A/N – Enjoy chapter nine for me? is secretly hoping that none of my few readers are plotting to kill me for being stupid and taking the wrong pin drive to Germany
Disclaimer – Erm…well…InuYasha and friends…not mine….sorry if you actually thought he was…(hopefully none of you are that dumb considering this is a site for fanfiction…)
Chapter 9
Kagome grabbed a lantern and followed InuYasha up the stairs. She was amazed at his ability to see in the dark, for he was long past her, and she could not see him, meaning that he had found his way fine on his own.
The staircase was long, and of the spiraling variety, with unlit torches hanging from the wall on the outside of the circle the stairs were making. Just when Kagome thought that the trek would never end, and that she would never catch up to InuYasha, she found an open door shedding some light on to a small landing.
"Well, sure took you long enough, there were only five hundred and four stairs." InuYasha was wearing a roughish smile, knowing that even if she had run, he would have still stayed out of her sight. He really loved exploring, and having the chance to explore a place a world away from his norm was something he couldn't have waited for. He had used all of his demonic speed to get him up the stairs as fast as he could, though he counted them for Kagome, just in case she was wondering.
Kagome could tell that InuYasha was joking, and never wanted him to lose the smile he was wearing, it showed just how handsome he could be, just as a prince should be. She decided to lose the thought of turning him into the perfect prince, at least for the rest of the day. Kagome would let him be, and see how bad his personality really was.
"If I were a demon…I would have beaten you." Kagome said defiantly, deciding to play with him.
"Oh? Well, I am glad that you are not the demon, or you might have gotten this room, it is quite nice, better even than yours." It was then that Kagome noticed that she hadn't even seen past the door, having been stopped by InuYasha. She shoved him to the side, sticking her tongue out at him as she passed by.
Kagome gasped. She could see the walls and the furniture, but they were almost transparent. She could see outside as if though she were standing on top of the castle, and off to one side, she could see the roof of the castle. The room was huge, and as InuYasha walked in, he flipped a switch by the door, and everything returned to its previous state of visibility; the walls showing that they were stone, like the rest of the castle. The room had a red and gold theme, with redwood floors, and red furniture.
"Amazing, isn't it? I went to turn on the lights, and everything turned transparent. I forgot that there is no electricity here…" InuYasha seemed more bewildered than Kagome was.
"I didn't know that this room even existed…it must be the West Tower, I've heard rumors about it being like this, but nobody has ever found a way to get in here…from the outside, no windows or balconies can be seen, but I can quite clearly see a few windows and a set of doors leading out to a balcony. There must be a very powerful spell on this room. I think I will call InuTaisho to have a look at it at once." Kagome seemed determined to go get the king, because she turned away from the magical room and the prince to go back down the long set of stars.
"Hey! Wait for me! You can't just leave me…" InuYasha wisely decided not to test the girl who made amazing time down the stretching set of stairs, and followed her instead, grumbling the whole way about mean deserting girls.
InuTaisho was sitting in his office contemplating what to do if the youths in the infirmary were not well soon. They would have to have a person feed and bathe them, which would make problems for him; nobody could know about InuYasha's presence at the court until the time was right, which he hoped would be soon, he was running out of time. As he contemplated making Rin do the job because she was his most trusted servant, he smelt both of the youth in question coming down the hallway towards his study.
When Kagome and InuYasha entered InuTaisho's study, the demon was already looking at them. Neither of the teens seemed to notice the look of relief he had on his face when they entered the room, and instead, Kagome began talking almost before she even opened the door.
"Dad! Dad! Guess what!?" The girl seemed so excited, yet the boy be hind her was just glaring at the back of her head.
"What is it Kagome?" InuTaisho decided to ignore the look that InuYasha was giving Kagome, it would probably be brought up at one point or another.
"I found the West tower!" She seemed so proud of herself in that moment that InuTaisho laughed.
"Sure took you long enough, there were many reasons I gave you that room, and that tower was one of them." The King continued to laugh at Kagome as she gave him a bewildered look. "Didn't I tell you that that was once my room? I had stayed in the tower whenever I didn't want anyone to find me. Before you moved in, I had the concealing spell removed from the door so that you would find it. How did it take until now for you to find it?"
"I..erm…I wasn't here! I had the room for a week before I left for Seattle, and you expected me to find it? I had much better things to do than find some silly, well, amazing room." She exclaimed "Besides I wasn't really in there very often."
InuTaisho was about to inquire as to where she was instead, when Sesshoumaru walked in, answering his question.
"Kagome, will you come with me please? I'm sure InuYasha and InuTaisho have much catching up to do." Sesshoumaru motioned to the door, seeming very nonchalant.
InuYasha shot Kagome a look. It quite clearly portrayed that he knew exactly what was going to happen and that Kagome was not exactly jumping for joy about it. He had already said more than his two cents about the subject, but he could really do with a talk with her right now. Her going off and sleeping with Sesshoumaru was something that they would most definitely have a talk about later. InuYasha knew that she wouldn't want to talk about it, and he probably wouldn't either, but they would. It was one of the random instincts he had, he knew that they would have a rather long, deep conversation about her relationship with Sesshoumaru.
Kagome ignored the look that she knew she was getting from InuYasha, if she looked at him, all her ability to go along with Sesshoumaru would disappear. He had those eyes. Those eyes could make her do anything. It didn't matter whose eyes they were, Sesshoumaru's, InuYasha's, even InuTaisho's, all of them had the ability to practically control her.
Slowly, so as not to trip in the presence of so much royalty, Kagome rose and followed Sesshoumaru out the door. Where she proceeded to trip over nothing. Sesshoumaru smiled. Not a big grin, or even anything that would be noticed, just a slight upturning of his lips. It disappeared as soon as it came, and he looked as callous as ever, but his eyes were laughing. Kagome caught herself, but still blushed at her clumsiness. She was now determined to kill every ounce of clumsiness in her.
They soon found themselves in front of Sesshoumaru's door. Sesshoumaru looked at Kagome, and could feel the nervousness radiating off of the girl. He vaguely wondered what she was nervous about. They had been together many times, and she had only been nervous the first few times, by now, she should be at least comfortable with him.
Just seconds after the door was opened, Kagome was sitting on Sesshoumaru's bed, looking at her swinging feet. This was unusual. She usually followed him, and waited until he gave her at least some direction to do something.
"Sesshoumaru…" Kagome started, but could not seem to force herself continue. She had made eye contact with InuYasha as she had exited the room, and had read the look in his eyes.
Sesshoumaru watched as Kagome swung her feet back and forth, knowing what she was trying to say. It may be hard for her to say it, but she had to, he wanted her to. She would learn to stand up for herself, even if it took Sesshoumaru years, he would make sure she learned to at some point. In this case, his brother made things easier. Sesshoumaru knew InuYasha's birthday, he knew that he was the one for Kagome, he knew that he would not be marrying Kagome in December, and he had known it for years.
"Tell me. Whatever you are trying to say, just say it. Nothing you could ever say would upset me." He was now standing about a foot in front of Kagome, also watching her feet, for the first time noticing that she was wearing heels that looked to be made out of purple glass.
"I…" Kagome looked up to see Sesshoumaru apparently concentrating on her shoes, and was somehow given the strength to finish, "I don't love you Sesshoumaru, I never have, I don't think that I ever will. I've tried, and found that I love you in completely the wrong way. I see you as a close friend, or even another brother. What I mean to say is that as soon as we both find someone else…we should break the engagement. You don't love me, and I see no reason for us to keep up this relationship. Now I think that I will go back to my room…"
Kagome stood, only to be pulled into Sesshoumaru's arms.
A/N - It just came to my attention that only 1.6 percent of the people who have read this, have reviewed. If you take into consideration that half of those were from the same person, (who I am delighted to have reading my story) about .8 percent of my readers review. This makes me a sad little bird.
