She wandered through the palace. Naturally, two days before the ball, the day the ten suitors show up, she vanishes. The girl sighed heavily as she stopped to think, though all she wanted to do was hide and cry herself. She turned a corner to come face-to-face with the object of her search.
"Nikki," she breathed as she pulled the neko hanyou into her arms and let her rest there, "they're looking for you to greet the Western delegation." The princess just nodded as she rested her head against her best friend's shoulder. "If you want me to lie for you, I can but you need to let me go."
"He wouldn't believe you even if you were telling the truth," Nikki replied. "How many from the West?"
"Two; an inu youkai and an inu hanyou, half-brothers." She answered. "Kagome is showing them to their chambers, but then they are to meet you in the rose garden." Nikki sighed and nodded her head. "Do you wish to go change? Draw this out a bit?"
"I should just in case this isn't appropriate enough, Aimi has been chasing me around for the last two days about my manners and the appropriateness of my clothes." Nikki replied as her friend scowled annoyed. "Come on, Sango, we must prepare to meet potential husbands."
Kagome walked with the two behind her. She wasn't quite sure why she was instructed to do this, she wasn't a maid. She listened as the two muttered to each other. She could tell they were as willing as Nikki in this, but the consequences for them backing out were severe. She opened the door across from Nikki's room and sighed as she led them in.
"Lord Sesshomaru, this shall be your room during your stay here," Kagome told him in a hushed voice. "Right across the hall is the princess' chambers." He nodded in acknowledgement but otherwise said nothing to her. "A maid will come to collect you when it is time to meet with Lady Nikki."
"Was she not prepared for our arrival?" he demanded.
"The princess has many jobs she must now delegate out, her meeting must have run over time," Kagome lied smoothly. "If you wish, I can show you both where your brother shall be resting and then to the garden to wait?"
"Half-brother," Sesshomaru corrected and shook his head. "This is fine." Kagome nodded in agreement and led the inu hanyou out and into the hallway.
"Sorry about his attitude, Sesshomaru and I weren't exactly willing to come here," he told her as she walked.
"The princess doesn't want you here anymore than you want to be," Kagome explained as he nodded in agreement, "so I know tempers are already flaring."
"You're not a normal maid, are you?" he asked her curiously.
"No, I am here specifically to help Nikki," she answered, "my name is Kagome." He smiled and nodded, causing her to blush some.
"So, where is she really?" he asked her as she opened a door.
"She really was supposed to be in a meeting, if she went I'm not sure," Kagome explained. "Sango was sent to find her and get her ready." He nodded in agreement. "This shall be your room for the duration of your stay. If you ever need anything, I'm right across the hallway." He nodded as he glanced and noticed the door. "A maid will come to collect you to meet with Nikki." She excused herself and left the room, heading straight to Nikki's room.
"Perfect timing!" Sango cheered. "I need your help with Nikki's hair, she's defiantly avoiding doing it." Kagome walked up and started to brush the princess' hair as Sango worked on her makeup. "So, early on observations?"
"So far they're both not happy to be here, I'm sure this was as much a blow to their egos as it was Nikki's," Kagome informed them. Nikki shot her a dark look but didn't say or do anything further. "Honestly, I don't see it being either of them; Sesshomaru was moody and silent and Inuyasha, while flirty, just as reluctant." Sango nodded to the girl as she worked.
"Yes, lets hope this is one big waste of time," Nikki scowled. The two sighed as they worked, when they were done they were impressed with themselves.
"Shall we go, princess?" Sango teased in hopes of getting a grin. Nikki sighed and nodded, not really wanting to leave her room.
In the designated garden, Sesshomaru and Inuyasha found one of Nikki's brothers. He was seated at a pond, shoes and socks beside him, and a bag of fish food for the koi. He'd laugh in a child-like glee as the fish would come up for food and instead nibble at his toes. Sesshomaru rolled his eyes as Inuyasha watched curiously.
"Oh!" he said surprised when he noticed the inu brothers. "I'm sorry, pops said to clear out of here."
"It's cool," Inuyasha replied with a shrug. "Just feeding your fish?"
"Oh, they're not mine," he explained, "they were sister Nikki's and sister Sango's present. They let me play out here." Inuyasha nodded as Sesshomaru sat down and watched him, both brothers knew there was something wrong with him, but uncertain what.
"So, what precisely is wrong with you?" Sesshomaru asked, startling his half-brother and the neko before them.
"Wrong?" he repeated confused. "Nothing, I think." He shrugged before starting to get up. As he stood he slipped on a rock and fell into the pond. Both brothers jumped surprised and Sesshomaru got up to help him back out.
"Oh Ryo!" they heard a girl cry alarmed. "Are you alright?" A female neko hanyou rushed up to him and looked him over. "You're not hurt, are you?"
"I'm okay, sister Nikki!" he answered jovially. "I slipped as I got up. Lords Sesshomaru and Inuyasha were helping me." His sister sighed and nodded in agreement.
"That was very nice of them," she told him with a nod, "did you thank them for their help? I hope you didn't get them wet as well." He laughed as the two shook their heads as she sighed and nodded.
"I should go, pops told me not to be here when you were," Ryo told her as she sighed and shook her head.
"You, big brother, are fine," she corrected him as he grinned happily. "But Aimi is going to have a fit seeing you like this, so head inside and get showered and changed. Where is Saki?"
"She went to prepare for the dinner tonight," Ryo told her, "she's been busy all day."
"Wait, you've been alone all day?" Sango asked him. He smiled innocently and nodded enthusiastically, getting water all over. Sango sighed and shook her head. "What is she paid for again? Come on, Ryo, I'll help you out." Sango held her hand out and Ryo took it.
"Sister Sango, the fish were really hungry today!" he told her happily. Sango laughed and nodded as they vanished into the mansion. Nikki looked to Kagome, who silently nodded.
"Thank you," Nikki said as she turned to the two and bowed, "he's a little hard to keep track of, we hired a nurse to help him but she's less than favorable."
"He was no trouble," Sesshomaru told her as she sighed and nodded. "Something is not right with him."
"Ryo was playing when some kids started to bully him. Jiro and Seiji told him to walk away and the boys to shut up, but they hit a nerve. Ryo hit one into a pool, but was pulled in and smacked his head on the edge. Brain damage from the injury resulted in this handicap." Kagome told them.
"So you took it upon yourself to take care of him?" Sesshomaru asked Nikki.
"Of course, he is my brother," Nikki replied, "the five of us watch over him when father cannot." The two nodded as they listened. "Do inu not have such loyalties?" They both shot her looks as Kagome sighed and shook her head.
"We do," Sesshomaru acknowledged, "but not to your extreme. It is wise to agree that we shall not arrange such an idea as a union due to the circumstances of your brother." Nikki looked at him darkly.
"And what, my lord, the fuck does that mean?" Nikki demanded as both Kagome and Inuyasha looked at her surprised. Sesshomaru remained calm and cool as he looked at her.
"It means, princess, that this Sesshomaru deals with enough issues beyond a handicapped sibling," he replied coolly. Nikki stood straighter than ever as Kagome watched amazed as Inuyasha shook his head.
"Nikki!" Higashi barked as he walked into the garden. "Stand down, now!" She moved back and glared at the inu youkai before her. "Head inside for dinner, you two." Nikki glared at Sesshomaru before storming off with Kagome in tow.
"If he has such a problem, send him the hell home!" she snapped before vanishing into the castle. Higashi sighed and rubbed at the bridge of his nose some before facing the brothers.
"Understand something," he told the two as they watched him, "my daughter is headstrong, beautiful, and very much an independent spirit. Getting her to do any of this was harder than lassoing the moon. Telling her that you refuse to even consider her, thus defeating the very purpose of your being here, makes it that much harder to get her to agree to much. And I will warn you now, my kittens are my world, your father will have problems if you ever single one out like you just did Ryo for something he cannot control. Do you understand me?" Inuyasha could see how his father had warned them that the neko lord was intimidating.
"Or your daughter and you misunderstood me," Sesshomaru informed him. "What monster takes a caregiver away from one in such a predicament? You are correct, Ryo's current predicament is of no fault his own. But as such he has fallen to rely on your daughter and her friends heavily. Who is this Sesshomaru to take her away when he obviously needs her more?" Higashi looked at him as he thought. "In reality none of the heirs are eligible for your daughter because they would be forced to take her away."
"She is prepared to leave if she must," Higashi told him as he sighed, "she may not like it, but she is." Sesshomaru shook his head and went inside as Inuyasha watched curiously.