Universe: Inuyasha Modern AU
Pairing: None
Disclaimer: Inuyasha and it's characters are the intellectual property of Rumiko Takahashi.
Pupil Of My Eye
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For a boy his age, Sesshoumaru was uncharacteristically quiet.
Kagome had tutored many shy and introverted children, but this went beyond the usual quiet kid. Sesshoumaru wasn't simply silent; he was silence. Kagome could almost say it had become his nature and he had embraced it. It made her job as his tutor all the more difficult and intriguing.
It would be unfair to say that Sesshoumaru refused to speak or that he was incapable of speech. The young boy simply did not start conversations. He did not seek out communication with the outside world like Kagome did and, left to his own devices, any response that could not be meted out in lazy gestures would be given in short, economical sentences that blackballed further interlude. He was never downright rude, despite his obvious dislike of speech whenever he was forced to resort to talking. He just rather not waste his breath unnecessarily.
In brief, Sesshoumaru was not a people person, Kagome decided with a mental nod.
So one day, when she was in the middle of revising a particularly hard math equation with the middle-school boy, she tried to get him out of his shell.
"Were you always this quiet, Sesshoumaru-kun?"
Sesshoumaru stopped mid-scribble, pencil hovering over his notebook. Deep pools of gold looked up at the curious girl sitting beside him, not many years older than himself.
"How exactly does this pertain to the exercise…Sensei?" he added the honorific at the end almost forcibly. In truth, Sesshoumaru had not been thrilled when his father had assigned him a tutor, especially one as young as Kagome. He had thought very highly of himself for most of his young life, and the fact that his father had deemed his grades in math below his expectations had been a fatal blow to his very fragile ego. He wasn't by far the only child in his class with a tutor, but Sesshoumaru had prided himself in being self-sufficient and near-genius. So when his father had opened the door to his room and presented a beaming high-school girl with a dangerously short sailor-suit, Sesshoumaru could only gape in disbelief.
It didn't help that the girl babbled endlessly about every single thought that seemed to pop into her head. Sesshoumaru was by no means discrediting her knowledge. He was loathe to admit that she was quite good at math and had thus far been the best tutor he had since his father began assigning them to him. At the very least, she didn't run away in tears like the last three had, so he had to give her that. He scowled remembering the sniveling creatures that had attempted to tutor the great Sesshoumaru.
Kagome sighed dramatically, pulling him out of his thoughts, her body leaning back against the chair until it creaked dangerously. She didn't seem to mind. "Well, I've been tutoring you for the past month and I can count the amount of times we've had a real conversation on ONE hand! You know, I am your tutor but I can also be your friend." She smiled brightly at him, dimples showing. The white-haired youth ignored the way his heart squeezed.
"My father is paying you to teach me math, Sensei, not to entertain me."
She leaned in very close, and suddenly Sesshoumaru's very sensitive nose was bombarded with the smell of sunflowers and oranges and other wonderful things he could not name, nor dare he.
"It'll be our secret." She smiled conspiratorially.
"Mother hates when I keep secrets from her." Sesshoumaru murmured, recalling a time when he had hid the truth from his mother. She had repaid him for the deceit tenfold, he could tell you that.
"That can be our secret too." She winked. Then leaning back again, much to Sesshoumaru's relief and disappointment, she went back to her question. "So were you always this quiet?"
The young boy looked down at the paper, not really seeing the math problems there, instead mulling the question over in his mind.
"My father…"he began slowly."…taught me when to speak and when not to speak. You have met the Lord of the West; he is not a man you 'talk back to' or question, regardless if you do not agree with him." He wondered whether he should mention that refusing to follow with such rules led to very painful lessons, but he decided he did not want the girl to pity him.
Too late though, because when Sesshoumaru looked up, he saw sympathy shining bright in the young woman's eyes. "I guess you were a quiet kid, then." She spoke, soft and gentle.
"No." Sesshoumaru countered defiantly, surprising Kagome as she saw the barest hint of a smirk adorning her young pupil's face. "I wasn't."
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