The Empress

Chapter Three: Disaster

Rated M ;)

I don't own Inuyasha, cause if I did, the show would be like the story below you. Well maybe…

I want to say thank you to those who reviewed on this story! I LOVE YOU!

Rei sighed for the fifth time, ever since her little escape trick three days ago she couldn't move. Her whole body had gone on some sort of lock down, Okuninushi, the little bastard was what she was calling him, had said it was probably because she had exerted herself after the weird fever she had had. 'Damn the Empress, this is her fucking fault!'

Ever since the Empress had touched her forehead she had suddenly lost control of her own body. It wasn't a feeling she enjoyed at all. The thing she could do was blow on some hair that got in her face sometimes. "This is so boring!"

"Are you still whining?" Okuninushi asked as he entered her room. They had moved her from the medical wing to one of the guest rooms that the Inutaisho had. "This is your fault, you know."

Rei rolled her eyes over in his direction to glare at him. "Shut up, would ya!" They hadn't been the best of pals since her arrival, Rei thought it might have to do with her threatening him. 'Big baby,' she thought with a smirk.

"The lords from other lands have sent someone from their courts to have a word with you."

Rei huffed, "I already told you, she was dead when I found. I don't know who or what killed her and attack her group." When they had captured her after her run, they had fired rapid questions at her, she had told them what she knew except for the part where the Empress had said something about a throne.

She still wasn't sure what it meant and she didn't need some assholes sticking their noses in were they didn't belong. 'I need to get back to Kagome and the others,' her brows creased in thought. She had been here for six days already they were probably worried sick.

"Even so they would still like to speak with you, so suck it up," Okuninushi said as sat down next to her bedding. "Here drink this," he put a saucer of broth to her lips, letting her sipped on it slowly. "Stop glaring at me or I'll pour it on you."

"Hmph!"

"Tch," Okuninushi found he liked her better when she was sleeping then when she was awake. She was nothing but rude and vulgar, she talked and acted like a male! He had never seen a female with so little regard to acting like, well, a female.

"Hey bastard," Rei said when he move the cup, "when do you think I'll be able to leave?"

"It could be any number of days, why do you ask?" He was taken back a little by her question.

"No reason," Rei said staring up at the ceiling, while the room was beautiful with its rice paper walls decorated, she didn't find it much of a comfort. She wanted open skies and the comfort of her pack. 'Heh, if Kagome saw me like this she'd think I'd gone soft.'

"Your scent is overbearing," said a cold voice from the doorway. Rei's eyes darted over straining to see the white clad figure in the doorway. She growled low in her throat, this guy really grated her nerves. She had even her arms back she would take this bastard out.

"What'd ya want, asshole?" She bit out at him, he glared at her like usual. It was probably the only thing she'd ever seen him do.

"Bitch, watch your tongue or I'll cut it out," Sesshōmaru threatened her with a growl of his own. This female irked him beyond the norm, he'd never met any female like her. While she was annoying, she was intelligent despite her language. 'Interesting female,' he found himself thinking.

"Don't tell me you came just to see my pretty face," Rei barked out a laugh at her own joke. 'That would be something…'

"Don't be ridiculous," Sesshōmaru with a snort, "Okuninushi, Father wishes to see you." He glared at the weaker yōkai, who gulped before fleeing from the room, Sesshōmaru followed after him.

"Great now it's boring again," Rei sighed, again. 'Am I ever gonna get out of here?'

"Uhhh…Do….do you have…a moment," a voice asked, once again from the doorway. Rei shrank back a little, it was the female whose bath she had interrupted three days ago. It wasn't something Rei liked to think about, now if the one in the bath had been a male, well that was a different story. Rei smiled to herself, males were just her weakness.

"Ummm…," the other female shifted nervously, biting at her lip.

'Oh right,' Rei snapped back to the present. "Yeah, I've got time. Ain't like I can go anywhere, anyway," she said tersely.

The female walked over to Rei and sated down where Okuninushi had been sitting before. Rei noticed it wasn't only her orange eyes that were odd, the moon marking on her forehead was odd too. It was a peach color, light and soft. Rei had a thought it the color fit this yōkai well. "What you wanted to talk about?"

"Uhh…well…you see…I wondered if…if maybe," the female was struggling immensely with her words and Rei felt a little sorry for her. She obviously didn't have make self confidence.

"How bout you start with yer name," Rei suggested with a small grin.

The other female blushed and dropped her gaze, "Forgive me…I'm Anzu."

"I'm Rei, nice to meet ya!" Rei said cheerily, with a grin showing her teeth. She kinda found it cute that Anzu was so shy and nervous. 'I don't think I've ever met a female like her before!'

Anzu smiled back at Rei a little, her face still red. Rei laughed, "How about you try and ask yer question now."

"Oh…right…," Anzu blushed some more, before saying, "I wondered if…maybe you were…" She lowered her gaze and went quiet for a moment, Rei considered telling her to take a break when the female blurted out, "Are you Sesshōmaru-onii-sama's mate-to-be!"

"Wha? Huh?" Rei looked around the room wildly, "Where the fuck did that come from?"

"Oh…so you're not…," Anzu looked at the ground embarrassment clear as day on her sweet face. "Forgive me…I'll go now."

She turned leave when Rei called out to her, "Where the hell ya going? Come back here!" Anzu jumped in surprise and sat back down immediately. "Tell me where the hell you got that question from?"

"Well, Sesshōmaru-onii-sama's father, my lord, betrothed him to a female not too long ago," Anzu looked at her hands in her lap. "No one knows who it is, or when she is coming."

"So you thought I could be her," Rei said finishing Anzu's thoughts. "Well no worries, I ain't gonna be mated to some asshole like that," Rei said with a 'hmph!'.

"Oh! Rei-sama please don't talk of Sesshōmari-onii-sama that way. He may not look it, but he can be very kind." Anzu smiled sweetly at Rei, who felt her soul was escaping.

"I think we're talking about two different yōkai here," Rei said blankly.

"Anzu," Sesshōmaru said as he reentered Rei's room, "what are you doing here? Mother is looking for you."

"Ah! Coming Sesshōmaru-onii-sama," Anzu said perking up at his voice. She bowed good-bye to Rei before taking off.

Rei gave Sesshōmaru a blank look, "She's got one bad brother complex."

Sesshōmaru snorted lightly before leaving Rei all alone again.

"I think I'm just gonna go to sleep."

Over the past few days as Rei recovered slowly from being unable to move, Anzu was a constant companion. They found that they had many things in common much to the disbelief of everyone else. Anzu would bring Rei flowers and other things from outdoors, and Rei would tell her stories of places she had been to and what she had seen. Though sometimes Anzu would sit in Rei's room sowing and they would be silent, lost in their own thoughts.

"Milord, do you think it's safe to let Anzu socialize with that ruffian?" One of Tōga's advisers had asked one day.

"I do not see any harm in this," Tōga has answered. "Besides, this is good for her." 'If she hinds behind Sesshōmaru's shadow for much longer she'll never grow.'

Most thought that Tōga didn't care much for Anzu, for the fact that she was the result of his first mate's coupling with another male, but in truth Tōga loved her. It was her inability to socialize that kept them apart. Constant harassment from other because of her heritage had left her very weak hearted, which was why she clung to Sesshōmaru the way she did.

'Yes, this is for the best.'

"Rei-chan, what do you think?" Anzu asked holding up a long obi she had been embroiling for the past six after her and Rei's encounter. It was green with a large inu yōkai sewn into it at one of the corners.

"That's pretty good! Where'd you learn to sow like this?" Rei asked running her fingers lightly over the pattern. "Did you make it for Onii-chan?" Rei had begun to call Sesshōmaru after she had meant Anzu. It make him growl at her, which she found amusing. It was better than getting his usual scowling.

Anzu shook her head and laid the obi on Rei's lap, "Green's your favorite color, right?"

Rei looked at Anzu in shock, "For me? Aw, ya didn't have to do that!" Rei smiled widely and loosely tied it around her waist. Well she was recovering, her still didn't have access to her lower body yet and too much movement caused her pain.

"I'm glad you like, Rei-chan!" Anzu smiled at her and retied the knot.

"Thanks, so what's your next project?" Rei asked squirming a little as she tried to tenderly shift into a more comfortable sitting position, though having to lean against a wall was making it hard.

"I thought I would make one for your friend, Kagome-san." Anzu was the who had convinced Rei to telling Tōga that she had a pack waiting for her, which Rei had been reluctant about. Letting others know where your pack was, was something inus didn't do, but Anzu had convinced Rei that it was safe. Tōga had even let her send a message by hawk secretly so that Kagome and the other wouldn't have to worry about her. "You can give it to her as a gift when you go back."

Rei smiled lightly at the silver-haired inu, "I think she would like that. What color you gonna use?"

"Hmm, pink!" Anzu said brightly.

Rei laughed, "Kagome-chan will like that. Orange, too she likes orange."

"What about pink with an orange flower on it?" Anzu asked as she searched through her threads for colors.

"That screams Kagome," Rei said with a light laugh. She was going to miss Anzu when she left here. They had become such fast friends, though it still shocked Rei that they were the same age. Anzu just didn't look seventeen by human terms.

"Rei can you tell me about all those charms in your hair," Anzu asked as she put her needles and threads away for later.

Rei fingered one of the three strands of hair that she had warped in thread as she thought about whether or not to tell Anzu about them. 'Couldn't hurt none.' "This first one I got was from a yōkai bird in another land across the sea."

Anzu's eyes went wide, "You've been across the seas?"

Rei grinned, "Yep, this feather came off the bird after it attacked me, I kept it was a trophy." She held the feather up that was attached to her hair by one of the threaded pieces of hair. "This one was from some merchant who tried to rob me. The next was from the was from a friend who passed on," Rei rubbing the smooth glossy surface of the purple glass piece.

"Oh I'm sorry," Anzu said quietly.

"Nah, it ain't a big deal, it happens." Rei patted her knee, "Although the best trophy is the from the neko yōkai's ribs a took after a ten day battle!"

"Ten days?" Anzu repeated, amazed. She looked at the rib bones that around the side of Rei's head. They were white from being out in the sun so much, and Anzu could be small cracks in the bones.

"Yeah! He was feisty, but I won in the end," Rei said proudly stroking the bones.

"Why do you were your trophies in your hair, though? Sesshōmaru-onii-sama keeps them on the wall in his room, my lord has his in his study, and father puts them in a chest."

"You've never meet anyone who wore their trophies before?" Rei asked a little shocked by this, everyone in her pack wore trophies somewhere on their person.

"Some of the lower-class yōkai wear them, but I've never seen a middle-class inu wear them," Anzu said looking at Rei, waiting for an answer.

Rei paused, sometimes she forgot that she had taken off her mokomoko back at the camp. It had been hot and she hadn't felt the need to wear it. 'Not much reason to tell her I'm daiyōkai-class,' Rei thought silently, Anzu was middle-class, telling her would seem like she was rubbing it in her face. "Huh, that's interesting. Most of my pack wears theirs."

"Really? It's so strange to see the differences in which we grew up," Anzu stated in thought. Rei nodded in agreement.

"Rei, it is Tōga. May I enter?" Came the Inutaisho's voice from behind the door.

"Ah! Yeah, sure," Rei said as Tōga rushed in. "What's wrong?"

Tōga's heavy gaze landed on Rei, he held her eyes as he walked over to where she sat on the ground. She was looking at him in confusion and he wanted anything more than to not have to bring her this news.

"Tōga-sama yer freaking me out," Rei said giving him a funny look.

"Forgive me," Tōga said taking in a deep breath, "your packs campsite was attacked."

Well there you have it, another chapter with my favorite character! Well made up character! I know Sesshōmaru wasn't in it a whole lot but his time is coming don't you worry! ^-^

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