The Skaters Edge

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Alas, I am still awaiting feedback... Please let me know if this sucks.. If I does, I need to know so I am not posting crap out here. It's not fair to the loyal patrons of this website if they have to look at what other people obviously don't want to see either... I really sound like a desperate fool here don't I?



Hugs All

Alpine



^_^









I step onto the floor with unrestrained anger in my eyes. I feel the tears still streaming down my face but I don’t care. I am going to move past all of this petty shit and get down to business. The thing I have been working for the last few years is within my reach and there is no way all the drama happening tonight is going to stop me from doing everything I can do to make my life better.



I take a lap by myself to calm down a bit. The tears have stopped by the 3rd corner as I start breathing deeply. I move over to Sango’s side as I see her turn her worried gaze upon me.



“You alright?” She says to me with an uncertain voice.



“I am fine Sango. Did you hear everything that happened back there?”



“No, I just came up as you were screaming at the guys. You can tell me about it later if you want. For right now you need to get your head in the game so we can show these bitches what we are here for, that’s to kick their asses.” She says to me with a glint in her eye and a wide smile on her face. That makes me feel a lot better as I start to get back into the right state of mind.



We move up to the line with the other 3 girls that are there. I did notice that there were a group of demon women off to the side in the center of the rink and couldn’t help but think that after this short race, Sango and I would be in the round after them and competing with them. I see Ayame and I give her a slight head nod, acknowledging that I see her there and give her the respect she deserves. She really is the fastest woman I have ever met, besides myself and Sango of course. She nods back with a bright smile and wink.



“You ready to get beat Sango?” I look over to her with a wide smile on my face. The tears and drama are gone for these 45 seconds out of the night.



“You wish princess.” She says to me and sees me scowl. She was trying to psyche me out by using InuYasha’s pet name for me. I wouldn’t let it work as I respond.



“You can only hope that I get dq’d because you know otherwise I am going to leave you in the dust bitch.” The other girls are looking at us and listening to our trash talk, with looks of pure horror across their faces. I smirk to myself since these girls don’t know us or how we operate. We are our biggest competitions and this is simply a formality to get these girls out of the way. They just don’t know how fast we are.



“Alright girls, standard rules apply. There will be one false start allowed this round. Further rounds will not allow any false starts without dq. Do you all understand?” The matronly Kaede says to all of us. We all shake our heads in the affirmative. I let my eyes roam to the other competitors and then off to the sidelines. I see Hojo and Kouga smiling at us. I see Fluffy hanging out on the other side of the rink with Miroku but I don’t see InuYasha anywhere. Thank the good Kami for that, I don’t think I could handle that right now. I get a quick thumbs up from Hojo and sigh inwardly.





“This will be a 200 meter prelim for time trials, all other rounds are 400 meters. Do you all understand?” Again we all nod to Kaede.



“Alright, take your positions ladies.” She says to us and moves over to the cone on the left side of the starting line. I move to take my spot on the outside as Sango stands next to me with the other girls taking their spots behind her.



I move my right stopper and get on tip toes to plant it on the floor with my left foot behind my body about shoulder width apart to form a T formation with my skates. I have my left arm lifted behind my back in a small arch that follows the curve of my ass and my right arm out in front of me with my hand tightly balled in a fist just in front of my face. I take a quick glance at Sango in the same position and I put my head down. I have my full concentration on Kaede now. This is it; this is what tonight has all been about. Kami be damned if I lose tonight.



Everything in my mind from tonight leaves me… The attempt on my body by the evil hanyou, InuYasha and his claims, Kouga and Hojo… All of it is now clear from my mind, the only thing I am thinking about is that whistle. Once Kaede says those magic words, I am going to have the best start of my life. I am keeping my mind on the task at hand as I feel a bead of sweat start to move down my temple to my cheek.



“On your marks…. Get Set…..” And then the whistle blew. Things were starting in slow motion from that moment on as I charge forward with all my might. I hope I got the drop on Sango because if I can get out ahead of her, I have all but won this race. I take 4 running steps on my stoppers and come to the corner. I have just enough time to realize that Sango is behind me. YES!!! I can do this; I am going to do it.



We move with a practiced ballet that can only come from the grace Sango and I hold from our years of friendship and training in this sport. She is right behind me and I am working twice as hard as she is. She knows she is drafting me and I know that she is doing this so she can stay as rested as possible for the next race. I can’t blame her but it doesn’t make me happy knowing she is doing this on purpose. She is right on my ass and trying to take away my momentum to possibly swing around me on the inside. No fucking way!



I start to pump my legs faster as we reach 100 meters and I can feel myself pull slightly away from her. I hear her let out a small growl because she knows she has to start working now. She is now about 2 yards behind me as I come up on the girl that is in last place.



The other girls that were in the race with us are now only at 50 meters. Were these seriously the 3rd round girls? None of them seemed like the type to even be able to make it out of the 1st round, maybe our competition wasn’t as good as I had hoped. Did they really think they would be any competition for us or did they come here blindly not knowing anything about what they were walking into? Who cares, I am kicking ass.





I round the final corner as the girl in last place gets out of my way, since Sango and I are about to lap her. I speed passed Kaede in a crouch at the starting line, slightly out of breath. My adrenaline is kicking into high gear as I scream, “HELL YEAH!!!!!!”



I pump my fist and look behind me to see Sango with a wide smile on her face as she skates up to me.



“You got the drop on me bitch; don’t think I will go easy on you in the next round.” I laugh at her statement as I throw my helmet to the center of the rink as she removes hers and I grab her in a thunderous hug. I can feel tears in my eyes again but this time they are tears of joy.



“Higurashi Kagome and Tamaka Sango will proceed to the next round. Next up are the demonesses. Please take your marks ladies.” I hear Kaede as Sango and I start to move off the floor towards Miroku. I snag my helmet off the floor in the center of the rink as we move across to the exit.





I have a silly smile on my face as I gently huff and puff. I have not really exerted myself too much since it was just the 200 meters but it is the excitement of winning the race that has the effect on me. I see Sango grab Miroku and lay a kiss on him. I sigh to myself and move to get away from them and be by myself. We have a few more minutes until the next round and I really need to keep my emotions in check.



“Miko.” I hear from my left and I turn my gaze on Fluffy. I give him a questioning look with my eyebrows raised. He has a command in his voice that does not let me wonder any further as I sigh once again and move towards him.



“Yes Lord Sesshomaru? What can I do for you?” I give him the sappy line hoping to keep this conversation pleasant and hopefully to a minimum.





“You will join me.” He states matter-of-factly.



We move to the benches and sit. We are in sight of the rink and I can see the 3rd round for the demonesses going on and Ayame is in the lead. I have no doubt that I will be racing against her soon enough as I pull my gaze away to give Fluffy my full attention.



“I am here to speak to you about InuYasha.” He states.



“What about him? You heard everything earlier. Do you disagree with my assessment of the situation? Or do you believe your brother to be in the right here? I believe I have every reason to be angry right now and I hold no expectations from him or your family.” I give him my reasoning behind the situation, only hoping that he has sided with me on this.



“I agree with you miko. My brother is headstrong and he does not think before he acts, the half breed has always had that problem. Please make no mistake about my intentions here but my brother and my family hold a very high value on honor. InuYasha is honor bound to you for as long as you will have him. I was not aware that the courting mark he gave you was not done with your permission. Will you tell me how this happened?”



I gave him the whole story behind how it happened and everything that led up to the fight we had just before I took my place in the race.



“I see, that makes sense now. Please understand though that he was correct to mark you. He would not have done such a thing if your very blood did not call to him. This is very rare and I would tend to think that as a miko you would know a little about this.” He states to me. I blush and look at him.



“I am not fully trained yet. I still have 3 more years before that becomes a reality.” I say sheepishly to him.



“The power that radiates from your being is absolutely astonishing. I did not think this was possible from an untrained miko.” He says more to himself than me.



“I’m sorry Fluf…Lord Sesshomaru, but can you get to the point. I have a race in a few minutes and I need to stay prepared.” I give him a haughty look as I stand and proceed to put my right hand on my hip to try to hurry him along.



“Kagome, please consider talking to InuYasha. He told me his side of the story and it seems there has been a huge comedy of errors throughout the evening and you have been on the receiving end of some devious behavior from your current employer and InuYasha’s former girlfriend.” He says to me as he stands and moves off. I am simply floored as he moves away from me. Not only did he believe InuYasha but he called me by my name, this is a huge sign of respect from the Taiyoukai, even I know that.



I plop back down on the bench and put my head in my hands. I feel an arm around my shoulders and look over to see my little Shippo next to me with a huge smile on his face. He looks like the cat that swallowed the canary.



“Hey kiddo! Did you just have your prelim?”



“Yeah I did and I won. There were only the 5 of us so I automatically made the team. I am on the juniors’ squad Kagome. Thanks so much for your training and help. I couldn’t have done it without you.” He looks at me with silent tears starting to well up in his eyes.



“I am sorry I missed it, I have been kind of dealing with a lot of stuff tonight. I am so very proud of you Shippo. You have no idea how much. I wish I could have seen it. I won my prelim too; did you have a chance to see?” I say to him apologetically with a sad smile on my face.



“No, I’m sorry. I was with Kohaku getting ready in the corner. I am going to go grab some water. I will see you tomorrow at practice; I have to get home since it is so close to curfew for me.” He says to me as he grabs me and hugs me tight.



“Bye Love, see you tomorrow.” I say to his retreating figure. I hear a mass of noise as I look over to the rink to see what’s going on. I hear Kaede tell everyone to shut up. I can’t believe she actually said that but then I notice there looks to be a scuffle on the floor. I move to the wall and lean against it to get a better look. I see Kouga on top of a figure on the floor. I then see Jinenji rush out on the floor and grab him. Apparently it was InuYasha on the ground and he jumped to his feet in just a split second.



“You stupid half breed! You hurt my woman!! I am going to tear you apart!!” I hear Kouga yell at him as he struggles against Jinenji. I shake my head; this was the reaction I was waiting for earlier. It appears that he has grown a set of brass balls in the last half hour now that InuYasha’s brother isn’t hanging next to him.



“You fuckin mongrel!!! Don’t you ever even look at my mate again!!” InuYasha yells at Kouga as I see Sesshomaru come out to restrain his angry half brother. I sigh again and shake my head even harder as I see his gaze lock onto mine. My breath hitches in my throat as I feel his eyes on me.



Why am I reacting like this?!? I am so mad at myself I turn my head and look down to the floor to avoid his gaze any longer.



The noise stops and I sigh to myself, still looking at the floor and keeping with my deep breathing to keep myself under control. All of the sudden I feel myself being lifted as I look up at InuYasha’s hard stare. He grabbed me and pulled me up so I was staring directly into his eyes and proceeded to wrap my legs around his stomach and latch his fangs onto the pulse point where his mark was. I start breathing shallowly as I feel him growl at me. He releases my neck but continues to growl.



“You WILL talk to me Kagome. I need to make you understand somehow what is going on. I can’t do it right now; I have to go to race. Please promise me you will at least listen to what I have to say?” He says to me softly as I feel his breath on my ear. I feel very safe in his arms, just as I had earlier tonight after the incident with the evil hanyou.



“I will listen InuYasha. Go on and get back on the floor. I want to see how fast you are.” I say to him in a low whisper of what used to be my voice.



“You got it princess. I am going to beat the demons and show them just how fast a worthless half breed like me is.” He smirks at me as he releases me.



He lets me down softly and gives me a chaste kiss on the cheek. I blush at this small intimate contact as he moves away from me out onto the floor. He growls at Kouga and grabs his helmet from Miroku as they head to the line where Kaede is standing. He fastens it into place and takes a spot on the outside, just as I had done a little earlier.



I am standing at the wall, stretching continually to stay warm. I will be up in the next race with Sango and most likely the women demonesses. I take a look over the scene in front of me as I see Kouga and his buddy’s with Sesshomaru out in the center of the floor, obviously waiting for there round to come up. The other demons must have been eliminated in the earlier rounds when I was sitting talking with Fluffy.



I move my line of vision over to the line as I see Kaede explaining the rules to the guys standing there. InuYasha is the only hanyou here tonight apparently since all the other guys are human. Miroku is there as well as 2 other guys from our rink and 1 guy I have never seen before.



I watch as they take their stances. I see Kaede raise her hand and say those magic words as the whistle in her mouth blows. I keep my eyes on the 2 men who have my best friend and I charmed tonight. InuYasha pulls out in front of all of them easily, he uses the same technique Sango and I employ, as does Miroku, who just happens to be a few feet behind InuYasha.





Their race is almost a carbon copy of Sango and mine, except InuYasha is obviously a lot faster than everyone else and I can see the look on Miroku’s face as he tries to keep up. The other guys have already bowed out by the time they come to the final stretch. InuYasha easily wins and it doesn’t even look like he is out of breath. He doesn’t pay any attention to anyone else as he locks his eyes on me and makes a bee line over to where I am standing.



I crack my neck from side to side and await him as he rolls over to me. I feel much better now and still warm. I know that the next round will be right after the demons go and this is where it gets serious. I can’t get into a heated conversation right now as InuYasha comes up next to me. I put my hand up in front of his face as I turn to him.



“InuYasha, I am going to listen to you but my next and probably final race will be after these guys go. For now can we please just hold on and just go somewhere afterwards and talk to your hearts content. Does that sound ok?” I ask him as I move my hand out of the way to look into his eyes. His ears start to fall slightly and he looks like such a cute little puppy with those eyes.



“Ok, you win. You promised though and I don’t want you interrupting me once I start. I will give you your chance to ream me out when I am done. Is that a deal?” He says as he looks at me.



“Deal.” I look over to see Sango looking our way and I wave my hand and nod my head for her to come over by me. She is closely followed by Miroku. She moves to my side and says nothing. We watch in complete silence as Sesshomaru wipes the floor with the other demons. Kouga comes in 2nd but he is far behind when he crosses the finish line.



“Well… Time for our big moment guys, wish us luck.” Sango says as she grabs my arm and we head out on the floor to face Ayame and the other demons.



“Here we go!!!!!” I say to Sango as I put on my helmet and we enter the floor.



“Let’s show then how fast we really are!” Sango says to me..