Disclaimer: Inuyasha and the gang belong to Rumiko Takahashi. The only thing here that belongs to me specifically is the italicized poem. I'd appreciate if finger weren't sticky.
Please read the authoress' plea at the bottom.
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I hear his footfalls,
Much ahead of his silky voice.
Naraku walked through his castle, chuckling a little to himself... He knew what she would want. 'My kitten wants the same every night,' he thought with a small, and very rare, smile. He didn't think of her as his slave anymore. To him, she was a beautiful and loving wife.
His crimson gaze falls
Upon my huddled form.
There she was, waiting as always on her bed. She'd always wait for him to come to her. It was... comforting to hear her love speak of how that dreaded hanyou had wronged her, and then hear how he himself had saved her heart from shattering into as many pieces as the Shikon no Tama.
His deep voice floats to me,
Soothing my quivering.
"Kagome-kun," he said in his alluring voice, walking slowly into the room. His voice sent chills down her back. She loved hearing his voice come to her. It was something she cherished, even though it was something she'd once hated.
He walks to me, love in his gaze,
And takes me into his arms.
She could not lift her eyes as he walked to her. "Good evening, Kagome-kun," he whispered to her once he'd sat on the mat beside her, the back of his hand going over one of her alabaster cheeks. He gave a warm smile, one that shone back in her cocoa eyes. Slowly, Naraku picked her up, smiling at the small form he held.
He cradles me gently,
And holds me like a child.
He moved her to sit in his lap, resting her head on his shoulder. Her gaze met his, and love flowed through the open connection before shattering the contact in a mere millisecond. But they knew how much they meant to each other.
I beg for the thing Master has told me,
Every night since my arrival.
"Master, will you tell me again?" Kagome asked him. Naraku couldn't help but sigh. This girl was so...so simple. With everyone else he knew that was of the fairer sex, they had an array of emotions that even he feared. But Kagome's needs were simple: love, reminding, food, shelter, clothing. He'd provided all that she could ever want, and was happy to oblige her in the story once more.
He begins to articulate
On how I came here.
"Certainly, Kagome-kun," he told her with a slight smile, one that barely twitched the corners of his lips.
"Once, there existed two lovers, a hanyou and a priestess. They knew love was wrong between them, but they banished social law, and took their lives into their own hands. But something had particularly drawn the hanyou to the miko," he began as Kagome looked into his eyes, playing the story in her head as he recited it to her.
He tells me of the pearl shaped jewel
That caused my once-beloved to meet Her.
"The Shikon no Tama was a jewel made by the miko Midoriko a very long time ago, many, many years before even my great-grandparents existed. This jewel is a very mystical one, and possesses the power to grant any one person a wish of their choosing. However, this hanyou decided that the miko could not have it, and would coax her for it each and every day. But I could not tolerate that wretched hanyou's love for her. She would be mine, or nobody's. That I had decided from the moment I laid eyes upon her beautiful form."
And that caused him
To lash out at both.
"I did not wish to cause harm to she that I lusted for. But I could not simply sit by as Kouga did with you... I shifted forms, taking on both of their to deceive the other, enjoying their true meeting at the Goshinboku tree. There I watched as both passed into the netherworld, Kikyo gone from me, and Inuyasha dead."
This was long before I came around,
Even before I was born.
"I lay in wait for the next fifty years, simply wondering what to do with my time. I had nothing better to do than to wait around for something extraordinary. After all, she whom I'd loved had taken the jewel with her, and that hanyou was safely bound to the tree. Boredom is what I knew for those long years without you," he told her in soft words. She blushed and smiled a little, gazing into his eyes for continuation.
Then I came along,
Bearing the jewel in my body.
"Then, out of nowhere, a miko appeared in Inuyasha's Forest. I was intrigued. Slowly she gathered some friends, each holding a common desire. That desire was to take me down and send me to hell, along with each of my reincarnations," he mumbled this part; he knew she still missed her friends on some days. She shivered. She hated this part of the story. It reminded her of her once-love, and how much she had, in fact, loved him.
Then I am slowly able
To picture the shattered jewel.
"I remember when you first shattered such a precious jewel. I was watching deep in the shadows, so as not to alert you to my presence. I watched as the jewel shattered from the arrow you fired that struck the crow demon down. I remember how devastated you were, and so badly did I wish to comfort you," he murmured. She smiled. He always did seem a bit fatherly towards her, now that she thought about it enough.
The lecherous monk, the aristocratic demon,
He tells me of them all.
"I remember making a deal with Sesshomaru. I wanted Inuyasha gone so I could show you just how much it was that I loved you. So, I struck the deal and let him come after you. Unfortunately so, it did not work." He finished this recollection, trying to remember who came next.
"Then there was monk Miroku." She smiled. She remembered Miroku. He was fun. But she had misjudged him, just like the others. He continued his story.
"You met him and he soon joined your group, becoming another friend of yours. How sweet he seemed to you," he murmured to her, slight anger in his voice. His grip grew tighter around her without his knowledge.
"Then you met the taijiya, Sango. She had lost her brother to me, and wanted revenge. Pity she never got it. She, like the others, never did put a stop to me," he told her quietly.
And I remember how much
I thought they cared.
Memories flashed before Kagome's eyes and Naraku paused. She remembered when Inuyasha had told her how much he had worried before sending her home. She remembered Kouga, and how much he'd said that he loved her. She remember the pain brought when Sesshomaru had come and tried to take Tetsusaiga, and harmed her in the process. She even remembered when, on her twenty-first birthday, Inuyasha had told her that he loved her... Pain coursed through her veins, but she had learned to keep Sesshomaru's stoic mask upon her face for such occasions. Betrayal was something that cut her deep, but she would remember it for her eternal life span, along with her mate.
Then his insidious plot
Took that amber gaze from me.
He started speaking to her once more. "Then I offered that half-demon a choice. He could keep trying to fight me, or he could take the Shikon no Tama, as well as his choice of brides. He naturally chose to take the jewel. 'Which girl?' I pressed. I held both of you to me, making sure he knew that one of you was to become as loyal to me as Kanna. He immediately chose Kikyo, not even sparing you a glance. He cared nothing for you still, even after those years."
He took me away,
After my love had shunned me for Her.
"You, my love, were devastated. You couldn't even bear to look at him. You turned into me and sobbed, your body shaking badly enough that I had to hold onto you, and you begged me to take you away. Pleaded with me to free you from the grip of that hanyou's love. And I did as you asked, I couldn't refuse you. I slowly flew off, holding you bridal style as you sobbed more and more into my shoulder from the betrayal.
"Slowly, you learned what it meant to work around here. You learned that it meant no freedom until I had your loyalty. You learned that you could not simply be 'Kagome'. You had to be the Kagome I wanted. You had to work hard for me."
He kept more love for me by day,
And I loved him much more than He who deserted me.
My once-beloved came back, however,
And assumed I was still his.
Slowly and angrily so,
He realized I loved Master.
With a somber farewell,
He left us there.
"But, slowly, in time, you found that it was nearly impossible for you to run from me. You learned that my lust for Kikyo was exactly that - lust. You, however, I held nothing but love for, and you found this out as well. You slowly accepted your fate and began enjoying living with me, your era forgotten in the midst of passion and devotion...
"And then came that wretched hanyou once more, claiming you belonged to him. You told him quite simply that he was never to lay a finger on you, and that you would sooner die yourself than leave my side. He looked from you to me, taking a moment to absorb what it was you had said. He only gave a nod and walked off, looking like what he was – a kicked puppy."
We never did hear from that
Wretched hanyou again.
But it suits us just fine.
And with this thought, a smile came to my face.
"He left us to be together, and slowly we made the jewel whole, but took the lives of the taijiya, the houshi, and the 'life' of that clay pot. And with our wish, we wished to live for eternity in each other's embrace, not any other coming between us in our eternal youth and devotion."
'Good night, Master,' I murmur.
And, just like every other night, I fall asleep in his arms.
Naraku smiled down at the girl when her eyelids fluttered shut and she laid against him, slowly falling into graceful slumber. He bowed his own head and let sleep overcome him, the two lovers intertwined as a symbol of their everlasting devotion.
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A/N: Once more, thanks goes to my beta, FrogLady. Without her, I'd still have grammatical errors and overuse of some words. This is the revised edition, and probably won't be changed any further.
Authoress' plea: I am in need of a beta for Neopets fan fiction. You can apply via PM on here. Any and all applicants are appreciated. Thanks.
TDF