Open Your Heart by Akumu no Jyurian

Invitation

Mrs. Higurashi picked up the ringing phone, sighing as she tried to simultaniously dry her sudsy hands on a dishrag. »Hello, Higurashi residence...Oh! Hello, Mr. Kishimoto, how are you?...I'm doing fine, thank you...Oh, really? Sure, I'd be happy to!....Oh, yes, I'm sure they would love to come!....Thank you so much, sir. Yes...you, too. Goodbye.«

Kagome, who had been descending the stairs when her mother was saying goodbye, came up next to her mother. »Mama, who was that?«

Mrs. Higurashi smiled. »Oh, it was a client asking if I would mind catering a party this Saturday night. And, he asked me to bring my family.«

Kagome's eyes lit up. A party? That sounded fun! She'd never been to any of the parties her mother catered, because most of the home owners were snobbish old women or evil, rich old couples, who would never invite the caterer's family.

Her mother was speaking again. »...and I thought maybe you'd ask your friends to go with you to pick out a dress?«

»A dress, mama? Is that really ok?« Kagome wasn't sure if they could afford it. She'd taken up a job at a small local bookstore coffee shop, by means of trying to help her mother out, but her mother wouldn't hear of it.

»Yes, Kagome. Take my credit card. Call your friends. You can probably make it back before dinnertime, since you've only been back from school for half an hour.« As Kagome was about to go upstairs to her phone, her mother called to her, »Pick out a pair of shoes to match, too!!«

Kagome merely shook her head and smiled. Her mother was too generous, sometimes. Kagome couldn't remember a time when her mother had ever acted selfish, or said anything to purposely hurt anyone. Just one of the reasons the girl loved her mother so much.

She headed upstairs to her room, where she plopped on her bed and grabbed the blue phone out of its cradle on the nightstand. After pressing a few numbers, she put the phone up to her ear and listened as it rang.

The other line crackled a bit as someone answered, »Hello?«

»Sango? Hey, it's Kagome!« Kagome lifted a brow as Sango sighed in relief.

»Hey, Kags. I thought you might have been one of Kohaku's friends trying to hit on me again. They tend to do that a lot.«

Kagome laughed. »Really, now? Are you sure they don't think they're calling me?«

She could feel the other girl's glare through the line as Sango said, »Yeah, well, I can have some admirers, can't I? Anyways, was there something you needed?«

»I can't just call to talk? Gosh, Sango. Well, I wanted to know if you'd come help me pick out a dress.«

Silence, then, »WHAT?! ARE YOU GETTIING MARRIED? WERE YOU EVEN DATING?«

Kagome nearly dropped the phone in the attempt to get it away from her ear. »N-No! Nothing like that, Sango-chan!« She added the suffix whenever Sango freaked her out or was acting childish, as a way of a reprimand.

Sango seemed to calm down. »Oh...Okay, then. So, what do you need a dress for?«

Kagome sighed. »You and your conclusion jumping...Ah, yeah, Mama was called to cater a big party, and the client offered for us to come along, so Mama told me to get a dress.«

Sango squealed. »A party! You'll have so much fun, Kags! Let's call Kikyou and go!«

So, they called Kikyo, who was happy to go, and she and Sango decided to meet up at Kagome's, from where they'd go shopping. Kagome, who'd been at one point excited to go to the party, was already starting to get a nervous feeling in the pit of her stomach.

______________

«Okay, so, be honest and tell me how ridiculus I look.« Kagome stepped out of the dressing room, and a collective gasp-as collective as two could be- reached her ears.

The dress was quite simple, yet so elegant and perfect for the girl it amazed her friends to no end. It was a deep midnight blue silk, with silver trim along the bottom and the straight-across-the-top-of-her-breasts neckline. The sleeves came just barely past the top of her shoulder toward her arm on top, but were cut close to her underarm at the bottom. Thin strips of silk coming from the edge of the sleeves on top attached to silver gloves that came up to the middle of her upper arm. The dress was purposely scrunched around her midriff, and it clung to her curves like it had been made for her, and her only.

»Oh, Kagome! How could you think it's ridiculus?!« Sango gushed.

Kikyou's response was about the same. »It's so...perfect! Get it, Kags, please!«

Kagome blushed at the attention, and reddened even further when a few guys in the men's section not too far off nodded approvals to each other. She lowered her shining blue eyes in embarrassment, concentrating on a single strand of material in the carpet at her feet.

She nodded as her friends continued to voice their positive opinions, turned, and reentered the fitting room.

When she came back out, she mentioned trying to find a pair of silver shoes to match the lining on the dress, and her friends hurried her to the front of the store to buy the dress, and get to the nearest shoe store.

____________

When Kagome returned home that evening, Thursday, she showed the dress to her mother, then took it upstairs to hang up neatly. She plopped down onto her bed and sighed, kicking her shoes off and rubbing her sock-clad toes together to losen the muscles.

She lay there for a few minutes, and then a knocked reached her ears from the other side of her bedroom door. »Yeah?«

The door opened, and Mrs. Higurashi's face appeared. »Dinner will be ready in a minute, Kagome. We're having those tasty pickles with it, again.«

The girl moved her arm from over her eyes, and lifted her head to look at her mother. »Ok, Mama. I'll set the table, if you want?«

»Thank you, Kagome.«

____________

The next morning, Kagome and Sango, who lived closer to their school than Kagome, and on the street Kagome took, met at Sango's house, and then headed to the school. Kikyou usually got a ride, so, unless she wasn't able to get one, they walked without her.

»So, the party's tomorrow night, Kagome?« Sango asked, trying to break the silence between them, although it wasn't unpleasant.

Kagome nodded. »Yep...I don't know who the client is, though, now that I think of it. I wonder if I know them?«

The girl next to her shrugged and shook her head in thought, her long, high brown ponytail swaying against her shoulderblades and back. »Someone at school might know, but won't it be fun to wait and see?«

»I'd like not to be surprised if it's someone I'd rather not be around that's hosting.«

Sango's warm brown eyes were filled with mirth as she trained them on Kagome's serious face. »Kagome, come on! It's just a party. If the host was nice enough to invite your whole family, I doubt you'll have a problem. Stop worring about it--it's so...trivial!«

The raven haired girl glanced sideways at Sango as they came to the front on the school. »Since when were you a psychology major, and one who picks at my brain, no less?«

Sango's eyebrows rose high into her bangs. »What the hell are you talking about?«

Before Kagome could answer, a girl that looked somewhat similar to herself walked toward them from her once stationary position by the school's front steps. »Yes, what are you talking about, Kagome?«

»Morning, Kikyou!« Kagome chirped cheerfully. »I was just telling Sango what a great psychologist she could be if only she'd apply herself.«

Kikyou smiled knowingly. »She's doing it again, hm?«

Sango stuck out her lower lip. »Hmph, what do you mean, 'again?'«

Kikyou and Kagome shook their heads as a refusal to answer, and Sango sighed in defeat. »Fine...Let's just get to English. Shikon-sensei will beat us if we're late.«

Kikyou gasped in mock horror at the insult to her mother. »Why, Sango, how could you say such a thing?!«

»Ah, Kikyou, love, you know how fond I am of your dear mother!«

The mock horror turned to that of true, utter abhorrence. »Did you just...say...Kikyou, love?«

The three burst into fits of snorts, snickers, and giggles, earning a few repulsed looks from the more...well, the better-than-thou crowd.

The trio burst into the room, Kikyou first, followed by Kagome, who, in an attempt to slow herself, pushed down her heels, and Sango, who'd been paying less then usual attention to her surroundings, crashed into the shorter girl's back, causing the three of them to fall into a heap at the front of the full classroom. The bell rang, and they let out a sigh of relief...only to realize the entire class was staring at them as if they'd been naked and moaning.

Snickers from the back of the room, where the better-than-thou idiots were sitting, reached their ears quite loudly, and Shikon-sensei lifted her yardstick threateningly. »I'll pop you so fast your eyes'll pop out and a rabid skunk-moose'll eat 'em!« She hissed.

Kikyou's eyes nearly did pop out at her mother's words, and the girls scrambled to their feet. When Kagome slid into her seat, the desk tipped and almost fell over, but a quick grab on the arm from Sango, and everything was fine.

Shikon-sensei took on a normal aura, and bopped the chalkboard behind her. »Today, we'll delve deeper into our own language, as learning another is pointless if you aren't familiar with your own. My secret passion of reading fanfics has led me to the conclusion that there are authors your age that have an amazing vocabulary in English, using words I didn't know existed, even in Japanese.«

Noticing the looks she was recieving, she exclaimed, »You don't read fanfictions? OH MY! Well, you simply must!« She ran behind her desk, clicked a few things on her computer, and her printer started going. After a few pages had been printed, she darted out of the classroom, and moments later, reappeared with a class set of copies.

«Now, this is in English, but I thought something like this might happen, so I have typed it in Japanese for you to be able to see how well this person writes. You'll be quite shocked when I tell you who wrote it, as I'm sure you all know him.«

Kagome looked down on her papers when she recieved them. She read what she could of the English, which was quite a chunk of it, but had to reference the Japanese version for words she didn't know.

The writing was absolutely....wonderous. Every detail was molded in, but it wasn't overdone or untasteful. The writer described a person, a woman, with such....depth and understanding, she didn't think it could possibly be a male who wrote it. Simple things such as the curve of an ear, the line of a collarbone on a chest, and the small dimple in an elbow were so captivating to Kagome, she almost missed the next words from Shikon-sensei's mouth.

»Please, will the writer nod if I may acknowledge them? Everyone look up in the air so you don't notice, please?«

After a moment, she spoke again. »Ok, well, I'd like to congratulate Mr. Sesshoumaru Kishimoto on this wonderful piece of writing.«

__________

«Can you believe Sesshoumaru-senpai wrote that?« Sango asked in astonishment as the three friends sat in the school cafeteria eating their lunces.

Kagome shook her head. »I knew he was intelligent, but that was amazing. How can a guy, especially like him, write something so masterful?«

Kikyou chimed in, »I've read some of his stuff before. My mom recommended I read a chapter, which included that excerpt. He's brilliant, really.«

»You knew it was him, then?« Kagome asked.

Kikyou shook her head, her soft black bangs dancing over her delicate eyebrows. »No, I had no idea. I read that one chapter, but I never even knew the author's penname. I'm sure he'll get quite a few reviews now that it's in the open.«

Sango rolled her eyes. »Yeah, from all his arrogant friends who wouldn't know the first thing about writing. Here's an example of a review he'd get.« She pulled out a piece of paper and wrote:

'OMG lolz dat wuz lyke awsum i lyked it plz rite mor lolz'

Kagome squealed in laughter. »Sango, that's...pfffffffft!!« She wasn't even sure why it was so funny.

Kikyou bit her lips together to keep the laughter in, until she couldn't bear it any longer and she fell off the bench backwards.

She hopped up to her feet, dusting herself off and gracefully sitting back down.

»KIKYOU, HONEY!«

»Oh, doggonit, mom's coming.«

»Doggonit?« Sango asked, spitting out her iced tea.

Kagome picked up her napkin and buried her face in it, and spit was visible on the thin paper.

»Kagome, what the hell are you doing?« Sango lifted her lip in disgust.

»I'm trying to...keep the drool...from laughing...off my food!«

Sango sighed and shook her head. »God, you two are so stupid. Kikyou, your mom's a psycho, too, in case you didn't know.«

_______________________

Well, how do you like it? I absolutely love Mrs. Shikon. I had to have someone ridiculusly stupid in here. Pfft..

I'm gaining respect for Kikyou, so, she's gonna be nice and happy in this, for once.

I wanted to bring the Elemental magic into here, because I probably won't be working on the RK elemental story I have, ever...

Oh, and, this story is named for the song at the beginning, obviously. I thought it fit Sesshoumaru so perfectly, I couldn't help but use it.

R and R, please!