Disclaimer: I own nothing of or related to Inuyasha or Junk!Boys.

~(*)~

Kagome sighed through her nose and let her head fall against the tree behind her. "Do you guys have a fetish for trees? This is the third time we've all been out here—the second time you've forced me." Her sentence ended in a growl, but Tsukasa didn't seem bothered. In fact, he smiled charmingly while Takato had the decency to look sheepish. "So what is it you want now?"

Tsukasa pushed his glasses further up his nose. "We have a proposition for you, but first, I believe Takato has something he would like to say."

Kagome glanced at Takato, who nervously rubbed the back of his head at the sudden attention he was getting. A dark brow rose in irritated curiosity. She had thought he made his thoughts very clear yesterday; what could he possibly be embarrassed about?

A sigh broke from his lips, and Takato let his hand fall back to his side in a determined fist. Brown eyes met hers, and Kagome let her second brow join the first. "I'm sorry."

Blink. Kagome stared at him, blue eyes wide, before she released a sigh of her own. They'd done their research. "Though you should not have jumped to conclusions, you weren't aware of the situation. Forgiven." The old dog would be so proud of her calm, dispassionate declaration if he heard it. "Now back to the reason you felt so inclined as to drag me out here?"

Tsukasa arched an amused eyebrow when Takato slumped a bit in relief, but he quickly turned his attention back to Kagome. "We have a request of you, Kagome-san. It shouldn't take more than a week or so, and depending on how you fair, we will ask for more of your aid in the future."

A scowl forming on her face, Kagome crossed her arms. "I have a feeling that I am not going to like this request at all, and I ask to reserve the right to decline."

"Of course." His answer came too quickly, and Kagome narrowed her eyes. He was calculating, so he had a card up his sleeve for if she did decline. A card she was sure she wouldn't like. "I'm sure you've heard the rumors of the so-called Junk Boys?"

Kagome scoffed. "Who hasn't?"

"Then you already know the very basis of our request." Tsukasa's glasses gleamed in the filtering sunlight, a smirk growing on his face once more. Kagome's back stiffened, her shoulder blades digging into the bark behind them. Oh, hell no. He couldn't mean—

"We, that is, Takato and I, make up the Junk Boys, and we would like your help in our current case."

He could mean, apparently. Kagome sighed. "In that case, I will gracefully decline with the promise to never let that piece of information slip from my lips to anyone."

Takato regained himself and studied her, while Tsukasa adjusted his glasses. Kagome watched them both, deciphering their actions. If she knew them better, she would trust them more, but after what they pulled the day before, and the fact that Takato had a kind of guilt in his eyes, Kagome didn't trust them as far as she could throw them.

"Well, it seems we have a problem then." Tsukasa's voice, sly, almost dark, sent shudders down her spine. "We are truly in need of someone to help us, since, as you saw, our performance with each other is below par." Sapphire eyes narrowed when his grey ones met hers. "And given our short list of choices, we'll just have to ask Tomoya."

His back slammed against a tree faster than Takato's eyes could see, and the blond could only stare in shock as Kagome growled in Tsukasa's stunned face. "You slimy bastard! How dare you blackmail me?" The fury and pride Sesshomaru instilled in her years ago fueled her strength as she pressed harshly on his shoulders.

"You want me to help you? Fine. But you so much as touch Tomoya in anyway, especially like you did to me yesterday, I'll have your balls on a silver platter."

With that dark promise, Kagome whirled back toward the school. Her ebony hair created a dark halo around her, a mockery of the purity she possessed as a miko, and Takato stumbled out of her way.

How dare they? How dare they? Kagome pressed her lips into a tight line, her hands into fists. She would play their little game, but if they so much as looked at Tomoya the wrong way, there would be no saving them from her wrath. Damn them!

Her fist slammed into a tree, and she didn't bother to look at the chunk of bark she cracked.

~(*)~

"Well…" Takato coughed slightly, looking back to where his friend leaned against the same tree Kagome had pinned him to. "That probably could have gone better."

Tsukasa chuckled, straightening his uniform. "Perhaps, but it wouldn't have worked as effectively. This will help the investigation, even if she is not overly cooperative."

Running a hand through his hair, Takato released a small smile, the guilt that had been in his eyes before now replaced with a flooding determination. "Yep! And I never really considered myself bisexual, but seeing her back you into a tree was seriously…" He trailed off, unsure of the word to finish his thought.

But a calculating smile told him that Tsukasa had the same thought. "Attractive."

~(*)~

Waiting outside Tomoya's classroom in a much fouler mood than the day before, Kagome glared into the zero space between her and the door. Inside, she could hear her cousin's sweet voice, but it didn't bring the calm she usually felt. Instead, she was as furious as she had been all day.

Her usual practice of dozing through class and only listening to the math lecture was ruined as she had set her head on her desk and glared into the wood, her arms protecting her from the world. Sleep was no safe haven—she knew that from years past—so she didn't sleep. She planned several creative ways to destroy her classmates.

Finally, after hours of feeling the eyes of one boy or the other on her back, she could relax a little and take care of Tomoya.

"Kago-nii!" The small brunette smiled brilliantly when he opened up the door, and Kagome reflexively smiled back. "Are you okay? You left so early this morning."

"Ah…" She forgot that she hadn't seen him since she snuck out of the house. "Yeah, I'll be fine. I've just been harassed by—"

"Kagome!" The exuberant voice made her twitch.

"—my esteemed classmates." Her voice dropped into a growl, but she didn't turn around to acknowledge Takato and Tsukasa striding down the hall. "Tomoya, you wouldn't happen to know the legal procedures for requesting restraining orders, would you?"

An arm fell around her shoulder, and Kagome felt herself being pulled back into the athlete's chest. "Aw, don't be like that." Takato sounded so happy, playful, that, on any other day, with any other person, she would have laughed with him. Now, though, she just wanted to punch his face in. "We want to walk home together again."

Tomoya's face was pale, and Kagome scowled. He thought they were going to bully her because they knew her secret, and he thought it was his fault. "Tomo—"

"You wouldn't mind, would you?" Tsukasa's darker voice, sly with a hidden meaning that made a twitch develop beneath Kagome's left eye, wrapped around the entire group of her, Tomoya, and his friends. "Tomoya-chan is surely big enough to walk himself home."

The twitch became a disgusted scowl. Such an innocent comment held such a nasty threat. "Fi—"

"No!" Kagome blinked in shock when Tomoya flung himself at her, knocking Takato's arm away. "My Kago-nii!" He glared up at his shocked senpais, tears in his eyes. "You can't have him!"

"Tomoya…" She set a hand on his head. For someone only a year younger than her, he was so small. When he lifted his pleading gaze to her, she couldn't help but give in. With a soft huff and a smile, she turned to her pursuers. "Sorry, but it looks like I'll be walking home with Tomoya after all."

She couldn't entirely keep the triumphant tone from her voice, and Tsukasa narrowed his eyes. "Of course. Family does come first, I suppose. Perhaps tomorrow."

Tomoya's hold on her tightened, but Kagome shrugged noncommittally. "Whatever."

If she had her way, she would stay as far away from them as she could. But the calculating light in Tsukasa's eyes was more worrisome than she was willing to admit. Strangely enough, Kawakami watched them leave even more closely than Tsukasa, which was downright scary in that she didn't think such a thing was possible in a human.

With her arm wrapped protectively around Tomoya, Kagome glanced over her shoulder at the group. What a strange place she moved to. "Tomoya." She waited until he was looking up at her, and her grip on his shoulder tightened. "Stay away from them, okay? And watch out for your classmate, the player." He tilted his head to the side, so utterly confused that it was adorable. "I mean it. They're just trouble in the making, and I don't want you involved."

"But…" Tomoya bit his lip. "But you'll be involved…"

Kagome almost felt bad that she was pushing this issue so much when he was just worried about her, but the pull at her instincts wouldn't let her leave it. "I've been involved in worse things than this, you know that."

She immediately regretted the words when he flinched. Sighing, she ran a hand through her hair. "Sorry, it's just—I want you safe, Tomo-chan. And I know you want me safe too," she admitted more quietly. She hadn't had someone look out for her, really, since she returned from the Sengoku Jidai. "But I'm more experienced in dealing with stuff like this. So let me do most of the heavy lifting, okay?"

When he didn't look any better, Kagome conceded. A little. "I'll ask for your help when I need it, promise." The smile she flashed him, short as it was, was a reflection of the past, of her happy naïveté, and it lifted a weight from Tomoya's shoulders. Soon, he was smiling back at her. "Now let's go find some oden, ne? I'm starving!"

"But we just had oden last night!" Kagome laughed, jogging lightly ahead of him, making him chase her. "Kago-nii!"

Turning around, to watch him try to catch up, Kagome glanced at the school windows, where more than one pair of eyes watched them. When Tomoya bent over to catch his breath, she glared, sending a silent message. Touch him and die.

~(*)~

Kagome sighed as she trudged down the hallway toward Tomoya's classroom. Only a couple days had passed since she was unwillingly corralled into helping the so-called Junk Boys, but she was already weary of them. Not only was her sleep during class suffering from the constant glances, but her lunches were ruined as she was suddenly the center of attention with one of them on either side of her in the cafeteria.

It wouldn't have been so bad if they only sat there quietly, like she did, but they made damn sure all three of them were noticed. Takato was loud, and Tsukasa's every move was calculated to bring attention to his supposedly caring actions to her.

"Aw, you've got to eat more than that, Kagome! With how active we are, we need all the energy we can get!"

"Here, Kagome. You can take my portion."

And then there were the whispers from everyone else. "There's Sakuma-senpai's favorite," and "I don't understand why that lazy person has Kajimoto's attention! He doesn't deserve it."

Scoffing, she brushed her bangs out of her eyes. Sure, they were absolute gentlemen. And dragging her from her cousin at the end of the day was a walk on the beach with a beautiful sunset and a chorus of her curses and Tomoya's worried cries. And when did she give them permission to drop the suffix? Honestly.

Smirking at her sarcastic thoughts, Kagome stopped outside the door. Her classmates had been thankfully delayed by their adoring fans back in the classroom, so she managed to slip away to meet Tomoya. They would be able to go home together, really, for the first time since the beginning of the week.

Kagome leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. Being near Tomoya calmed her down, made her feel like she didn't need to punch every boy she met—two specific classmates of hers in particular—and being without her private time with him to unwind made her very jumpy.

She had to consciously restrain herself from startling into a defensive crouch at the click and slide of the door.

"Kagome-sempai?"

Her eyes snapped open to stare at the group of students beyond the open door. Three, not five, first years watched her carefully before glancing amongst themselves nervously. Tomoya was not one of them. "Where is Tomoya?"

Her voice must have been colder than she thought it was, because all three of them flinched, one even took a step back into the classroom. "Um…" The smallest one, whose voice she recognized as the one to bring up the Junk Boys that first day, mumbled.

"Oi! Kagome!" She didn't even bother turning to look at Takato and Tsukasa. Her annoyance with them could not bubble up past the glare she aimed at the freshman. "That wasn't nice—leaving us like that—"

Kagome stepped forward, the movement somehow cutting Takato off—at least, she thought so, since his voice faded away—and lifted the small boy's head with a finger until he met her gaze. "I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that. So please answer me again." Her calm voice sent shivers down his spine. "Where. Is. Tomoya."

She kept her gaze sharp and focused on the boy's eyes. Beads of sweat began to appear at his temples, and he gulped. "H-He and Kamikawa w-went to take some papers to the student council o-office…"

The soft curse from her classmates didn't even make it to her ears as she whirled away, feet pounding a path on the tiled floor.

She told him. She told him. "Be careful around your classmate, the player." She was very clear about it, and he most definitely heard her, registered every word she said, but what did he do? Went somewhere alone with him. "Idiot!"

Swerving through a group of upperclassmen, Kagome slid to a stop in front of the student council office and slammed the door open. Everyone there jumped at the sound, looked up at her in surprise. With a quick glance, she recognized a few faces, couldn't place several others, but did not see either of the boys she was looking for. "Damn. Excuse my interruption."

Before anyone could ask her what she wanted, she had the door closed again and was backtracking through the halls. Kamikawa pulled Tomoya on a detour somewhere between their classroom and the office, and she was going to find them. Tomoya was so directionally-challenged that he wouldn't have even questioned it. Her hurried steps barely took any concentration as most of it went to listening out for any sign of her cousin's voice. The other part of her mind was already planning all the ways she could yell at Tomoya and rip Kamikawa apart if he so much as touched Tomoya.

"Kagome!" Takato's voice rang down the hall, and she glared at him, hoping it would make him shut up. Of course, it didn't, and he kept talking. "Calm down, we just need to—"

"N-No! Stop it!"

There. Beneath her classmate's words, a small voice cried out in fear. Kagome whirled around and bolted down the hallway leading to the gym. Her mind ran through the list of places they could be. The gym, but that was too open, and students were likely warming up for whatever clubs took place there. Locker rooms, but they would be full of stripping boys. The three equipment rooms, one highly used, one only used during certain seasons, and the last.

The last: a common make-out spot. Or worse.

Yes, a part of Kagome decided, strange and distant from the situation. Kawakami was going to die. She vaguely determined that this part was definitely a remnant of Sesshomaru.

Slamming the door open, Kagome zeroed in on Kawakami leaning over Tomoya, his hands definitely in places she did not want them. And Tomoya was blushing furiously, tears gathered in his eyes and fear on his face. Kawakami jumped back, brows furrowed into the beginning of a sneer, and Kagome felt a vacuum open in her stomach.

She could feel every emotion fall into that void, sweeping from her head and toes, and her sight became crystal clear. "You…" Her voice wasn't as harsh as she had first imagined it would be. In fact, it was higher, softer, but Kawakami paled, stepping back. "What do you think you're doing?" Kagome felt that bit of herself that was like Sesshomaru preen at how her tone matched his.

Takato and Tsukasa appeared at her sides, unforgiving expressions on their faces. Takato glared, fists clenched, and a snarl curling his lips up, and Tsukasa crossed his arms to lean in the doorway, his lips turned down in an elegant frown. "Forcing yourself on your partner like that… You're so tasteless, it's shocking." His voice was stern and held the same note of superiority as hers. Whatever gratitude she may have had for their support fell into the vacuum, where everything was building, compressing, and Kagome's fists clenched.

Kawakami tried to smile. "W-What? But Fujino consented!"

That compact void of everything, all that made up Kagome, burst.

In a burst of speed that matched the roar of concern, heat, fury, and violence, Kagome slammed one arm against Kawakami's throat, pressing him against the wall. She snarled in his face. "Don't give me that bullshit. When someone says 'no,' you stop, asshole, not rip their shirts open." The look of fear on his face satisfied her anger, but it wasn't enough. He needed to pay for daring to touch Tomoya like that. For making Tomoya cry. He needed to—

"Kagome." Tsukasa's voice filtered through the surge of emotions, and Kagome blinked.

In front of her, Kawakami shook. Terror paled his face beneath a cold sweat, and his fingers failed to grasp her uniform. He couldn't breathe. It was a pitiful satisfaction.

Feeling strangely empty, Kagome let him drop and stood over him as he coughed.

Behind her, Takato stepped in front of Tomoya, saving the boy's modesty. "You only approached Tomoya because of the three of us." He cracked his knuckles. "There's a saying: 'Whoever interferes with another person's love should be kicked by a horse and die,' or something like that."

Tsukasa pushed his glasses up with a cold reflection of the light. "We can show you what that feels like, right here, right now…"

Kagome stepped back and leaned down, so her head hovered near Kamikawa's ear. "But they won't." She whispered the words, and the boy cringed away. "They won't because you are going to swear never to so much as look at Tomoya again. You are going to swear because if you try," she raised a finger to trace the bruise forming on his throat. "If you try, I will know. And I will make you wish for something as simple as being kicked by a horse." He whimpered. "So I would start swearing, if I were you."

Kamikawa didn't waste a moment, crying out. "I swear! I'm sorry, I swear! I promise, I swear not to look at him again, just please don't hurt me!"

Kagome dugs her fingernails into her palm, and she carefully straightened and turned his back on him. "And no one else. Ever." Kamikawa frantically nodded. "Get out." He couldn't seem to run fast enough.

Her muscles quivered, and Kagome closed her eyes against the equipment room. She went too far. He was just a human kid, and she choked him. Bruised him. She needed to calm down.

"Hey, are you all right, Tomoya?" Takato stepped up and helped fix Tomoya's shirt, putting his buttons to rights while Tsukasa collected his tie from the floor. "Did he do anything bad to you?"

"Ah, no." Tomoya's voice was quiet, but not afraid, and Kagome forced herself to relax. "You got here so fast that nothing happened."

Tsukasa huffed a laugh, and all three of them started moving. "That's a relief, Tomoya."

"Kago-nii?"

Kagome opened her eyes. Tomoya stood in front of her, missing two buttons, but covered and wringing his tie in his hands. Big hazel eyes stared up at her worriedly without the slightest bit of judgment. If anything, awe shone in his face, and Kagome felt the tension drain away, leaving only relief. "You're okay."

Tomoya didn't see the sharp glances of her classmates, but he smiled. "Yeah."

"That's good." Kagome placed a hand on his head to pull him into a loose hug. "That's really good." Behind him, Takato and Tsukasa smiled, and Kagome rested her forehead on Tomoya's hair. "Can you imagine me trying to tell Auntie that I let her precious baby's virtue be tarnished?"

"Ah, Kago-nii!" Tomoya flailed a little in her arms, and Kagome managed to laugh. "You can't tell her—Kaa-san would never let me out of the house again!"

"Well, isn't that an interesting thought." Kagome simply breathed for a moment before she let him go. "I can see the appeal of that—I'd know where you were at all times. No more of this running off with perverted idiots." She could even force a smile at his blush.

Tomoya bit his lip, and looks to the side, where a bunch of papers were stacked. Then his eyes blew wide open, and he freaked out. "Oh, no! I was supposed to take those to the Student Council Office! I'm so late!" He looked up at Kagome, then back to the papers, then back to her, his indecision clear. Could he just leave her here, or leave the papers for tomorrow, because Kagome was not fit company for anyone unfamiliar at the moment. Tomoya was probably one of the few people who would be able to see the muted anger still beneath her skin.

But just because he could see it, didn't mean that she wanted him to. So she waved her hand at him. "Go on. I'll be right here when you're finished. Then we'll go home."

With a bright smile—though not as blinding as she expected from him—Tomoya grabbed the papers and ran out the door, excusing himself between her two classmates. Kagome watched him go then closed her eyes. Her back hit the wall, and she breathed.

Everything was still clear through the fury, but it wasn't enough. Threatening Kamikawa hadn't been enough. The bruise he would be trying to hide for the next week wasn't enough. It wasn't enough because she should have made him bleed for daring to touch someone under her protection.

Things were so much simpler back in the Feudal Era, and Kagome was still used to that time. If anyone had tried to touch Rin, the only repercussion for beheading the foolish idiot would have been Sesshomaru's disapproval for her getting to the bastard first. Now, there would be assault charges and investigations and court appearances, or any number of other things. If only—

But that was it, wasn't it? Kagome clenched her fists in tandem with her heartbeat. If only.

"Kagome?"

Opening her eyes, Kagome met her classmates' gazes. Takato stuffed his hands in his pockets, but she could see them flexing, as if he didn't know what to do with them—didn't know whether to approach her or not. Beside him, Tsukasa had his arms crossed over his chest, completely calm, but Kagome didn't discount the sharp curiosity in his eyes. Then need to understand and analyze and plan to his own benefit. After all, she had shown a great deal of unresolved anger just minutes before. He wasn't the first to pin her under such a look, and she knew he wouldn't be the last.

Tsukasa tilted his head to the side, let his hair fall across his face in what could only be a calculated move. "Are you alright?"

She snorted. Couldn't help it really, though she imagined Sesshomaru would glare for such an uncouth noise. Kagome snorted, shaking her head, and let it fall back against the wall. Breathe. Breathing was good. It calmed her. The flow of the air that filled her lungs, transferred oxygen for carbon dioxide, then left in easy compressions and decompressions of her chest.

Minutes passed as she forced the anger and everything else out with the air. The boys stayed with her, a duel silent, grounding presence, and for once she was grateful for them. Despite the past week, it seemed they did, indeed, have some tact.

Once the anger was finally gone, Kagome slumped in exhaustion. The adrenaline drained from her veins, leaving her vision tinged with gray and her fingers trembling. She took in a shuddering breath and brushed her bangs away from her eyes, knowing that they would see. "No. No, I'm not alright."

Fabric shifted, shoes scuffed quietly on the floor, and Kagome felt warmth begin to seep into her arms. Takato leaned on the wall to her right, Tsukasa on her left. Not touching her, just—there.

They waited like that until Tomoya came back.