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Keeping Up Appearances	By : TheKaytla Category: InuYasha > Yaoi - Male/Male > InuYasha/Sessh?maru > InuYasha/Sessh?maru Views: 3545 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: I do not own the series Inuyasha, nor its characters.They are property of Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan, Yomiuri TV, Sunrise, and Viz. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1-One
- 2-Two
- 3-Three
- 4-Four
- 5-Five
- 2
- 3
- 4
Chapter Three

The drive to school the next morning was almost unbearably tense. Not only had he taken to keeping a paranoid eye on the metre of his gas-guzzling car, he was preparing himself for the unwanted attention Inuyasha was sure to throw his way. It would be a setback in his efforts to keep a low profile, but he could weather that storm. It would just be a huge annoyance he really didn't need. He fervently wished he hadn't tried to find a quick solution with the hanyou when he was fully aware he couldn't be relied on.

He arrived precisely on time to class and walked in calmly. Inuyasha wouldn't grace them with his presence for at least half an hour, so he had time to be as relaxed as it was possible to be for him these days. The teacher was a little late herself that morning, so he took out his books and crammed ten minutes of study in before class began; he was at the point where he was stealing every possible minute he could in an effort to keep his head above the surface.

Inuyasha strolled in almost an hour late, yawning and looking as scruffy as if he'd slept in his uniform. He fell gracelessly into his seat at the back of the class while giving a half-hearted excuse to the teacher about the traffic being a menace. She wasn't buying it, but it would have made her an idiot if she had, seeing as it was one of a few reasons Inuyasha gave for being late practically every day.

The lesson was over so soon after that that Sesshomaru wondered why Inuyasha had even bothered coming to first class. He hadn't even opened his textbook; instead, he'd spent the ten minutes of class with his head on his desk. Apparently, he'd had a long night, doing gods knew what.

But as the morning dragged on, Inuyasha made no attempt to spill his secret to anyone. No one whispered behind his back. In fact, the hanyou seemed content to alternate between dozing off and using an elastic band to flick small bits of paper around the classroom. Sesshomaru casually allowed himself to relax, and grudgingly admitted that maybe he had judged his classmate a little harshly, assuming he would just spread malicious gossip.

The relaxation didn't last long, however. In the class just before lunch, their teacher informed them that they would have a quiz the next day on Ancient Greece. Panic set in as Sesshomaru realised he had to work and would have no time to study properly. To make matters worse, this was a class he had been letting slide a bit as he juggled his priorities and deemed it less essential than others.

He fretted over his situation all through lunch and his afternoon lessons, and all the way to his locker at the end of the day. He was so absorbed in his worry that he didn't immediately notice someone calling his name with increasing impatience. Annoyed himself, he turned and snapped at them, only realising after the fact that he was staring into the face of a very angry girlfriend.

He had thought this before, but with her short fuse and temper, Kagura would be best suited as a fire demon. More so than wind, certainly. Or perhaps poison, he thought tiredly, as he was forced to suffer through the venomous tongue lashing she gave him about disrespect, all the while thinking only of getting away from her as fast as possible so that he could go home, get changed and head to work.

He drove home angry, speeding a little out of sheer frustration whenever he hit a stretch of straight road. He didn't know how he was meant to handle this. If he got anything less than an A, it was going to send up red flags. The faculty were apparently watching him now, he had to remember that.

With no time for a shower because of Kagura, he just stripped out of one uniform and donned another in record time, stomping out of the house again without even bothering to inform his mother of his plans. It wasn't like she cared at this point, and he didn't want to see her anyway. She was the root of all his problems right now.

He couldn't help but think of what Inuyasha had said the day before. Could it really be true? If it really was, it could help take the pressure off immensely. With his grades secured, he could focus instead on working and doing his best to make sure his future tuition was paid. Even better, it wouldn't even be cheating. It would just be studying with a classmate... perfectly normal social behaviour.

Resolved, he made up his mind to test Inuyasha somehow.

~*~

He didn't have any time to rethink his decision, so he went straight to Inuyasha's after work. It was 8:30 when he managed to slip inside with another tenant and went straight up to Inuyasha's floor. Even from outside the apartment, he could hear the raucous sound of guitars and drums pouring from some sort of sound system, a tribute to Inuyasha's abysmal taste in music. He had to knock very loudly in order for the hanyou's sensitive ears to hear him.

The music abruptly shut off, to a chorus of groans from inside. That made Sesshomaru pause. Inuyasha had company? He hadn't expected that; hadn't even thought of the possibility, actually. A rather stupid oversight on his part, but he thought he could be forgiven for having tunnel vision where his grades were concerned. For a moment, he thought about turning and leaving, but Inuyasha was already calling out that he was coming and besides, he would be able to sniff out who had come to his door late at night. He was stuck now.

Instead of showing any of his insecurities, Sesshomaru stood with his back straight and his head held high when Inuyasha opened the door. He was wearing a white vest shirt and a pair of black sweats, and he leaned against the door frame with his arms folded, one eyebrow lifted. Sesshomaru took that as an indication that he was meant to start. So be it.

"I came here to talk about what happened yesterday," he explained, deciding to skip the pleasantries. Any exchange of hellos sounded awkward in his head, which meant they'd be cripplingly painful if spoken out loud.

"And I'm supposed to drop what I'm doing because you want to have a chat? When you're the one who acted like an ass?"

"Ooh, what happened?" the ningen in Inuyasha's apartment asked, his eyes sparkling mischievously. "Is this guy the latest notch on your bedpost, Inuyasha?"

Sesshomaru felt terribly affronted by this insinuation. Him, debase himself by sleeping with Inuyasha? A man? His eyes flashed in the direction of the human in question, but Inuyasha beat him before he could say anything venomous.

"Geez, Miroku, can't you keep your mind out of the gutter for more than thirty seconds? I don't fuck everyone I see, y'know."

"Cut him some slack," the one Sesshomaru recognised as the infamous wolf youkai said. "Poor Miroku hasn't gotten any in a while now."

"Yeah, well, if he wasn't such a fucking lech, maybe some girl would let him get close enough to get a leg over."

Rather than seeming annoyed, Miroku just let out a put upon sigh. "I've told you, it's an affliction. I simply can't control it."

Inuyasha looked over his shoulder and snorted. "You mean like that time you tried to say your hand was cursed after grabbing that girl's ass?"

Koga, the wolf, let out a bawdy laugh. "I remember that. Her boyfriend chased you for five blocks."

Now the human looked sullen. "If I'd known she had a slab of meat of a boyfriend nearby, I'd have gone after someone else. Am I supposed to be clairvoyant?"

"I think you're supposed to keep your hands to yourself... at least until after you've asked her name," Koga pointed out.

Miroku just shrugged. Sensing this could go on for a while if he left it alone, and not desiring to hear anymore about the filthy exploits of the hanyou's friends besides, Sesshomaru cleared his throat to get Inuyasha's attention again.

"Look, I realise this is perhaps not the most opportune time for it, but --"

"All right, lemme cut you off there," Inuyasha interrupted. "That sentence sounds like the start of a really long speech and I really don't care. Fuck it; come in, go away, do whatever you like."

Inuyasha turned away from the door then, leaving it open, and Sesshomaru took a deep breath to steel himself before following him in. If he had to put up with Koga and Miroku as well, this was going to be a long, painful experience.

He settled himself in an armchair away from the group, and declined Inuyasha's offer of alcohol. He felt a pressing urge to point out that it was a school night and they shouldn't be drinking, but he managed to hold himself back, just barely. An uncomfortable silence followed until the ningen got to his feet and stretched.

"We should probably go, Koga," he said, glancing at the wolf. Koga was in the middle of swigging from his bottle, so he waggled it up and down in lieu of a nod of agreement. Apparently, this was enough for Miroku, who turned back to Inuyasha.

"What? It's only early."

"Yeah, but you need to talk, right?"

"We can come hang out tomorrow or somethin'," Koga added, putting his now empty bottle down on the coffee table. "No big."

Inuyasha blew out a breath and glanced at Sesshomaru, then shrugged. "All right. See you tomorrow." He made no attempt to get up and see them out as his friends said their goodbyes and left, closing the door behind them. He just leaned back on his sofa and stretched his legs out.

Sesshomaru didn't have time to hang around, so he decided to get things moving again. But he wanted Inuyasha's cooperation, so he had to address the current situation before moving onto more pressing matters. "Were they here for something important?"

"Hm? Oh, no. They just studied a bit, then hung out. Usual."

Sesshomaru lifted an eyebrow. Perhaps this was the truth to Inuyasha's success at school. "Studied? With you?"

"More like under my supervision."

"You were tutoring them?" Sesshomaru couldn't help sounding skeptical.

Inuyasha chose to ignore said skepticism. "Not really. They studied, and if they got stuck, they asked me how to figure it out."

"That's tutoring."

The hanyou shrugged carelessly. "Whatever. What's it matter, anyway?"

No point beating around the bush now. He didn't have the time. "There's a history test tomorrow."

"There is?" Inuyasha said, seeming surprised. Small wonder, seeing as he'd barely paid attention all day, as far as Sesshomaru could tell. "And I suppose you suddenly want my help now?"

"If you prove you can actually help... yes."

The hanyou raised an eyebrow at him. "For someone asking for a favour, you sure do want me to jump through a lot of hoops."

"I can't afford to be jerked around," Sesshomaru said seriously. "I have precious little time to study as it is. The test is tomorrow."

Inuyasha sighed, scratching his head. "Fine. Just study like you would normally, and if you find something you don't get, ask."

Sesshomaru frowned; that didn't sound very promising, especially as it wouldn't be any different from what he did normally. It would only mean he was doing it somewhere he didn't feel comfortable, and he'd wasted precious time coming all the way here and going through the debacle he had to endure to get to this point. Yet if he left, he'd waste even more time going home, and he still had to sleep at some point. He was better off staying here at this point, even if Inuyasha turned out to be as useless as he feared.

Reluctantly, he agreed.

Two hours later, Inuyasha was sprawled lazily across his sofa reading a graphic novel. Sesshomaru sat on the floor, his textbooks spread out across the coffee table in place of the empty pizza box and half a dozen beer bottles of earlier, scribbling furiously in his textbook. Somehow, with his attention split between talking and reading, the hanyou was rattling off fact after fact about Ancient Greece, from the mythical pantheon of the gods to the workings of the ordinary commoner of the time, and everything he asked about between while Sesshomaru's head whipped back and forth between checking his work and gaping at Inuyasha in pure shock.

Maybe, just maybe, this would work out after all.

---

Are things finally looking up for Sesshomaru? :O

I'm so glad I read through this before posting just to check for typos... I'd left a bunch of notes in from when I was writing it, so there were parts if that just... didn't make sense at all. Including dialogue written in third person. xD

Also, you guys should all go check out this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZxBEzSNqJ4 It's a band called Rixton, they have two singles out currently, though that link is a pretty cool cover/response to Taylor Swift's I Knew You Were Trouble. I like it a lot, so I figured I'd share. ^^

Hope you guys are doin' great, and I love you all.
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Keeping Up Appearances