AN: Sweet baby Jesus, I rewrote this chapter so many times. Please, enjoy.
I lugged my feet through the hall with a sour expression, quickly growing tired of being called into Sesshomarus room and forced to trek back and forth from his doorway to mine. I put a hand to the door and pushed open, once again completely ignoring the rooms other occupant and settling my glare strictly onto my venomous older brother. My grip on the door frame was tight and I didn't bother unclenching my teeth as I spoke, "What?" My brother sat with yellow eyes still focused on the paper he held, his hair bound and his stance unaffected by my less then friendly greeting, which only served to grate on my nerves. I stood in silence for another few moments while my brother read on, clearly not feeling my presence acknowledgeable. My eyes dragged their way down his frame involuntarily and I painfully clamped down on my lip as punishment, wanting nothing more than to stay angry at his treatment of me, not drooling over his… well, his everything. Things never do work out the way I want them to.
It'd been scarcely a day since I spent over four hours cleaning up my brothers' room and already it began to show signs of returning to its original state: a pigsty. Sesshomarus room being a 'mess' is the understatement of the century. After my completely accidental and unintentional incident, I spent a good amount of time just scrubbing his mattress down to try and brush away any type of anything that could hint at my being there at all. His sheets were washed so many times, the inside of the washing machine began to tint the same color. However, for once in such a long time, the Gods seemed to be smiling down on me when they delivered a mildly sick Sesshomaru to his home that evening with a stuffy nose as read as the autumn leaves. The poor fucker couldn't smell a thing and God dammit if I didn't nearly do a back flip.
"Naraku wants some water."
My evened eyes switched to the spider demon for what seemed like the first time of the day, a contradictory statement in itself seeing as the amount of times I'd been called to this exact spot in the last twenty-four hours had to be reaching a dozen. My clutch on the wooden door-frame tightened considerably when Naraku's taunting smile and fluid wave reached my eyes, his objective clearly to infuriate me further. Mission accomplished, asshole. "Fiji." Naraku ordered, repositioning himself on the bed otherwise covered in textbooks and school papers. I retracted my nails from the doorframe before turning on my heal and heading for the kitchen, the feeling of a menacing raincloud beginning to form just over my head.
I skidded down the steps in a mood as dark as night, ignoring my parents happy faces and cheeky smiles on my way to the kitchen. I snatched a glass out of the cupboard before setting it on the counter and heading for the refrigerator, grumbling about wicked older brothers as I did. I stopped my rant in favor of taking a calming breath against the cool and relaxing air of the opened fridge, reaching for the nearly frozen bottle of Fiji water only when I felt I wouldn't poke a hole through the plastic. "Get you a water – I'll get you a water, alright." I mumbled with a sudden change of plan in mind. I opened the sealed bottle of Fiji water before downing its content into the glass and putting a clawed finger into my mouth. Then, after I let my finger stirred around a bit, I dipped the saliva coated digit into the glass and stirred it around for good measure. "One glass of water, coming rite up."
A small walk and a flight of stairs later, I entered the room that lay disorderly and vacant of the eldest Tashio son before settling my eyes onto the seated form of Naraku with a pang of uncertainty. Maybe I felt a smidgen of guilt for defiling his water in such a way; it wasn't exactly his fault my own brother was a blackmailing spawn of hell. I was beginning to rethink my decision as I gently turned the glass in my hand and stood just beyond the doorway of the room. Naraku looked to me expectantly, his eyes darting first to the water then back to me, "Let's go, piss-puppy, do you think I got all fucking day?" he inquired, setting aside the laptop he'd held in front of him and training ruby red eyes strictly on a familiar golden set. My face fell indignantly and I paused briefly before resuming my path with a new found vigor towards my task, ignorant of the dark haired hanyou's alternate intentions and, once I'd reached him, his actions were far too fast for my retraction. Naraku has always been like that and my guess is nothing's changing anytime soon when concerning this particular spider demon. He next to never does what you actually want him to do, which is usually to leave you the hell alone, and he almost always has some underlining meaning to literally everything he does which pretty much makes him the most annoying being on the planet. To add to all this aggravation, he is also one of Sesshomarus closest friends, which really isn't saying much since Sesshomaru doesn't make forming friendships a habit. Counting Naraku, the only other person Sesshomaru would publicly dame a 'friend' was Kouga and don't I know how hard it is to get even that far with my brother.
To recap, you should have gotten two things from this tirade: one being that Naraku is a worthless piece of shit that I wouldn't waste the energy to scrape off the bottom of my shoe and two being that since he is questionably one of Sesshomarus chosen 'friends', he might actually have some form of a heart somewhere hiding in the deepest pits of his body. However, you can imagine my unpleasant surprise when, instead of just taking the fucking glass, Naraku wrapped his fingers around my wrist and pulled me so close, my knees touched the beds edge. I bared my teeth at him, trying unsuccessfully to wretch myself away from his grip but the harder I tugged, the tighter his hand held. "Get. Off. Me!" I strained, my voice jumping with each pull I delivered. "But it's been so long since I've last been here, haven't you missed me?" he laughed as he spoke and I saw the humor in his eyes and heard it laced through his voice before I scoffed, "It's been, like, two weeks since the last time you free loaded off us, which is like three seconds when pertaining to you." I mumbled, abandoning the glass of water to the wobbly surface of a psychology textbook so that I could use my free hand to try and pry open Naraku's long, cold fingers. "And you only left 'cause your parents sent you across the country 'cause nobody wants you around." I muttered, wanting only to wipe that taunting smile from him face.
He only broadened his grin, letting his eyes sparkle with unclothed merriment, "That is true." He spoke, sighing in forged sorrow, "I showed them, didn't I? But, come," I yelped when my slightly smaller frame was forced down beside him on the queen-sized bed, his hand still set tight around my wrist."Let us not speak of the past – I'm back now and with a question for you." His voice went unaffected by my now switched tactic of flinging my arm about, a motive that shook us both, "I'd… rather…" I panted out, giving up on the overexerting exercise in favor of my original approach: unsuccessfully trying to curl my fingers under his. "I'd rather die than answer anything you want to know!"
My voice was full of frustration and my stance was stiff, all sure signs that Naraku was doing what he does best. "Last I was here, you were never so… docile with your brother." He evened his eyes upon me as he spoke and, though I could still see a fraction of the girth that was always there, there was a bit of weightiness along side of it. I froze all my movements instantly before responding, this unwarranted conversation teetering much too close to the unspeakable for my own comfort, "I don't know what you're talking about." I lied, letting my eyes dart from his face to the bedspread we sat on out of nervousness, cursing the blush I could feel deepening with every breath. His face broke out into a crooked grin at his notice of the stain on my cheeks, his eyes refilling with its usual hilarity, "You two fuckin'?" he questioned, letting his grip finally loosen upon my flesh just enough to barely hang on. "No, you perverted little shit." I growled out, letting my wrist slip from under his scaly skin to curl up against my own chest for warmth. His smile only brightened at my response while his eyes seemed to look into my thoughts and find his own answers to the questions he seemed to thrive on, "But you want to fuck him!" Naraku assumed, gathering thick waves of hair in his hands and pulling it over one shoulder for his fingers to run through. "Hey, you don't see it too often anymore, but demons used to do it all the time way back when – inbreed I mean." He informed, looking to me with his eyes brightened and his expression curious, as if he were at home watching a favorite dramatic television show and not making postulations about my life.
"I do not want to have sex Sesshomaru." I hissed, afraid the demon in question may be lurking somewhere in ear shot. Naraku snorted at my change of tone and increased his own volume out of pure ridicule, "Sesshomaru's not here!" he yelled, laughing at his own joke after he was through letting his voice echo off the walls. I let my ears fall against my hair to spare their sensitivity. "You guys are outta ink so he went to the store." He breathed out, letting his finger come up and flick away an invisible tear left over from his exaggerated mirth.
I crossed my arms over my chest, irritated beyond belief over this entire weekend being flushed down the toilet alongside my life if I didn't figure out a way out from under my brothers' thumb; being in such close contact with Naraku only seemed worsen my mood additionally. Big surprise there. Not.
I made a move to stand and rid myself of this unnecessary irritancy only to have my wrist ceased once more and my skin chilled by his snowy white hands, "Why is your skin so gross?" I questioned, fighting the feeling of my stomach rolling against my spine in revulsion. Naraku looked at me blankly before glancing at his arm. He looked back to me and shrugged, the movement forcing some of the dark strands to slip away and return to his back. "I talked to Kouga." He started, paying no attention to my resumed struggle to remove him. "Congradu-fucking-lations." I responded, ready to bite the offending limb that trapped me. "What a conversation we had, Kouga and I." Naraku stated, letting his grip tighten once again. I let my eyes dart to his suspiciously, "What exactly are you getting at…" I asked, my shoulders tense and my ears standing straight. Naraku gave yet another dramatic sigh before speaking again, letting thick and dark eyelashes flutter innocently against the soft skin under his eyes as he did, "He told me about… oh just some crazy time you two had a couple years back."
My eyes widened at this new information and I stood silent for another few moments, not quite sure how to respond. "I-I don't know what you're talking about."I balled my fist together in my lap, finding my voice a mere unintentional whisper. Naraku gave another bit of boisterous laughter before speaking, his lips holding the darkest of smirks, "Do you always say that when you don't want to tell the truth?" he asked, letting the full of his hair return to its original position. I shook my head, trying to physically remove my mind of this whole ordeal, "Fuck you, Naraku." I declared, feeling robbed of my peace of mind and letting the full extent of my resentment translate through my eyes. He gave me a cheeky smile in response, "I get that a lot. Two-hundred bucks and I won't tell Sesshomaru."
I cocked a brow with a new found interest in the conversation for the first time since forced to take part in it, "Why…" I paused to gather my thoughts, not completely sure if my question would reveal too much to the inquisitive hanyou, "Why would Sesshomaru care?" I couldn't squash the streaks of hope that were wedged deep into my eyes that—just maybe—I was possibly considerable in my brothers eyes. Naraku gave me a knowing smile, as if he had a good look into the future and already knew what would become of Sesshomaru and I. Hell, knowing Naraku, being the perceptive little shithole he is, maybe he already had. "Two hundred bucks, Inuyasha."
So I did. 'He'll find out some day' and 'Better sooner than later' were but some of the thoughts that ran through my head, trying to convince me not to let Naraku take the two hundred dollars I'd been saving for months but Naraku had given me the smallest possible piece of optimism towards getting something that I admired immensely – and I was entirely unwilling to give that up for anything; even though Sesshomaru was but a beautiful shiny toy hung up just too high on the shelf for me to reach, that awe would ultimately grow into loads of mushy, sticky, sappy love – but let me not get ahead of myself.
Rest assured, I no longer felt bad for the water.
