hands on her hips and her dark eyes firmly fixed on him.

"You were hanging out outside my house. You know my name, but I am sure we've never met." Her voice sounded cheerful and conversational, but her expression told another story altogether.

"Now, you coincidentally happen to be at the college I attend, and manage to smack into me again." Her gaze seemed to radiate an unearthly light.

She really did have great eyes, he thought.

He should have been more concerned about his own well being at that moment. Her tone was changing from sweet to downright dangerous.

She poked him in the chest and advanced on him. He released her shoulders and stepped back in surprise.

"Actually," Sesshou interrupted, regaining his bearings, "I do go to schoo-"

Kagome ignored him and continued, gaining volume with every word.

"Let's add this up, shall we?" Kagome started itemizing today's incidences on her fingers.

"That's two `accidental' meetings, and one demonstration of mysteriously acquired personal information. It seems a bit too coincidental, don't you think?"

Sesshou shot another harried glance towards the lecture theater, and almost recoiled in horror. A mass of hair was rapidly approaching, rather like a black cumulonimbus cloud before a storm.

Another annoyed poke on the chest from Kagome brought his attention back to her slightly flushed face.

Kagome's thoughts were whirling. The facts could only add up to one thing. "Listen up! I'm going to ask you this once, and once only." Apprehension grew in Sesshou at the deadly tone of her voice.

"Are you STALKING me!?!" Kagome practically trembled with indignation.

Sesshou's mouth opened briefly in surprise, closed, and opened again. The gears of his mind slowly turned.

He couldn't help but burst out laughing. His reaction stunned him, as well as Kagome, who had been one step away from administering vigilante justice.

"S-s-s-STALKING YOU?" Sesshou laughed harder and clutched at his stomach.

This was just too much.

Disgruntled, Kagome watched stalker-guy as he completely lost it. She grudgingly admitted to herself that - as demented stalkers in serious need of rehabilitation went - he was actually very attractive.

A high-pitched, reproachful voice suddenly assaulted the alleged stalker and stalkee.

"Hey! HEY, HOT STUFF! I tried to get you to wait for me after class, but you didn't see me, you bad, bad boy!"

Kagome met Sesshou's eyes, quirking an eyebrow. `Bad, bad boy?' she mouthed.

His mirth came to an abrupt end.

Kagome smirked. Locating the source of the shout, she blinked, and then blinked again. Until now, she had remained unaware that so many colours existed, let alone that they could all be worn simultaneously. She turned back to Sesshou, for fear of going blind.

A tiny smile threatened to lift the corners of Kagome's mouth. She crossed her arms over her chest, ready for the show.

The chirping female continued to approach, and then came to a stop beside him. "My name's Keiko. You look like a happening guy. Wanna go dancing tonight? I know this GREAT place! You'd totally LOVE it!"

Keiko's false eyelashes batted ferociously. The memory of a struggling vulture's wings from a nature show sprang to Kagome's mind. She believed the name of the program was `When Animals Attack: Scavenging Birds of the Wild.'

Sesshou was massaging his temples as though he bore the weight of the world on his shoulders. Keiko giggled louder, moved closer and stroked his arm suggestively.

Oh, gods, Sesshou realized. She was pressing his elbow into her cleavage.

"Awwww, do you have a widdle headache? Keiko will make it all better!"

Kagome bit her lip and looked like she might pop.

Sesshou wanted to disappear into the floor.

He really should have strangled her in class, Sesshou thought wryly.

Some things were more important than freedom.

He was strong enough to survive jail. Besides, what jury would convict him?

However, he smiled inwardly when he heard Kagome laughing softly. Against the backdrop of Chirpy McSqueal's grating giggle, it was a balm to his ears.

When had his life degenerated into high farce?

**********

Author's Note: I'm sorry that this chapter might have been a tad slow, with exposition anvils falling like large iron snowflakes. Hopefully the tower of painstakingly teased hair softened the blows.

Again, huge thanks go to the reviewers. I wanted to get another chapter done before this weekend was over for you guys. I might have decided this is too much work and stopped after chapter 1, but the encouragement is helping me through.

For those who like to know these things, the title of this story and the chapter titles are from "This Mess We're In" by PJ Harvey.