Beast of a Burden

Rated: T

Summary: A short while after his father's death, Sesshoumaru inherits the title of CEO of Taisho Industries. Unfortunately, it comes at the worst time. After the financial crises in the western divisions of their global business, Sesshoumaru finds that the Industry is stretched too thin and may dissolve at any point. As the stress begins to take its toll on him, he befriends a young woman to confide in.

000

There were days when he felt like buying up a private island north of the country and staying there for the rest of the life. He could sell off his ownership and live in comfortable seclusion. No more late night phone calls with the London branch, no more tedious meetings with board members left over from his father's days, no more endless streams of women paraded around him by his mother… Life could be simple. Life could be easy.

But easy wasn't his way—it wasn't his family's way. He was a third-generation Taisho and he had a duty to do. Even if he was willing for sake his mother and his brother (he was,) half of the city and almost a eighth of the country relied on his company and its subsidiaries for work. It could not go under.

Unfortunately, that was currently weighing heavily on his mind.

Sesshoumaru sighed as idly spun his almost empty coffee cup on his thigh. A spot of the brown liquid had dripped down the side and landed on his grey suit pants. On an average day, he would have been annoyed—today, it was like a blaring signal of all of the things going wrong in his life. All he could think about was the fact that his pants likely cost a month's salary for someone like the woman tossing a ball back and forth with two kids down the hill from him.

Maybe it was a salary she had because worked for his real estate company or wealth management agency. Maybe not. If she did however, he couldn't help but wonder if she would have that salary at the end of the year.

As a light breeze blew through his tied-back white hair, he stretched his arms out on either side of the bench back and rolled his head from side to side.

The Taisho Empire was stretched too thin. The financial crisis in the western half of the world had hit his international enterprises hard. If he had the option, he would sell off some of those divisions. Unfortunately, the only buyer he had was his number one competitor. He could hope that his competitor was merely over confident in his abilities, but Sesshoumaru doubted that. Naraku played the long game. He was content to wait out the eight years it would likely take for the markets to recover and then surpass Tashio Enterprises.

So, he either waited it out and risked sending multiple divisions into bankruptcy or he just fucking did it—he got rid of them and admitted that the company had made a bad decision all those years ago.

He felt his phone vibrating in his pocket for the third time, and yet, he still ignored it. He knew it was his secretary wondering where he was. He had already missed another conference call. Sesshoumaru put his head back and gazed at the passing clouds, debating on whether or not he wanted to skip another one.

When he felt something hit his leg, he was roused from his thoughts.

The ball that the trio had been tossing around bounced off of his calf and rolled a bit away, though not far enough to tumble back down the hill. A short little boy with copper hair stomped up and snatched up the ball. He turned to walk away without even apologizing.

"Hit me again, and I'll pop it," Sesshoumaru said and gave the child a cool look. Instead of frightening the boy, however, the kid sneered.

"Geeze, sorry, it was an accident," the kid said ran back down the slope to his friends.

Sesshoumaru hummed to himself. He must have been losing his touch.

His phone buzzed again and this time, he reluctantly answered it.

"Taisho."

"Master Taisho, London refuses to reschedule. They insist that they will keep calling until you answer," said his secretary from the other end of the phone. She sounded as tired as he felt.

"I'll be there in fifteen minutes. If they want to wait, they can wait."

"Yes, Master Taishio, I will relay the message."

Sesshoumaru hung up and stood, tossing his coffee cup into a nearby trash. Though everyone ranted and raved about it, the overpriced drink from the shop down the street wasn't as good as the stuff that Kagura brewed for him. Perhaps she simply understood his tastes better—she had said on multiple occasions that he and his father enjoyed their coffee the exact same way.

Kagura… she was one employee he would fight to keep if worse came to worse. She had served his father for the last few years of his life, and though she wouldn't admit it, Sesshoumaru was fairly confident that she was the one making major corporate decisions while his father was ailing. Those decisions had been good ones—ones that likely kept a lot of greedy investors from sticking their fingers into the Taisho family pie.

She had been a good worker for him as well. She never argued about his late nights and she was rather good at keeping her personal life out of the office. His last secretary, which he had while working as head of investment, was an older woman who loved to gossip. He would have fired her if he could have, but his father had a list of untouchable, long time employees and she was one of them.

And so, he appreciated Kagura even if he didn't tell her.

She did need to work on getting his lunch order right, however. If she ordered him tuna salad one more time, he swore he was going to throw it at her.

Sesshoumaru glanced down at the trio at the end of the hill as he turned to start heading back to his office. The dark-haired woman supervising the younger boys held up the ball, pointed at it, and gave him a wave. He wasn't sure if it was supposed to be some sort of acknowledgement or apology, so he simply ignored it.

Because it was mid afternoon, the entrance of his large, glass office building was rather empty. Regardless, the few who were inside made sure to step to the side as he walked by. The elevator that had already started to fill was even emptied as he approached so that he could ride to his upper level office on his own. It had taken only a week before the office employees realized that Sesshoumaru was not as friendly or welcoming as his father, and that he was best left alone unless absolutely necessary.

When he reached his floor, the doors opened with a ding and he stepped out into the mostly quiet space.

There was only actual office on the floor, and that was his own. It was large and spacious with sleek, modern furnishings. When he arrived, there had been a large, hand carved wooden desk in his office—which he immediately demanded removed. He didn't care much for useless things and a desk which appeared to be more decorative than functional was just that. As far as he knew, it was sitting up in storage.

His half brother had insisted that he wanted their father's desk if Sesshoumaru wasn't going to use it. Sesshoumaru agreed that he could have it—so long as he paid for it to be carefully wrapped and transported to his own office. Inuyasha, however, proved once again that he was all talk and no action—he was lazy.

But, then again, that was why he was in real estate. Inuyasha may not have always been the most personable of people, but he was damned good at striking a deal and handling greasy land lords. He was made head of his division simply because it was his birthright. Honestly, his co-worker, Miroku—or something like that at least, would have been more suitable. His sales and acquisition rates were phenomenal. The number of harassment complaints against him, not so much. There had never been something serious enough to warrant firing him, but his bonuses had certainly suffered in the past few years.

"Master Taisho," Kagura said to him from her desk just outside of his office, giving him a small-bow, "I have one thing to tell you before you answer that call—"

"What is it?" He asked, pressing his mouth into a thin line.

The red-eyed woman looked at him somewhat apologetically and adjusted her glasses. "The 'London' that's on the phone isn't the 'London' from your first missed call."

He gave her a nod of understanding and hid his annoyance. He knew what the call was about, and it wasn't going to go well.

Shutting his door behind him, Sesshoumaru walked to his desk and pulled off his suit jacket, tossing it on one of the two spare chairs opposite of his own. He didn't bother sitting down, as he knew that the call would only frustrate him and make him want to pace. So, he stood, one hand in his pocket as he overlooked the city and the other reaching for the phone on his desk.

He swore she must have heard him breath before he even had a chance to say a word. Without any hesitation, the voice on the other end of the phone started shouting at him.

"What is the meaning of this?! I have to find out through the mail that my lease isn't being renewed?"

"Do not blame me for your lack of listening skills. I told you when you were here last—"

"Do you know how mortifying this is? The building's relator called my assistant to set up a time to bring possible new tenants in! I wanted to hide myself in shame! What will everyone say? That the business is doing so poorly that we can't even pay for one flat—"

Sesshoumaru wanted to growl, but he knew that it would only irritate her further. "It's a two-million dollar flat, Mother. It is an unnecessary expense. I am not going to allow Father's estate to run dry in just a few short years because you insist on leasing numerous, multi-million dollar locations for your own convenience. You should feel lucky I'm letting you keep your Paris and New York places. I haven't made up my mind on Dubai as of yet."

There was more shouting from the other end of the phone, most of which was unintelligible as Sesshoumaru held the receiver away from his ear. He waited until she calmed down before listening again.

"Soon you're going to make me go back to Japan! Is that what you want? Do you want me to come live with you? I can make your life miserable—"

Sesshoumaru was very nearly ready to retort that she already did make his life miserable, but he kept it to himself. No need to instigate her further.

After a few moments, the angry woman seemed to calm down enough to have a somewhat civil conversation, if barely. She complained a bit more about losing her lease and then moved on to tell him about a gala she attended. Of course, in typical fashion, his mother also felt the need to name drop a few nice, wealthy, eligible bachelorettes whose families had considerable pull in the United Kingdom.

"Her name is Elizabeth and she's a bit older than I would like—she's twenty eight—but you're not young yourself anymore. Your father was married at twenty six you know, and I was barely twenty—"

"—and we see how terribly well that worked out," Sesshoumaru replied, causing his mother to huff on the other end of the line.

"Our ages at marrying had nothing to do with our divorce! It was that slutty little—"

"I have another appointment, mother, I am going to hang up."

Though Sesshoumaru had no love for his step mother, he knew that slutty was not a term that described her. His mother had always been a vindictive bitch and that had very well contributed to his mother and father's marriage falling apart. Besides, this was how the bulk of their conversations devolved these days: his mother complaining about his father and their marriage, and then balking at the fact that he was nearly thirty four and unwed.

"Fine," his mother spat, "but I swear, if you cancel my Dubai lease, I'm going to come move into your own flat and make you suffer for at least a full month!"

And then there was a click. Sesshoumaru let out a tired groan before dropping the phone back onto the receiver. A few moments later, he could hear his glass door open as the stopper slid across the carpet.

"Master Taisho, Mister Onigumo has sent over another offer. He's… dropped his bid. Would you care to look at the paperwork?" Kagura asked from the entrance to his office.

"Leave it on my desk," he said and slid his now free hand into his pocket. It was such a beautiful day out and the world was enjoying it while he was stuck in his cold, grey and white office, trying to figure out how to keep that same world spinning.

Sometimes, it was hard being him.

000

Author's Note: So… I started this on a pure whim because I was having a hard time finding Sesshoumaru/Kagome fics that I was enjoying. And thus, on a slow, boring Saturday night, I decided to see if I could sit down and write a chapter. I have some ideas for where this will go, but I'm sure it will evolve.

Some background: I have a business degree and I work in the finance sector. I have a grasp on economy and, primarily, investments. I hope to make this story as believable as possible in that aspect. Additionally, as anyone who has read pretty much any of my recent works can verify, when I write romance, it is slow burn. Do not expect romance to blossom in, like, the first ten chapters. Hell, it may not happen until literally the last chapter. That's just how I do things. I try very hard to let relationships develop naturally rather than throwing two characters together and saying, 'now kiss!'

So… thanks for reading! We'll see if I'm motivated enough to continue.

Ever Your Servant,

A.F