Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, so drop that sledgehammer and leave me be to write the next chapter of my fanfiction.
A/N:
Oh dear. I haven't updated in… let's just say in a long long time. Or at least it seems that way to me…
So first and foremost, I will apologize.
I'M SORRY!!
Then I will furiously defend myself with various reasons as to exactly why I couldn't write.
You see, I was been pelted with lots of assignments and homework. There are these times when I am overwhelmed, absolutely OVERWHELMED with work, and lately those have been getting more frequent and closer together. So, as you could understand, I was drowning.
AND one of my best friends left for Japan and I got very very sad and depressed and wrote about a gazillion long emails to her detailing many different things that happened at school, not to mention all those OTHER emails to my cousin that SHE DIDN'T REPLY TO! –Ahem—worry not, though, dearest Booya. Your reasons for not replying were the same as my reasons for not updating.
So please forgive me if I find that I value my homework and future more than a fanfiction. I am one of the few who actually cares about their marks.
Of course, I also think school and homework are an absolute waste of time… but aaah, nobody values my teeny opinion in my oh-so-screwed-up middle school. Oh well.
:P Now to the review answers. Sorry guys, because it's been a long time these answers are either out of date or they don't make sense or something… but I like them anyway. Besides, they show my extreme gratitude.
ChristinaAngel: Thank you! I don't like KouKag either (probably why I made him so… odd) Thanks for the review! Again! And that's the whole point, he's marrying Kikyou! That's the glitch. Well, apart from the fact that Naraku wants to kill everyone…
Clouds of the Sky: Thankee! I'm actually fine with both Kaname and Yuki and Zero and Yuki, but Zero and Yuki is definitely the one that I am more partial to! :) But YukiKaname are cute together, you havva to admit VK rules, BUT NEVER AS MUCH AS BLEACH! – Runs away laughing – Thanks for the review anyway!
animerocks23: Thank you for the review! I like to update soon as well.. though I was a bit nervous writing this chapter because as you know, my romance sucks. Oh well
serahrose: Thanks for the review! Oh yes, and I did like the idea about Kagome purifying off Inuyasha's ears too :) . Maybe I'll put that as the plot of one of my later fics XD
Black-Wolf Fox: I give you thanks for the fav AND alert! Now if you would only review as well… :P
Aizlynn: Deeply indebted to you for alerting. Now if you would only review as well too :)
Silver and Gold Make Bronze: Thanks for the review! I am flattered. :)
all590: Thanks for the review! Glad you liked it…
Now, for those of you who want the nitty gritty details of the romantic scenes, sorry but I ain't gonna give them because I'd probably have to duck away every few minutes to throw up into the bin at my own cheesy lines. Yes, to say it simply, I SUCK AT WRITING THOSE. Not that I've ever tried. It's just something you know automatically
ENJOY!
AND REVIEW EVERYBODY! REVIEW! I will love you forever… and if you review enough I might just dedicate a fic to you!
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Chapter 10
Devotion
If her heart had been beating fast when he had confessed to her, then it was going at the speed of light right now.
He had leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers, at the same time crushing her to him in an intimate hug. Hugging him back, she returned the favour and, needless to say, the next few minutes were quite enjoyable. (If you guys REALLY want the details, just imagine it yourselves.)
When they finally broke apart, she could feel nothing but bliss on her mind, but a few minutes later when they sat in silence, comfortable in each others presence, a thought popped into her mind that disturbed her deeply.
Shifting her position in his lap so that she sat facing him, she asked
"What about Kikyou?"
Inuyasha looked up at her and hugged her close.
"I'll just have to find a way not to marry her."
"But then what'll happen to you and your kingdom?"
"I… I can't marry her. I don't care. I'll marry you instead."
"But Inuyasha, I have to get home." She reminded him as gently as she dared.
"I told you. I need you. I'd die if you left."
"You were fine before I came." She stroked his head gently.
"Keh. I didn't know you then, Kagome."
"Glad you're calling me by my name now." She smiled softly.
He grinned back.
"Well, some things have to change eventually, don't they?" He planted a kiss on her forehead, then pulled back, looking serious. "Except for you leaving."
"I… we'll figure something out." Kagome leaned back into his embrace, discarding her worries as she felt him hug her again.
We'll work it all out in the end, Inuyasha.
You don't know how much I need you too.
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"So? What happened?" Miroku was on his feet and demanding answers the moment he spotted Inuyasha and Kagome walking back into the clearing with linked hands.
"Ooooh…" His eyes flicked to their hands and then their smiling faces (Oh my god! Inuyasha smiling?! –faints— :P) and then turned to Sango with a triumphant expression, screaming. "I TOLD YOU SO!" He then burst into laughter and started running around the room like a crazed man.
Sango, on the other hand, smiled gently at them and asked "So, when's the wedding?" with a small giggle. Then she thought of the same thing that Kagome had before and gasped, putting up a hand to cover her mouth.
"What about Kikyou?"
"Bah, whaddabout Kikyou?" Inuyasha wrapped an arm around Kagome's shoulder. "We'll find a way."
"I don't know…" Sango thought of all the complications- like the fact that Kagome came from ANOTHER FRIGGIN TIME!
Inuyasha, however, seemed to have made up his mind to be positive for the day. He grinned at them and said simply.
"We'll find a way."
To Kagome, it seemed adorable the way he was so positive. To Sango, whose mind wasn't overcome with love, it seemed that the hanyou was trying to deny something inevitable, until he could put it off any longer.
Which of course, he was.
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The next banquet with Kikyou was awkward. Inuyasha sat at the table sending longing glances at Kagome that stated plainly that he would rather be with her. Kikyou attempted to make conversation but each time he answered with short, terse responses that didn't encourage her. The food was delicious (oh how Miroku stuffed on it! :P) but Inuyasha didn't taste much of it. He was spending too much time wondering what he would do when the time came that Kagome had to go back to her own time, and when he had to marry Kikyou.
Finishing his meal, he pushed back his chair and gave a small nod of his head to the rest of the people at the royal table, then exited into the hallway without glancing to his side. Kagome was about to stand up and follow him, but she felt an arm on her shoulder. It was Sango.
"Leave him alone. Thinking always hurts his head. He obviously needs to-" Without a change of expression, she swung one hand round to clock Miroku on the side of the face so hard that spit flew. He did seem to have the worst timing.
"- He obviously needs to think something out good and proper. For that he always goes to the cellar." She gave Kagome a meaningful look.
Said girl nodded and sat back down to wait.
Meanwhile, Inuyasha was walking briskly along the hallway, the air quickly becoming colder as he descended deeper down into the depths of the castle where the cellar was located. Despite the fact that it was a wine cellar, the only thing he did in there was sit and think. He always found that sake meddled with his brain. Furrowing his brow he leaned against a barrel, nose twitching as the enticing smell floated towards him, but he ignored it and soon fell into a deep trance of thought.
It was then that Sesshoumaru burst into the room, laughing (for once) and pulling with him a young female youkai that Inuyasha knew to be Kagura, princess from one of the rivalling kingdoms. She was probably here because the marriage between Kikyou and himself was supposed to 'keep peace' with the rest of the kingdoms for an extended period of time. Personally, he thought it was a load of useless bollocks, but … he had no control over his parent's treaties.
Sudden inspiration hit him and he forgot all about the intruders on his private thinking time (who were now glaring icily at him, all thoughts of 'being alone' forgotten). His parents were dead… grief and fright had caused him to deny the death of his mother. She had taken care of him when he was young, comforted him in his distraught state when his father had gone away with the shikon no tama. Little had he known then how many tears she had shed herself in those early days. He had not been able to bring himself to believe that she was gone. Now, however, for his love, he accepted the fact.
His deceased parents would obviously have left the rule of the country to him. He could easily demolish the whole treaty; erase it, even if it meant war. The problem, however, was convincing the other kingdoms to demolish the treaty as well. It had already been signed and sealed. The other leaders had latched onto it immediately and signed it greedily, eager for any chance to stop the frequent battles between the different areas. Perhaps with this they could replenish troops, nurse their losses and then perhaps band together, launch full-scale attack on a certain kingdom, wipe it out and then have more land for themselves. It was all about power. Ultimate power. There were 4 different kingdoms, and in the end there might only be one, emerging from the ruins of the others.
Inuyasha was jolted from his plans and ideas by a rough hand lifting him by the scruff of the neck and tossing him like a rag doll out of the cellar. He had no doubt it was Sesshoumaru, but for once did not retaliate, simply dusted himself off and walked away, whistling happily. Sesshoumaru stared dumbly after him for a moment, having been expecting (and perhaps hoping for) a fight, but then shrugged and closed the door behind him, turning around to face Kagura as he did so. The bolt was drawn shut behind them.
In the hallway he ambushed a random servant and barked at him to call an immediate meeting of the heads of the 4 kingdoms, Naraku of the Dark areas far north, Kikyou from the land of the Mikos – she had to attend since her parents had both passed away as well. There was also Kouga of the Wolf Tribes and of course, Inuyasha himself of the Inu-Youkai lands.
Unfortunately, Inuyasha wasn't too experienced with using the formal language of the royalty. Having spent his tutoring lessons when he was young playing truant, he simply stood nervously at the large Council table, fiddling with the hem of his haori.
"So… uh. Yes, I've called this meeting because… you know that treaty that y'all signed? Well, I want it destroyed. Burnt, pounded, whatever." Inuyasha gave a small hopeful grin to the three other currently stunned-looking leaders in front of him.
"WHAT?!" Kouga was on his feet in a split second (thanks to the shikon fragments) and arguing.
"You can't just destroy it like that, mutt! It was meant to keep peace! And what the hell is going to happen to the peace-keeping marriage?!" He howled, clinging on the remnants of chances that he would be able to build up a large army in the time of peace. Large enough to wipe out the Inu-Youkais.
"Well, too bad. My lands started it, my lands finishes it. As for the marriage, no peace, no peace keeping marriage, stupid wolf. I'd thought you were smarter than that." Inuyasha said dryly.
Kouga growled and snarled, but for once the hanyou ignored him. He had more important things on his mind right now.
"So, waddya say?" he beamed at the two stony faced people sitting to his right and opposite him, Kikyou and Naraku.
"This is… this is… ABSOLUTE SHIT!" Naraku lost all self-control. Obviously he had been plotting and planning- Inuyasha and Kagome had probably heard only a small fraction of his horrible plans for the lands around him, namely, all of them.
"You stupid hanyou! You think that just because your stupid parents kicked the bucket and left the lands in your idiotic paws that you can just annul a royal treaty that ALL of us signed and agreed to! May the flies feed on your rotting flesh when I'm done with you!" He screamed, small spikes starting to push up through the flesh of his arms as he grew more and more enraged.
"Yes." Inuyasha said loudly and bluntly. "And put away those spikes, Naraku. It's bad enough that you frikkin attack me in my own lands and hurt my friends, but to attack me during a Council. That'll get you killed. Oh and remember, you're a 'filthy' hanyou too…"
He couldn't resist this last jibe. It sent Naraku squirming with rage, though he had hidden the spikes on his arms because attacking the inu-hanyou now would mean certain death, especially with a miko, a wolf and a dog around him.
It was then that Kikyou spoke up in her soft but clear voice.
"A royal treaty is hard to get rid of, but should Inuyasha-sama know the rules then he could do it properly because after all, it was the leaders of this very land who started it. The marriage would be cancelled and we would continue to go to war with each other. I would rather this didn't happen, though."
She stared at Inuyasha. He huffed.
"Whatever, wench. If I can get my hands on it, I can get rid of it. Where is it?"
The other three stared at him silently until Kouga spoke.
"For once in your life, you make sense, mutt. Where is that treaty?"
"I do not know." Came from Kikyou, which surprised the rest. She usually knew everything. "The Inu King and Queen did not entrust me with information of the whereabouts of the treaty."
"If she doesn't know, I can't know, can I?" Naraku huffed angrily. It was true, he was a sly trickster and none of the leaders trusted him fully. Actually, none of the leaders trusted each other fully either, but he was the most suspicious of them.
Inuyasha felt like banging his head against the table. All this thinking was hurting his head. Now he had to think some more about where the hell the stupid treaty was. It wasn't likely to be kept under his parents mattress or anything… Where could it be?
He groaned and finished the meeting by staggering out of the meeting room (who could blame him? A good dose of Naraku and Kikyou-ness mixed together with a bit of Kouga thrown in was enough to give him a whopper of a headache :P) and walked back into the great hall.
Sitting down next to Kagome, he neglected to mention the whole ordeal to her, instead preferring to refrain from speaking and also attempting to avoid dubious glances being shot at him from the royal table, and especially malicious glares from Naraku.
He vowed not to venture out of the castle in the next few days.
Who knew devotion could be so troublesome?
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YES! Finally I am DONE! YES! And on a school night too! OH MY GOD, THANK THE HEAVENS THAT THE SUMMER HOLIDAY IS NEARLY HERE! After two and a half months (long, eh? Because of the Olympics, it is. – Yes, I am in Beijing.) of summer holiday, I will be back at school and in 8th grade! Can't say I'm looking forward to it though…
Oh well.
I think this was one of the hardest chapters to write because of all the … political stuff that I am not too keen on :P But it's vital to the plot. I'll try to put more humour/romance and interesting stuff next chapter, ok?
In the meantime,
PLEASE REVIEW, GUYS!
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JUST PRESS THE GODDAMN BUTTON, FOR GOODNESS SAKES!
:)