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Keeping Up Appearances	By : TheKaytla Category: InuYasha > Yaoi - Male/Male > InuYasha/Sessh?maru > InuYasha/Sessh?maru Views: 3544 -:- 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
- 1
- 2
Chapter One

Sesshomaru sat woodenly in the chair opposite his science teacher's desk. The man - a rake thin ningen of advancing years and retreating hairline - was watching him with concern through his wire-rim spectacles, making Sesshomaru increasingly uncomfortable.

"Are you sure nothing is going on at home?" the man asked again.

"Yes, sir. Everything is fine," Sesshomaru repeated, forcing himself to be calm. This was the last thing he needed...

The man - Mr. Simmons - leaned forward against his desk, expression sympathetic and encouraging, trying, Sesshomaru assumed, to get him to open up with his over-projection of support.

"I've been noticing for a while some... worrying behaviour," Simmons continued. "You constantly seem distracted during class, and your participation has all but ceased entirely. It's a stark change from your usual attitude. Until recently, I can't remember a single class where you didn't have all the answers."

Mr. Simmons sighed, picking up a small pile of papers stapled together, glancing at the front. Sesshomaru shifted uncomfortably.

"And then this." Mr. Simmons laid the paper out in front of Sesshomaru, and the youkai looked at it, trying his best to keep from cringing.

"This test should not have been difficult for someone of your calibre, Sesshomaru, and yet you scored a B plus. I'm not strictly meant to share the test scores of other students, but this time, you had the same score as Inuyasha. I know Mr. Takahashi always has..." Simmons paused, and Sesshomaru felt certain he was omitting a word such as 'suspiciously'. "He always has good grades, but he's never been a straight A student such as yourself."

Sesshomaru resisted the urge to squirm. He knew he was slipping, but pointing it out to him - and using that fool as a comparison - was making him increasingly agitated. He wanted to get out of here. And besides, he was running late.

"You understand why this concerns me and several other members of faculty, don't you? You're one of our brightest stars, Sesshomaru, and we would all hate to see you fall. If there's anything we might be able to help you with, or at least point you in the direction of someone who can, we wouldn't hesitate."

"Yes, sir," he said again.

The man looked at him for a long, silent moment before relenting. "Very well. If you're sure there's nothing... bothering you, you may go." They both stood, and Mr. Simmons escorted Sesshomaru to the door. "But if you change your mind, I'm available any time."

"Thank you, sir," Sesshomaru murmured, eyeing freedom with anticipation. "I'll keep that in mind."

Sesshomaru made his escape and felt like he could breathe again. Though he was still late, the science labs were fortunately quite near to the lockers, and he made it there in good time. However, when he got there, he was met by someone whose name was synonymous with delay: Kagura Onigumo.

The second she saw him, she broke off from her group of waspish friends and strode over to him, linking their arms together and leaning her head on his shoulder. Despite how he still attempted to open his locker and retrieve what he needed, she continued to hang on.

Smiling and laying her free hand on his chest, she peered up at him. "So I was thinking..." she began, "maybe we could take a drive after school... just the two of us. And maybe we'd end up somewhere quiet... and isolated... you know?"

Yes, he knew. He knew exactly what she was getting at, and found he wasn't the least bit interested. Too much on his mind, too little time to spend with her. Besides, it wasn't like he could just drive anywhere these days. Still, one didn't give one's girlfriend such a pathetic excuse, so lying was the only solution.

"I'm sorry, Kagura. I can't. There's somewhere I need to be."

Her smile vanished instantly, and the red eyes that looked up at him hardened a little. She was a determined girl, and one who didn't take kindly to being denied. And she liked control. There were usually consequences to spoiling it for her. Not that he could find the energy to care right now.

"Where?"

"It's a family event," he lied smoothly as he put study materials in his messenger bag. "I've already tried to get out of it without success. We'll have to wait until another time."

Her painted lips pursed into a pout. "Fine," Kagura finally relented, but he could tell she wasn't happy about having to change her plans. "But make sure you call me. You forgot last night."

Another annoyance, but he let it slide. "Of course."

He then suffered through a kiss, all the while resisting the urge to look at his watch over her shoulder, and finally, he was free, though running far too late for his liking. He wasn't even able to run to his car because other students were about (and what would they think of that?) and it would doubtless be a hot topic of discussion by the time he arrived at school tomorrow.

He shoved his bag in the back of the shiny, overpriced silver Lexus and climbed in, carefully navigating his way out of the car park and starting the drive home.

---

An hour later, he settled himself in a seat by the window of a city bus, only to immediately be boxed in by a ragged ningen who smelled like stale alcohol and failure. He managed to stop himself wrinkling his nose in disgust and turned to look out the window, trying to block everything out.

He hated riding the bus. People spoke too loudly, seemingly always trying to drown each other out, and inevitably a child would start screaming somewhere along the journey. If he was particularly unlucky, they would set each other off in a chain reaction of misery and piercing noise until he wanted to shout at the incompetent mothers to take their shrieking offspring off the bus and restore peace.

And if it wasn't the noise that got to him, the stink gave him the last push over the edge. With a youkai's nose, he was able to smell every layer of body odour and filth, old and new, and it not only made him feel ill, but it usually succeeded in giving him a headache as well. And that was the last thing he needed when on his way to a job he already despised.

He wished he could drive there, but his car cost an absolute fortune to run and he hated the idea of unnecessary travel. And if he was wishing, it would be better spent on wishing he had no reason to travel to a job at all.

He blamed his father. Certainly his mother did all she could to make it worse, but his father was the root of it all. They'd never been a close family, and he knew it well, but what had given him the right to leave them out of the blue for a mistress and their secret family he'd never met and hadn't even known existed? Worse yet, he'd sneakily emptied all the accounts, leaving his old family with barely anything to get by. Then he'd just disappeared.

His mother still told people he was away on business. She seemed to be living in a state of complete denial, waiting for when things would magically fix themselves again. She squandered what little cash they had on maintaining her lifestyle while she hoped to land a new rich husband to keep her satisfied and well supplied with riches and luxuries.

He couldn't help but feel the hypocrisy there. After all, wasn't he doing the same thing? He still drove his expensive car to and from school instead of selling it. He kept his fine clothes, the other gadgets and luxuries he didn't expressly need. He never put all his effort into arguing over selling the house. He hadn't even told his teachers he was working and thus finding it difficult to study, so he hadn't even been able to ask for leniency or help keeping up.

Despite this, he was more pragmatic than his mother and knew their problems wouldn't be solved easily. He'd taken it upon himself to get not one job, but two. After all, his school was private and there was a fee due at the beginning of each term. What they had now likely wouldn't cover it with the way his mother insisted on acting. And besides, he still had college to think about. How would he afford his tuition like this? He had no idea.

He closed his eyes and leaned his forehead on the window, sighing softy. Tuition fees wouldn't even matter if he didn't somehow keep his grades up. If they continued to fall so rapidly, he wouldn't be able to get into college anyway. He seemed to be stuck in a lose-lose situation. If he quit his jobs, he wouldn't be able to afford school. If he kept working, he'd have no time to study and would end up failing, making working pointless.

What he needed was some kind of balance. He needed to find some way, some schedule, to even things out so he could save himself and not fall behind Inuyasha Takahashi's scores as his teacher had alluded to earlier.

Suddenly, Sesshomaru's eyes snapped open and he sat up straight in his seat, the noise and smells of the bus forgotten. That was it. Inuyasha. That foul hanyou was the answer to all his problems.

It was common knowledge Inuyasha cheated to stay ahead. The rumour that floated around claimed he'd been threatened with being cut off from his family's fortune if he didn't work hard and get into college, but instead of putting in that work himself, he was "allegedly" paying someone else to do it for him. Everyone knew it was the truth, even the teachers, but no one had ever been able to prove that he'd done anything wrong.

That was what Sesshomaru needed. If he could just find out how Inuyasha was getting the answers to test questions and use it himself, he'd have one less thing to worry about. He could focus on working and saving every penny he could without stressing himself out over his grades. He might even be able to get another job if he could fit it in around his current schedule...

First, though, he had to convince Inuyasha to tell him what he wanted to know. And since the hanyou was extremely guarded and seemed to trust no one besides two friends (who didn't even attend their school), he suspected that would be quite the challenge.

Still, there was no match for Sesshomaru's will and determination. If his future hung in the balance, he would see it done, one way or another.

---

Well, here it is, guys. I posted polls in various places, and you all voted for me to post the new series, and this is it. As I said before, it's modern, and as I have a weird boner for high school fics... that's what you get. xD

Sorry it took a while to get this out after the poll and everything; I've been ill, and there may be an issue with my cat's health as well, so lots of reasons to be distracted from posting this. I was going to put it up this weekend, but decided today was better as this weekend is my birthday and I have no idea what I'll be doing.

I have three other written chapters for this, plus I'm working on chapter five right now... I also kinda know what I want to do with this, in general, so hopefully I'll be able to keep churning it out for a little while. At the very least, you guys will have stuff to read for the next month or so. ^^

Hope you enjoy. <3
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Keeping Up Appearances