The Only Way
Oh hi.
Written Listening To: Meet Me in St. Louis starring Judy Garland
"Nothing I Won't Give" from Metafiction, sung by Vic Mignoga (yes that's right, the guy who plays Edward on Full Metal Alchemist. It's wonderful. Find it and listen to it all the time.)
The Only Way
Chapter Eleven
"How's about you dance with me now, girl?" A growl sounded from behind her, where Sesshomaru stood alone now. Uh-oh.
Kagome froze, staring wide-eyed up at the chest of the Taiyoukai who had decided to snatch her from Sesshomaru. Was he really that stupid? Of course, what could Sesshomaru do in the middle of a ball? Technically this was a "neutral" event, so if he struck out at this Taiyoukai for his insolence, all hell would break loose.
Kagome didn't need to have any sort of lessons in the Art of Throwing a Ball to know the politics of the situation. For a moment she dropped her eyes to the glimmering floor – mahogany, Sesshomaru seemed entranced by his woods. Kagome briefly wondered if mahogany was even prevalent in the Sengoku Jidai, before she realized she was being yanked along in a dance that she should definitely pay attention to.
Lifting her head she attempted to rest her palms on the stranger's chest, to push him away, and got her first good look at him. He looked like a tiger, no other description for it. He had golden eyes that should have matched Sesshomaru's but didn't have the same diamond-smooth quality; his were more…tame. His face was orange, covered in fur, with faint black streaks along his cheeks and one over his nose. For his tiger-esque appearance he was remarkably humanoid – bipedal, with average facial features.
As she pushed, Kagome felt the first pricks of claws at her waist. Oh, wow. He was not playing around and he had very, very sharp claws. She stopped shoving and let him lead her around the dance floor, her kimono brushing the floor as she glanced surreptitiously around, seeking Sesshomaru. Feeling suddenly alone without him there.
Despite his frightening presence, she knew full well that he wasn't going to hurt her – if for nothing more than the fact that it seemed to be a huge pain for him to heal her. So of course he wouldn't inconvenience himself. Ironic that the only reason she knew she was safe was because it was inconvenient to him for her to be injured. But whatever worked! Safe is safe, be in due to him liking her or not wanting to bother with cleaning up her blood.
"What's your name, human?" The Taiyoukai whispered against her ear, speaking that way to piss Sesshomaru off – Kagome could tell. He was trying to be "intimate." Did he not realize he was going to get her killed if he kept this up? Sesshomaru may not be able to hurt him but she was just a human. If she played along the Lord of the castle may change his mind about what was inconvenient.
Turning her face away, Kagome muttered her name, before adding, "I'd rather like to sit down. I've been ill and I'm still recovering and all of this dancing is exhausting me. Excuse—"
"You don't need to sit down. Come on." The Taiyoukai spun her in another circle, "I'm having far too good of a time with you, Kagome. I'm Sourne."
Sourne… huh. Well. "Lord Sourne, I would like to sit down."
"Come, come, the dance isn't even half over." He didn't appear inclined to let her whine her way out of this and kept moving her. Soon her muscles began to relax, and slowly Kagome decided that perhaps this wasn't too bad. He was a good dancer, he wasn't hurting her, and hell… he was actually a pretty funny guy.
"That's Lady Naeith; she has got the highest voice you'll ever hear. Wait 'til she gets irate with Sesshomaru at dinner – oh, she will, I promise. That woman has a wicked temper – she will get to a decibel so high you won't know what to think of it!"
Kagome laughed, "I don't know, a friend of mine back home is really prone to getting high pitched."
"Oh, you'll see." He hesitated, no longer telling her names, instead focused on her face, "Where are you from?"
"North." Kagome responded instantly, not about to offer, Well see I'm a powerful priestess from about five hundred years in the future. Oh, yes, there's a well you can hop through if you think it sounds like a good idea to take over the future.
"North--?"
"If you don't mind." Sesshomaru's voice cut in, cold as ice, "I've been very patiently waiting, but I believe four songs is more than enough. Kagome." He held his hand out.
Kagome hesitated for a moment, weighing her options, and then she took Sesshomaru's hand. Sourne's hand held at her waist for a long heart-stopping moment before he let go and stepped back with a smirk that showed a mouth full of fangs – wow, how had she missed that during all of the talking? "Have a lovely evening, Kagome, I hope to see you again." With a wink and a bow he vanished with a rustle of silk pants and perfectly pressed shirt.
Sesshomaru's fingers tightened around hers and Kagome hissed, "Ouch; Sesshomaru, you're hurting me."
"Ah." He released his tight grip and with slightly less pressure directed her toward the table, "Dinner." He announced to a small female servant as he walked by, and she raced off to pass the word. Kagome moved toward the cushion she'd settled on previously – but Sesshomaru caught her by the hand he still grasped and tugged her to a different cushion, next to his. "You won't be able to eat that far away." He murmured by way of explanation, and knelt at his own cushion, looking for all the world like the most comfortable creature in the world, his luxurious white hair piled on the floor behind him. For a moment Kagome was jealous – she'd never gotten her hair to grow below her waist without getting a million split ends and that nasty two inches of supremely thin hair that just made it look like she didn't take care of it. Thinking of hair made her automatically reach up to brush her fingers through her own long black hair, noting it ended just below her shoulder blades. It had grown a little since her last check; cool.
Sesshomaru was staring at her. Kagome stiffened and dropped her hands into her lap, face questioning. "I said; do you prefer meat or fruit?"
"I really don't have a favourite." Kagome mumbled, cheeks burning, "I guess if I had to choose—"
"You don't. I just wanted to know if you preferred one or the other." Sesshomaru turned to nod at the servant behind his shoulder, who bolted away.
"Oh. Okay." Kagome sat stiffly. Figures that for the two seconds she'd chosen to zone out, Sesshomaru would want to speak to her. Dinner was served only minutes later, and Kagome found that the woman with the high voice did hit absolutely insane decibels. Her plate was special, just "human" food, whereas the demons ate something she'd never seen before. At her inquiry Sesshomaru assured her that it was something that would likely make her very ill, and no – she didn't want to try it.
So she didn't.
After dinner came more dancing, and Kagome was growing very, very tired. She sat twiddling a fork, beginning to doze off, wondering exactly how long these people planned to just … hang out. Would they really last through the night? A touch to the small of her back jerked her upright from where she'd been lazing halfway on the table, the fork's clattering to the ground suddenly loud in her ears as she peered up at Sourne. "I want you to come with me." He breathed.
"…What? No." Kagome responded instantly. She didn't know him, Sesshomaru would so be pissed off, and Inuyasha wouldn't be able to come for her. No way would he know to follow her to this strange Taiyoukai's land.
"I didn't ask." Sourne responded firmly, catching her by the arm and hoisting her to her feet, "Sesshomaru doesn't like humans. I know that. I am pretty fond of them – not all Taiyoukai are, but I rather like them. You're so fragile, it's fascinating. Your lives are just a blink and you live them with such reckless abandon to get so much crammed into such an infinitesimal amount of time…"
"Let me go!" Kagome demanded, eyes wide. NO. Oh hell no. She was not getting kidnapped from her kidnapper. This was getting so thoroughly ridiculous. "I am not going with you."
"Must you do this everywhere you go?" Sesshomaru snapped as he lifted Kagome, and deposited her behind him, "That's enough, Sourne. Much more of this and I will find your lands adding to mine."
Sourne snorted, back stiff, "You don't like humans, Sesshomaru. Why are you so married to this girl? You have no use for her."
"True." Sesshomaru responded, quirking a brow, "But I have her, you don't, and we're going to keep it that way. My ward needs a human woman to teach her the ways as such, so of course I will get nothing less than the best for her. Kagome can protect her and teach her. Now sit down. You've been drinking."
"Demons can get drunk?" Kagome inquired of Sesshomaru's back, startled. She'd never expected to hear that.
"Of course," Sesshomaru responded, "It's probably more difficult for a demon than a human, but it's entirely possible."
Kagome had a sudden reckless image of challenging a demon to a drinking contest. Wouldn't that be funny. Strange though; she hadn't seen anything that resembled alcohol… of course she hadn't really examined everyone's goblets.
"I want her." Sourne pressed.
"You want her power." Sesshomaru shot back, "You know she's the reincarnation of Kikiyou."
Did everyone know Kikiyou?
"You know she's carrying the soul of one of the most powerful humans to ever exist…and you know you can tap that power for your own gain. You will not. If you want her this badly you should have struck before I did. Now sit down, or leave. I don't particularly care which you're going to choose but I'm dangerously close to taking insult."
Taking insult? What would happen with Sesshomaru took insult? Kagome wanted to see a slapping match. When the mental image startled giggles from her she realized she was tired. She was in fact tired enough that she had gone right over wanting to doze off and right into the hyperactivity of the state referred to as "slap-happy."
"Why are you laughing?" Sesshomaru inquired of her, looking somewhat aggravated by her lack of respect for the situation.
"I am not laughing." Kagome responded immediately, eyes wide as she rubbed the back of her neck. "I really, really need to go to bed."
Sesshomaru's eyes drifted to the clock and he considered the time, and then his gaze shifted to the table and he frowned, reaching down and picking up her goblet, eying it. "…you're drunk."
"I'm what?" Kagome inquired with a laugh, "I am not. It was just fruit juice."
"No, it wasn't." Sesshomaru fiercely returned the goblet to the table, pale liquid sloshing over his hand, and whirled, catching Kagome by the arm and dragging her with him from the room, leaving Sourne where he stood and growling under his breath. "You were to be served water. I didn't realize they'd mixed your goblet with another. How much did you drink?"
"I dunno." Kagome responded waspishly, "I didn't realize I was being drugged. Although it was kind of sweet so I sort of didn't really drink too much."
"Good. If you'd finished the whole goblet you'd probably be more sick than you've ever imagined. That wine isn't meant for humans to consume."
"Why not?"
"It is strong. Very strong. It's an elven brew."
"Elves?" Kagome responded in surprise.
"Yes, it was specifically imported for this event. Cost a damn pretty penny too." Sesshomaru shook his head, "You're lucky you're still walking. Does your head feel light?"
"Of course it does. I thought I was just tired." Kagome mumbled as she stumbled over her own feet, "Dammit. Sesshomau, where are we going?"
"I'm getting you to your room before you're even more vulnerable. You'll never be able to control your power while inebriated." Sesshomaru responded firmly, finally getting her into her room.
Kagome pranced inside and then giggled, gazing around, "How come you kidnapped me again, Sesshomaru?"
"How come?" He hesitated in the doorway.
"Yeah. I mean you didn't even make a big production out of it so Inuyasha would know or anything. You didn't demand the Tetsusaiga. You didn't even –"
"I took you again because Rin missed you. You're a powerful human, as I said, and don't think I've forgotten the lengths you went to, to protect her. Therefore I wanted to bring you for her."
"Really?" Kagome stepped toward him and stumbled over her own slippered feet, her sudden fall startling Sesshomaru badly enough that he actually reached out and caught her around the waist, keeping her on her feet. "Is that the only reason?"
The white-haired Lord froze for a moment, startled by her sudden grasp on his collar, not quite sure how to handle this.
Either it was a placebo effect, and Sesshomaru saying she'd been drinking powerful wine made her feel drunk… or she'd been slowly but surely getting more and more drunk and had only attributed it to her exhaustion. Either way she was feeling rather… uninhibited. It was nice.
"Kagome. Remove yourself from my haori." Sesshomaru commanded quietly.
"Nu-uh. What's the real reason?"
"That is the real reason you useless creature." He shifted to shove her off, having the good grace to aim his shove in the direction of her futon, but she was faster and pressed her lips to his.
Everything froze for a long, loooooong moment. Then Sesshomaru pried her off, grabbed her by the scruff of the neck, dropped her – well, moreso flung her—onto her futon and stormed from the room, slamming the shoji so hard he damn near threw it off the hinges.
Kagome sat silently for a moment, and then she started to giggle. The giggling morphed into an all-out laugh and she threw herself to lay on her back, feeling light. She'd seen a bit of a blush on Sesshomaru's cheeks. He had not expected that. And he hadn't killed her.
When she closed her eyes, she saw Inuyasha's face on her eyelids, looking rather confused – with that "hurt puppy" look he'd cultivated just to get what he wanted out of her. Wide-eyed and innocent with a hint of pleading, pretending fragility. "Oh shut up." Kagome snapped, rolling onto her stomach, "You kissed Kikiyou first."
The next morning, Kagome was experiencing her first hang-over. It wasn't what she'd always read about… just a headache would have been wonderful. But oh no. That wasn't to be her luck. She spent an hour huddled in the bathroom, too nauseas to move, too nauseas to attempt drinking water, too sick to throw up. Honestly, the brief buzz before she'd gone to sleep wasn't worth this.
She swore to never drink again, and then amended it to never drinking elf-wine, and then amended that to never drinking something without asking what it was first, and finally dissolved into "please, please, pleaaaaase."
A hand touched her back, pressing to the small of it, warm. A comforting presence. Kagome simply didn't have the energy to look up and find out who was there. Something warm dropped over her shoulders, and she glanced down to see Sesshomaru's haori. Her surprise redoubled as he held something under her nose.
She had enough time to think 'is that a shot glass of vodka?' before she was paying homage to the porcelain God so violently that she damn near gave herself whiplash. Sesshomaru remained behind her, his hand still on the small of her back, the shot not reappearing to Kagome's eternal relief. It felt like an eternity, but in reality was only half an hour before something fizzy was under her nose and Sesshomaru coaxed her into drinking something that tasted like Sprite. When she had a bit of liquid in her he scooped her up and carried her several halls to a small dining area, depositing her and pushing a plate in front of her.
"Toast. You don't want it, but it will help."
"Noooo." Kagome moaned, turning her face away from the plate like it was the bane of her existence.
"Don't argue. Just eat. Small bites." He waved a hand, annoyed by her defiance. "Hurry up. It will settle your stomach once you get over the nausea. Bread is best."
Kagome defied him for a few more minutes before finally whimpering and giving up, closing her eyes and shaking her head, "Fine."
To her astonishment, two pieces of toast in she was guzzling the fizzy drink and scarfing at the toast desperately. And it did help. She remembered hearing something about how bread helped absorb alcohol… whatever it did, she was glad Sesshomaru knew about it.
"Better?" He smirked, pleased with himself. Clearly thinking that she should have obeyed him right away.
"Yeah." Kagome mumbled, "Who gave me wine?"
"I don't know." Sesshomaru responded, "But it will not happen again. From now on if it isn't water, ask me what it is, understand?"
"Yes." Kagome responded slowly, wondering if he was going to mention her… indiscretion earlier. She wasn't entirely sure of the rules of the era insofar as kissing Demon Lords but she was pretty sure she'd erred.
"Rin is in the garden, as soon as you're feeling better I'd like you to go play with her." He hesitated on his way out of the room, "I would also like you to keep your human lips to yourself, Kagome."
For a moment she sat in silence. And then she dissolved into giggles again, finished her toast and drink, and headed to the gardens – realizing how much of the castle she knew by heart now. She couldn't even see evidence of the damage done previously by the large demon; had Jaken really gotten the crews working that fast? Wow. Modern day workers could take a page out of demon books – "do it now or you die" seemed to be a great motivator.