Higher Education by SunsetMiko

Chapter 41

Each prompt is labeled with which challenge it goes to.

Prompt: Grind (Soundtrack Challenge 2)

Sesshoumaru watched, intrigued, as Kagome sorted her clothing into several washers. He was the most interested by the one that seemed to be nothing but her underwear. He was curious. Why was she washing her underwear alone? Was there some laundry secret that he wasn't privy to?

The miko noticed that Sesshoumaru had stopped moving and was simply watching as she sorted her clothes. "What?" she finally asked.

"You have a washer filled with nothing but your underwear."

Kagome laughed. "And that's why you're staring?"

"Why?"

"So I can wash them on the delicate cycle. It's not as rough on the clothing, so my stuff lasts longer."

"Oh," Sesshoumaru replied with a nod. "Should I be sorting these into different piles?" he inquired, having no idea how to wash the t-shirts and jeans that she'd picked out for him.

The miko smiled and took his basket from his hands. "This can go in here, and these can go in this one," she murmured to herself as she emptied the basket into her washers. "No reason to waste the space." As she went, she realized that he had very little clothing other than the new things he'd just bought. "Where are the suits, the slacks, and the dress shirts?"

"I take them to be dry-cleaned," he replied, wondering what he'd just said that amused her so much as she broke down into giggles. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No," Kagome replied, fighting to gain control of herself. "It's just, I should have known. With as prim and proper as you are, of course you'd use a drycleaner."

"And the laughter?"

"I'll bet you're one of the only male college students that even know what a drycleaner is, let alone use one. It's cute. So you couldn't have had very much to wash every week then. No underwear, dry-cleaning all your clothes. Couldn't have left much to wash."

"Mostly my towels and my bedding," he agreed with her.

"And you're probably one of the only guys here that actually washes their sheets."

"You are washing yours," he pointed out.

"Yeah, but I'm a girl. That kind of stuff matters to us. Guys, not so much."

Sesshoumaru was rather embarrassed by her words. She'd basically said he had more in common with female students than with male and he feared that would cause her to like him less. Almost as if she could see the worry in his eyes, the miko approached and pressed her body close to his, pressing her lips to his chin. Before she could pull away, he leaned down and caught her lips, burying one hand in her hair so that he could control the kiss.

He wanted nothing more at that moment than to prove to her that he was entirely male, despite his laundry habits. Her right leg began to slide up his left and he caught her knee, pulling it higher, forcing her body against his for balance as he dominated her lips. He wasn't satisfied until Kagome moaned softly into the kiss while grinding herself against his thigh with need. He was tempted to drop to his knees right then and there to remind her of just how he could make her feel, but his fear of being caught in such a compromising position kept him from doing so.

He pulled back, staring deeply into hooded eyes, before running his nose along her cheek and releasing her knee from his grip. She stepped away with a somewhat dazed smile, which made the taiyoukai smirk. It took her a minute for her focus to return to the laundry as she remembered the heat of that kiss.

Sesshoumaru sat down on one of the plastic chairs to begin the wait as the miko added laundry soap to each of her washers. His ass had barely touched the seat when his phone began to ring and he jumped up, digging it out of his pocket to check the screen. Recognizing the number as one of the school extensions, he shot her an apologetic and rather guilty look before heading out into the hallway to answer the call.

Kagome sighed heavily but continued her task, turning on washer after washer. She was surprised when he returned after what seemed like only a few moments. He had a grin on his face until his eyes met hers. He could see the upset on her face, knew that she wasn't okay with this, with his keeping something from her.

Sesshoumaru was instantly in front of her, gently caressing her cheek. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "It won't be long, I promise you. I swear it's not anything bad. It's a surprise, that's all. If it's really bothering you, I'll tell you, but I would much rather show you. Please do not be angry with me."

"How long?" she asked.

"Tomorrow morning. Kagome, it isn't worth trying to surprise you if it's going to upset you instead."

The miko thought it over for a long moment, weighing the pros and the cons of making him tell her now. The last thing she wanted was to give him the impression that she didn't trust him, because she did, implicitly. She wasn't sure why this was bothering her so much. Maybe because he had always been so open with her up until this point. He'd shown her his true self, everything about him, without hesitation so it just felt wrong that he was hiding something now.

"I can wait," the miko told him, fighting to make her tone sound earnest. "I trust you."

Prompt: Doleful: full of grief, causing grief, or expressing grief. (Obscure Word Challenge)

Ever since he'd taken that phone call, Kagome had seemed cold and detached, which was making Sesshoumaru incredibly nervous. He hadn't considered how it would make her feel, knowing that he was keeping something from her. If he had, he would have figured out some way to hide it better, so she didn't have the slightest idea. He could have set his phone to vibrate and allowed the woman to leave him a message. He didn't really have to talk to her, but now that he had, something was off with his girlfriend. She was obviously not happy with him, even though she insisted that everything was fine.

In her defense, Kagome wasn't trying to be cold. She was just lost in thought, her brain coming up with endless possibilities for what he might be hiding. She was lost in her own head, cursing her mind every time it came up with an idea that involved him leaving or betraying her. She knew that wasn't going to happen, so why did her brain keep coming back around to that? She folded both hers and his laundry while in a kind of daze, hanging up her nicer clothes on autopilot, until she had empty baskets beside her.

Being in the miko's presence was making him insane. She'd chosen for him not to tell her, and he didn't want to, but he was worried. Was he damaging their relationship all because he wanted his apartment to be a surprise? He'd gone through so much effort already that it would be a pity to give in and tell her now. He had to hold it back, even though the look in her eyes was killing him.

"I... will take my clothing upstairs to put away," he told her, thinking that things would be less awkward if he wasn't just sitting in her room staring at her. "Inuyasha left my room a mess, so I may be a while cleaning up." It wasn't a lie. There was trash everywhere and it looked as if the hanyou had rifled through his dresser drawers. Still, he wasn't just going to clean up. He was going to start packing. He could easily load his car full of everything he owned so that it was ready the next morning to move in. It would give them a little time apart while he got done something that needed doing. The last thing he wanted was to leave her presence, but at the moment, it felt necessary.

"Okay," Kagome replied softly. She watched as Sesshoumaru collected his clothing that she had folded, putting it into his own basket. He leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead before leaving the room. As soon as he was gone, the miko released a heavy sigh. Tomorrow morning couldn't come soon enough.

Sesshoumaru opened his door and sighed at what it revealed. He was usually a very neat person and the state of his room made his skin crawl. His brother had obviously made several trips to the snack machine during his stay and he had not deposited a single wrapper in the trash. Instead, they were strewn around everywhere. There were half empty cans of soda sitting on both his bedside table and his desk and the taiyoukai was suddenly very glad he'd taken his computer with him because the chances of it being ruined were high.

He collected all the trash before pulling his suitcase out from under his bed. He left out an outfit for the next day before packing away all the rest of his new clothing. He tossed all of his dirty clothing that needed to be dropped at the drycleaners into a bag in the laundry basket, topping it off with his small collection of non-school related books. He looked through each drawer, gathering the few little things that he had collected during his time in his dorm room.

In less than an hour, all of his worldly possessions were packed and in half an hour more, it had been carried down to the parking lot. Everything fit into the trunk of his car, and Sesshoumaru wondered what that said about him, that he had so few personal items. Was he really that dull? Kagome's room was filled with knickknacks and souvenirs, photographs of family and friends, and other items that were obviously important to her. He didn't collect anything, kept nothing as mementos of special moments in his life, since he'd never really had moments he wanted to remember before the miko. Perhaps now they would begin to collect things together.

Prompt: Paroemia - A proverb or an adage. (Avadrea's Oddities)

A short while after Sesshoumaru left, Kagome's phone rang. She wasn't really in the mood to chat, but she answered it anyway. She couldn't help but smile at Miroku's enthusiastic greeting and his first topic of conversation immediately made her feel a little better.

"I hooked up with your friend last night," he bragged.

"Sango? Good for you. Now you've officially made it through more than half of my sorority," she teased.

"A task that will, sadly, never be completed," he said dramatically. "Unless of course Sesshoumaru would give me a night with you, in the interest of finishing what one starts, or something."

Kagome giggled. "No, I don't think he'd be willing to loan me out for the night. He's a little possessive."

"How's his arm?"

"Oh, all healed up. He was fine by morning. What happened to Inuyasha after we left?"

"Some people helped him inside, a few girls took pity on him and cleaned him up a little. Eventually he got in a cab."

"I really hope I never see him again," Kagome said honestly.

"But I expect you will eventually, especially if you become a member of the family," Miroku said with a smirk that the miko could hear in his voice.

Kagome groaned. "Gods, I hadn't thought of that. Family dinners, holidays. Ugh. Sesshoumaru is lucky he's worth it."

"There's going to be a party next door tonight. I didn't know if you'd heard," the monk told her, revealing his real reason for calling. "You wanna come?"

The miko sighed. "I don't know. Things are kind of weird between Sesshoumaru and me right now."

"What? Already? But everything seemed so perfect last night!"

"He's hiding something from me, some kind of surprise. He says he's going to show me tomorrow morning, but I just... I don't like the idea that he's keeping something from me. He said he'd tell me if I really wanted him to, but I don't want him to think I don't trust him. Now that I'm thinking about it, yesterday he said he was going to see an advisor, but it took him over three hours. I don't think that's what he was doing at all. He lied to me."

"Every man has the right to surprise his woman from time to time," Miroku explained. "Small lies in the name of romantic surprises are allowed. He's probably doing something nice for you."

"Yeah, but I'm so used to him being honest and open with me. It's just making me nuts."

"Nothing like liquor and loud music to take the edge off," the monk exclaimed with a smirk as if he was sharing ancient wisdom with her.

Kagome laughed. "Yeah, I suppose you're right. I'll think about it."

"And then you'll decide that, yes, you definitely want to party with your friends. It'll take your mind off of it and help pass the time."

The miko nodded. "Yeah, and that couldn't hurt."