A/N: Ye gods it's been forever. I bet you guys are at the "kill Odi" stage of this story. I apologize, but I fear I must warn you. I have 17 stories on my userpage, 5 of which are works in progress. On top of that, I have 26 original stories I work on, much more frequently than my fanfictions. I'm afraid they take precedence, when I can get the time to work on them. I work full-time, and am a constant babysitter to whichever one of my numerous nieces and nephews (15 in total) is over at the time. On my days off, I usually babysit, or try to hang out with my lone friend. Yes, lone friend. I have one, due to numerous backstabbings by other so-called "friends." My free-time is practically nil. I do try though, but I fear this may take a while, much like "Petals in the Wind." 19 chapters, TWO YEARS. As much as I love reviews, I won't take offense if you decide to stray for a few chapters, or until I finish it.

In the meantime, thanks for reading.

I do not own, or claim to own the series "Inuyasha" nor any characters or personages within. This story is non-profit.

ooooooooooooo

They both turned, almost comical expressions of shock on their faces. Kouga stood grinning in the doorway, a camera held in his hands. He smiled at it lecherously.

“Ooh, the sweet scent of blackmail…” He said, giving the camera a good sniff. Rin turned red in embarrassment, then grew angry.

“Why you little…” Without hesitating she lunged herself at him, and proceeded to choke him Simpson’s style. Sesshomaru just quirked an eyebrow at the pair, trying desperately to figure out how Kouga was going to pull off an attempted seduction on stage, when he so clearly had the lower hand in real life.

Choking soon turned to pummeling, and then a desperate battle for the camera. Like Kouga, Rin apparently had her own claws, and knew how to use them fairly well. Within a few seconds he was lying on the floor, his face a mess of scratches, and the camera held triumphantly up in the air.

“VENI, VEDI, VICI!” She claimed victoriously, then took a good look at the camera. A sour expression crossed her face. “I was going to smash it…but a Canon EOS is too precious and wonderful to smash…” She turned to look at Kouga. “So I’ll settle for deleting all your files.”

“What? No! You can’t-” He said, right before the Beep. Beep. Beep. “NOOOOO! My photography!”

Rin cackled, earning a frightened looking look from Kouga.

“Are you sure you’re cut out for this role? Aren’t you a little opposite from nice?” He said stupidly, and then was kicked in the knee’s.

“I’d be nicer if you were.” She said, and he gave a smug smile.

“Nice like Sesshomaru?” He replied, and made a kissy face. Sesshomaru threw a rock at him. Where the rock came from, nobody knew. It wasn’t like he had a collection under his bed or anything.

“What are you doing here?” He asked, sitting on the bed. Kouga stood up and brushed some imaginary lint off his shirt.

“I heard you were practicing, decided I needed to get in on this, and-”

“Kagome called you and reminded you that you were in the play, right?” Sesshomaru broke in, his voice bland and his face equally so. Kouga sweat dropped as Sesshomaru continued. “My guess is that were at some coffee shop with yet another girl you won’t recall the next morning, and who is probably ten years your senior.”

“How did you-”

“You’re a slut.”

Rin laughed at Kouga’s mock offended expression. Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes into golden slits.

“Whore.” He said slowly, earning even more laughter from Rin. “Skank. Trick. Prostitute. Hussy. Light-skirt.” With each word the laughter became stronger, until she fell back into the chair in front of the desk and held up a hand for mercy.

“Please…no more..” She begged, tears at the corner of her eyes. “I can’t take anymore. Oh, that last one. How old is that insult?”

Sesshomaru looked up in contemplation. “I think it originated sometime around the 1700‘s. I know it’s English, but I’m not too sure of the date.” The laughter abruptly died and Rin stared at him in mute shock. “What?”

“You actually knew the answer.” She said slowly.

“Not in entirety. The etymology of that particular phrase is lost on me. I’m more suited to the history of words, not complete phrases.”

Kouga’s eyebrows went up. “Nerd.” He said clearly. Rin nodded.

“How smart are you?” She asked.

“He makes perfect grades in everything.” Kouga replied.

“That’s not what I asked. I asked how smart he is. IQ wise.”

“My IQ is 162.” Sesshomaru said.

“…If I kiss you without laughing, will you do my algebra?”

“I second that.”

“Kouga…not only are you a slut, you’re borderline fag too.”

Rin started laughing again. “Stop this! We need to concentrate on not sucking! From the top!” She exclaimed, punching a fist in the air for emphasis. Line practice resumed.

oooooooooo

For the next few weeks, it was if they had totally turned into different people. Sesshomaru, encouraged by Rin’s exuberance and clumsiness, could be seen smiling every once in a while, at least for a second before his usual blank look returned. Kouga was actually paying attention in class. Well…not all of them, just Drama, which had become as fascinating as older women ever since he realized he was to practice mauling Rin, over, and over, and over, and over.

Sesshomaru wasn’t sure how he stomached the site of the giggling, blushing girl as Kouga pawed at her. Largely because he just really disliked seeing Kouga all over her, and he was still having a hard time trying to figure out if she meant the giggles, or not.