Inuyasha's ever-perceptive ears caught it, and he grabbed the petite raven and dragged her under the desk in one smooth motion. Before Kagome could protest about the rough treatment, he clasped a hand over her mouth and hissed, "Quiet! Someone's coming!"
Kagome instantly stilled, heartbeat loud against her eardrums as she strained to listen.
The door opened with a deafening click and creaked loudly as light streamed across the floor. Whoever had opened the door walked slowly, the subtle clack of shoes making their way to their hiding spot with calculated rhythm. Suddenly they stopped right in front of the desk.
Silence stretched on, and Kagome was sure that her heart was trying to beat its way out of her chest. If they were caught, she and Inuyasha would face expulsion and it would be her fault! She shut her eyes tightly, willing the person to go away, to pick-up whatever they had forgotten and leave without being none the wiser about their presence in the room.
Inuyasha's phone buzzed.
Both teens stared at each other wide-eyed. They hoped the vibrating sound wasn't as loud to the other person as it was to them.
It buzzed again, and Inuyasha cursed under his breath.
"You know little brother, if you won't answer my messages, at least have the decency to stand and face me."
Inuyasha cursed again, out loud this time. There was no mistaking that voice. Putting a finger to his lips so Kagome saw the gesture, Inuyasha carefully disentangled himself from the petite raven and rose to his feet. The white-haired teen shoved his hands into his pockets and gave his teacher a cocky grin.
"You caught me, big bro." Inuyasha growled in that rough voice of his, making his way around the desk and towards the familiar man with yellow eyes in long confident strides.
Sesshoumaru's face betrayed no emotion as his younger brother walked up to him, completely unabashed at having been caught sneaking into school.
"Inuyasha, this is a curious place to search for food if you were hungry." Sesshoumaru observed, lifting his phone and referencing the text message he had received earlier. Inuyasha forced out a laugh, rubbing the back of his head in an act of sheepish embarrassment.
"Thought I'd play a prank on you, but as always you're too smart for me, Sesshoumaru."
"Indeed." Sesshoumaru agreed blandly. "Although I fail to see how your prank would have panned out without your target even being in the same room."
"Well, it didn't work obviously, so let's just forget this and go home, alright? You can ground me when we get there or whatever." the younger boy offered offhandedly.
Meanwhile, Kagome had been completely quiet throughout the entire exchange. Inuyasha was walking away, and with a jolt of her heart, Kagome realized he was leading Sesshoumaru away from her. He was planning on taking the blame by himself!
Sesshoumaru made a sound of acknowledgement on the back of his throat, but did not move from his spot. "I would like nothing more than to leave for our home, Inuyasha. But first…" Yellow eyes slid from Inuyasha's anxious face to the top of the wooden desk. "Tell your friend she can stop hiding."
A silence settled between them.
Laughing nervously, Inuyasha asked, "What friend?"
Rigid yellow eyes fixed the fidgeting youth with a hard stare, clearly no longer amused with the stunt. Turning away from the sweating face of his younger sibling, Sesshoumaru walked up to the wooden furniture and knocked on the surface, causing the figure underneath to jump and bump it's head on the roof of the desk. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Sesshoumaru had to hide back a smile.
"You may rise, Miss Higurashi." he proclaimed confidently.
Timidly, a fluffy head appeared into view, until the rest of the body followed shortly and the figure very slowly got up. Sesshoumaru noticed with amusement the remarkable shade of red her face was turning into. This time though, he did look mildly surprised.
"I was expecting the other Miss Higurashi." Sesshoumaru admitted outloud, eyeing Kagome with faint curiosity, then humming under his breath. "Although, I suppose finding you here instead, Kagome, should be no surprise either."
A mixture of emotions stirred inside the young raven, the most prominent being perplexed. It always unnerved her how Sesshoumaru could consistently tell her and her sister apart, when even her own mother struggled with it sometimes. Besides Inuyasha, nobody else had bothered to try, and she always burned to ask how it was that he always knew. Instead she asked, "How did you know I was hiding under the desk?"
"You mean, how did I know that my brother was not smart enough to mastermind this very crude, albeit ambitious, attempt to steal the answers to the test?" her teacher corrected flatly.
"Hey!" An offended Inuyasha shouted from his spot. Sesshoumaru ignored him, pinning down the squirming girl with a fierce stare.
"Try as I might to encourage him, Inuyasha unfortunately doesn't care that he is currently failing my class. Despite the tragic state of his grades though, he would never dream of stealing the tests. And he would also not take the test for someone else's gain and profit. That is…" he continued, taking a step closer to the girl, causing her to tilt her head back slightly to retain eye contact. "…unless that someone else was your sister or you."
Kagome gulped. Sesshoumaru might not be the most affectionate brother - he was certainly winning no awards for Sibling of the Year - but she knew deep down he cared for Inuyasha. He must've, seeing as he had taken sole custody of the boy at the tender age of 16. As such, it would come as no surprise that he would be understandably upset with the Higurashi twins for getting him mixed up in this sort of situation.
It wasn't that Inuyasha was a saint by any stretch of the imagination – he was a juvenile delinquent in the making if Kagome ever saw one. That been said, Inuyasha was also a kind, loyal, and caring boy who tried to do what was right for his friends, at the cost of his own reputation. The fact that Kikyo and Kagome had dragged him into something potentially criminal - well, that just made them sucky friends…
Kagome glanced past her teacher to the frowning boy standing beyond her, at the boy she claimed she loved, and swallowing her fear came to a decision.
"Actually…" she started, rapidly organizing her thoughts. Both brothers were studying her, Inuyasha wary and Sesshoumaru inquisitive. Kagome gathered her courage and plunged on. "Actually, Inuyasha didn't plan this, at all, Taisho-sensei. I did!" Kagome proclaimed, and she was kind of proud that her voice didn't waver.
"Kagome!" Inuyasha reprimanded, but Kagome ignored him.
"And my sister Kikyo too! We both ordered Inuyasha to help us steal the tests-"
There was a growl and a bang as Inuyasha slammed his fist on the tabletop of one of the chairs.
"Kikyo had nothing to do with this!" Inuyasha snarled, and Kagome's mouth snapped shut so fast her teeth clacked.
Inuyasha was really angry now, a mad fire burning in his bright yellow eyes. "Not that we're 'fessing up or anything, but if you gotta blame someone, this was all on Kagome and me. I convinced Kagome to come with me and help steal the tests. But leave Kikyo out of it." He gave Kagome a side-eyed glare and the girl visibly flinched.
So he was willing to protect one twin over the other…?
Sesshoumaru pointedly ignored his younger brother's outburst, his stoic disposition untouched, and turned piercing yellow eyes on the petite girl before him. "I expected as much from a wrongdoer like my brother. And even, though it may surprise you to hear it, from your sister, Kikyo… but you?" he breathed softly, almost accusingly, and he peered at her with such scolding familiarity, like he did for all of her younger years when she and Kikyo would come over to their house to play. Back then, Sesshoumaru would look down his perfectly short and straight nose at a giggly six-year old Kagome as she played cops and thieves with Inuyasha and her sister. His lip would curl in distaste at how sweaty and dirty the trio would become and thus walk away unimpressed, off to do cool eleven-year-old things. He had always made her feel small then, and he was making her feel small now.
Sesshoumaru shook his head, and Kagome saw with heartbreak his face morph into one of betrayed discontent. "I am disappointed, Kagome."
Kagome hung her head, cheeks burning with shame. Eyes shut tight, she tried to pretend that she was not standing in that room, caught by a man she had always desperately wanted to be acknowledged by, or that two pairs of yellow eyes were judging her for completely different reasons. Kagome was not very good at pretending though.