Title: Kagome and Sesshoumaru starring in…
Author: Tsubasa Kya
Disclaimer: I do not own "Inuyasha".
Chapter twelve:
What book is important
They sat around a table in the large library of the Matenkashi residence, pouring over single book, their heads almost glued together and their eyes absorbing every word. They finally had it. The Twilight Moon book that Kikyou had accidentally stumbled upon in the paranormal section of a book store was in their hands.
Inuyasha watched the three with curiosity as he picked up his sleeping child. It had grown very late in the evening. When the three had gotten to the mansion, Inuyasha had let them in and offered them a drink. The girl, Kikyou, was curiously pale and croaked out that she would do well with a glass of water.
She was a very interesting creature, and Inuyasha couldn't help but feel like he knew her from somewhere. After brief introductions, Inuyasha led them to the library where his boxes of books had been taken by the movers. He'd given them the book and had expected them to take off after that, but the curious Kikyou had asked then, "You said you knew the author? Do you think we could talk to him?"
Inuyasha had been startled. The book was already signed—his brother had done so earlier before leaving. The problem was that Sesshoumaru had written the book under an alias of Su Jin and Inuyasha wasn't sure Sesshoumaru would agree to meet with them.
Then Hojou had said, "It's okay if we can't! We're grateful for what you've done already." Sasuke had nodded agreement, but there was such a hopeful look in Kikyou's eyes that he wondered how he could possibly deny her. Her face remained as motionless as stone, but her eyes spoke volumes that words, he knew, would never be able to portray.
So he had said, "Let me get a hold of him before you go. I'll see if he has time."
Kikyou's eyes screamed gratitude, and she calmly said, "Thank you, Matenkashi-sama," bowing all the while. He'd offered for them to sit at a table in the library, and now hours had passed and they still sat there. They seemed not to notice the passage of time and were almost through reading the entire book. All three of them were taking notes on parts they felt important.
Inuyasha had made a plate of sandwiches and offered it to them, but they hadn't noticed it. He was sure it wasn't meant to be discourteousness towards his hospitality, more than they simply were too engrossed in the book. From what he could gather, the three of them were doing something for school on the Twilight Moon, and their project was overdue already.
He carried Taku out of the library and headed for the room Sesshoumaru had offered up for Taku, his thoughts still on the three visitors, but mainly circling around the strangely familiar young woman. Taku really liked her, and had taken to watching her all evening. And when the first few attempts to get a hold of Sesshoumaru hadn't worked, he had thought of telling the three they should go home, but then her image came to him unbidden and he couldn't bear the disappointment he knew he would see.
But he had always been that way. Weak to the whimsical expressions of women, ugly or beautiful. So he hadn't mentioned how late it was getting.
Once Taku was in bed, Inuyasha pulled his cell phone from his pocket and once more attempted to get a hold of Sesshoumaru. The phone rang several times but he got the voice mail again. "Hey, Sess," he said into the phone, "call me, okay? It's almost one AM now." He flipped the phone closed and sighed. The doorbell was ringing. He went down to answer it, admitting Myron the cross-dressing butler.
"Oh, Inuyasha-sama!" Myron gasped eagerly. "I didn't know you'd be here! I simply thought when Sesshoumaru-sama said someone would be home to let me in, Jaken-sama would be here! It is wonderful to see you!"
Inuyasha flashed an annoyed glance at Myron. He still wished Sesshoumaru hadn't hired this guy. It was unnerving. Myron was a cross-dresser, and seemed to be gay too. The cross-dressing part didn't bother the half-breed…the latter did. "I don't wish I could say the same," Inuyasha muttered, but Myron appeared not to hear.
Myron flounced into the house, his French maid's skirt flapping as he swayed his hips. "Oh my, my!" the butler gasped, running his manicured finger across a surface close by. "Such dust has gathered since last I was here. I shall scour the place, top to bottom, Inuyasha-sama."
"You do that." Inuyasha grumbled. He was about to close the door when the catering service showed up. He let them in and they greeted him cheerfully. He was much happier to see them than Myron. They at least dressed like normal people. There were only three of them, and Inuyasha could never remember their names. They were there to prepare the food for the little after party Sesshoumaru had said he was going to have for some fellow actors and whoever the lucky winner was to be.
He did chat for ten minutes or so with the people from the catering service as they asked how things were going. He was glad they didn't inquire about the bruises on his face. His soon-to-be ex-wife was very strong, especially when drunk. Since she was rarely sober, she was strong most of the time.
He could remember the day he first met Reiko. She had been quite docile then, and very kind to him. He'd been trying to escape the busy life of the royals. Having grown up basically alone, he really wasn't used to the way nobles would treat him. Inuyasha had only been vocally accepted as family by Sesshoumaru one year prior, so he hadn't had much time to grow accustomed to things.
Reiko had been the daughter of an ambitious noble who wanted to get closer to the throne, but Inuyasha hadn't known that. When he met her, he'd known quite immediately that she was of noble descent. She'd been a pretty little thing, thin, very sweet, and kind to him where others were not.
Soon, he began seeing her more in the places he went, and he'd thought it a great coincidence. It wasn't until later, much later, that he'd found out she'd purposefully put herself in his way. She'd had her eye set on him. He'd thought he was in love with her, and that she loved him in return. He asked for Sesshoumaru's permission to court her, since at that time Sesshoumaru was all too willing to point out that he was Inuyasha's alpha in the pack hierarchy. All decisions would be made by Sesshoumaru, and Sesshoumaru's decisions were final.
Sesshoumaru's response had been a rather cryptic warning explaining how deceitful young noble women were, and then he told Inuyasha, "You may court her, but you may not bed her."
Inuyasha had blushed profusely; he had never been good with sex-related conversations, and his brother had been blunt about it. Still, he had been curious why not, so he asked about it. He had been more than surprised by the answer.
"Because that is what she wants you for." Sesshoumaru's face had remained blank as he spoke, but Inuyasha had nearly fallen on his head. He could remember spluttering some nondescript and incomplete statements to the contrary, but Sesshoumaru had given Inuyasha a firm look and said, "She will try to bed you, may even go as far as drugging you to do so, and once she is with your child, she will rely on your pride to force you into marriage. If you were to turn her down for marriage, she would deface our family name. She is a noble, and they are all the same. Court her, but do not bed her."
Inuyasha still hadn't believed Sesshoumaru, but he really had no one else to look to for guidance. Shippou was even younger than Inuyasha, and it had been over a century since Sango and Miroku died. So, Inuyasha asked the noble Reiko if he could court her and she agreed—maintaining a sweet, docile look—and he brought her presents and flowers and they went on walks and picnics often for the next twenty years. When she became all he could think about, he had decided he wanted her by his side and had returned to Sesshoumaru to ask if he had permission to marry her.
Sesshoumaru had said, "You may marry her, but you still may not bed her."
Inuyasha could still remember his fury over that, but he was glad for the order now. "Why?" he had demanded.
Sesshoumaru had glanced at Inuyasha with a withering look that promised pain before speaking almost as though he were talking to a child. "Because if she has a child, I will kill it. I will not have her bad blood in our line." Inuyasha remembered going ballistic over that offense, and the two fought.
But after that, Inuyasha and Reiko were wed and gradually he learned of things he would never have believed had it not happened to him. Reiko was a heavy drinker in private. She portrayed a kind, loving, earthly beauty to the world, but she was a nasty viper during the night.
A week after they were wed, Sesshoumaru had seen Inuyasha hiding in the garden from his wife's vicious temper. It was late at night. Inuyasha's pride wouldn't let him tell Sesshoumaru, especially since he still believed himself in love with her. It was just him, he kept telling himself, because he made Kagome mad too.
Sesshoumaru had sat down on the ground beside Inuyasha and for a long moment, they were silent. Then, when the moon was preparing to set, Sesshoumaru repeated his order. "You are not to bed her." Only once did Inuyasha nod, and a fat, moist tear trickled down his bruised face, but he had agreed.
It was that night when Sesshoumaru had also given Inuyasha an order that would forever change the younger boy's life. Sesshoumaru had heard of Inuyasha's jewelry making hobby. Inuyasha managed it rather well and had collected a short sum of money by that time to get by. Sesshoumaru had said that he had need of commissioning an article of jewelry that would take quite some time to make due to the fact that the materials that would make it were all in different parts of the country.
"You may not take your wife." Sesshoumaru had said after he explained what materials would be needed and what the end product should look like. Sesshoumaru said if Inuyasha made it, he would have permission to open a jewelry shop.
After that, Inuyasha got along more and more with Sesshoumaru, and he was able to put up with Reiko… that was at least until recently. She had slapped Taku and called the young boy a worthless half-breed. That was what made Inuyasha decide he was through. She could beat him up, but to beat up a kid who couldn't defend himself?
Just thinking about it got Inuyasha growling and he had to run upstairs to check on Taku and make sure he was okay. Taku was fine, and on the way back to the library, Inuyasha ended up being waylaid by Myron who didn't know how to shut up. Inuyasha also couldn't bring himself to storm away, fearing that Myron might think he wanted to be caught. It had actually happened once before, so Inuyasha had room for consideration there.
He was only too grateful when his phone started ringing. He looked at it, and used it as an excuse to get away from Myron. Once he was away, he answered. "Hey, Sess." He said.
"What do you want, pup?" Sesshoumaru said.
Inuyasha looked at his watch. "It's almost three in the morning. I thought you were supposed to be back by two?"
"We had a little set back." Sesshoumaru chuckled.
"Oh, really? What kind of set back?" Inuyasha was admittedly curious. Something that could get Sesshoumaru chuckling like that was worth checking into. Usually that chuckle meant something very good happened.
"The winner fainted. We had to wake her."
"Fascinating," Inuyasha drawled. That was hardly interesting.
"Anyway, I'm almost home now. What is it you wanted?"
"I've got three people who would like to talk to Su Jin. It's those three who're doing the report on the Twilight Moon. I had you sign the book for them earlier, remember?" He heard a noncommittal grunt on the other end. "The girl wants to talk to you about the Twilight Moon. I said I'd ask."
Inuyasha could just imagine Sesshoumaru shrugging as he talked, "Sure, why not? Are they still there?"
"Yes." Inuyasha said as he entered the library. A glance at the table showed the two boys had laid their heads down on their arms and were sleeping. The girl was still fascinated by the book, but she appeared to be right near the end, on the last pages. "Looks like two of them fell asleep."
"It is late, after all." Sesshoumaru said. "Well, rouse them enough to place them in guest bedrooms. They're your responsibility. Anything gets stolen, it's—"
Inuyasha sighed. "I get it, I get it," he said. "Anything else, King Worship?" he asked his brother.
"No, I think that's all for now. Was that all you wanted?"
"Yes," Inuyasha said, and Sesshoumaru hung up without saying goodbye. Inuyasha walked over to the table and touched the girl's shoulder lightly. She looked at him, startled and confused momentarily before remembering where she was. "Hey, it's getting late. I got you a meeting with the author, but it won't be until early morning. If you'll come with me, we have guest bedrooms you can use."
The young woman blinked at him and he thought for a moment she may have actually fallen asleep with her eyes open while reading. He had heard of stranger things happening. "Guest bedrooms?" she said, almost as though she were testing the words. She looked at the book, and then at him again before smiling. "Thank you, Matenkashi-sama."
Again, at the sound of his surname and the formality from her lips, he got the unrealistic feeling that he was being distanced from her. But that didn't make sense, did it? He didn't know her! He barely met her a short while ago.
Shaking his head, he said quietly, "Perhaps you should rouse your friends? I'll go and get something for each of you to change into while you sleep and then direct you to your rooms."
--
Kikyou watched as Inuyasha left the room, and her heartbeat stopped racing only when she could no longer hear his footsteps. She had been so close to him in that moment. She could smell him. He still smelled like the wilds, of trees and grass. But there was more to that smell now; the faint scent of metal clung to him.
He was older now, and seemed far calmer than he used to be, and more patient. She'd watched under her lashes as he'd carefully picked up his son earlier, and her heart had swelled dangerously. She was so close to him, and Kagome was nowhere around… She had also nearly blurted out everything to him twice during the evening. Who she was…how she knew him…wanted to demand why he couldn't recognize her.
Five hundred years, she reminded herself. That was a long time to keep a face. A lot could happen in that time. Maybe a lot had happened. After all, she had only been alive again for a couple of months, but already so much had happened to her and she was rapidly changing. She was growing accustomed to the modern world, and even though she longed for fields of green and trees and her everyday dealings with the village, she found much to do to take her mind off of it.
So once he was gone, she shook Hojou's shoulder gently and the young man dazedly opened his eyes. "Ng," Hojou muttered intelligently before blinking away sleep and looking around, trying to remember where he had fallen asleep. He looked at Kikyou and smiled at her. "You're very beautiful in the morning, Kikyou-chan," he said when he was awake enough to talk sense, but still asleep enough to forget to keep his private comments secret.
Kikyou felt her face flush in delighted embarrassment, although she couldn't explain why such a silly compliment would make her feel that way. She tried to push the embarrassment down, but Hojou chuckled sleepily and sat up. He kissed her cheek, emboldened by the fact that he really wasn't entirely awake. She felt blood rushing through her ears, almost making her dizzy.
"Your beauty still stuns me." He said. "You're like… a ray of…" he yawned, "sunshine on a cloudy da—eee, I mean," suddenly he was awake and blushing profusely. She had to bite back a smile at her friend as he insistently attempted to deny what he had just said. "I never meant anything by it, I mean, you're not like a ray of sunshine, not that you're not very pretty, but…"
She snorted in the attempt to fight off the giggles. And then his look of dismay made her start giggling helplessly. "Oh," she started, still trying to regain her perfect control. Since coming to the new world of Kagome's, Kikyou's emotions were quite tried. She got to feel a sweltering amount of new emotions she had never been allowed to know before. "It's alright, Hojou-kun," she assured him. He hid his face in his hands, as though trying to will away his redness.
Kikyou turned to Sasuke then and woke him up. Sasuke groaned and sat up, looking sleepily at his friends before saying, "Hojou, your face is all red… Are you sunburned?"
Hojou muttered, "Or something like that…" Again, Kikyou couldn't hold back her laughter. She tried to get herself under control at least enough that she could tell them what was going on. It wasn't working too well. "We should probably get home," Hojou said finally, looking at his watch.
Kikyou managed to stabilize her giggles long enough to say, "We have been offered rooms to stay, and an interview with Su Jin in the morning…"
Inuyasha came back shortly after that, and Kikyou held the book to her chest, still greatly humored over Hojou's actions. He gave them each a set of pajamas and showed them each to a room. Kikyou changed from her school uniform into the button up top to the pajamas. They were too big for her, and the top fell to her thighs. The collar kept falling to reveal her shoulders, and the pants to the outfit were too big to wear.
As she lay her head on the pillow and comfort rose to embrace her, she wondered how Kagome did in her endeavor. Sleep claimed her as dawn began to light the room through the overly large windows.
Thanks to all of you who reviewed! This wasn't my intended chapter, but I decided I felt like writing what happened to Kikyou (sort of) during the time that Kagome was in the little party thingy. It's not much up to my usual writing standard, as it's mostly filler and all that good junk, but I simply felt like writing it, so I did!
Next chapter: Kagome, meet Su Jin.
...insert squeal..."Su Jin?! I've read all your books, oh my goodness..."
...insert blush..."I can't believe it!"
...insert nervous poking of forefingers together, a shy look at feet..."I can't believe this...all this time...it's been him...the mysterious Su Jin, whom I have admired and adored ever since I could read..."
...insert curious looks from others, before Kagome looks up at Sesshoumaru with a hopeful expression..."Would you autograph my favorite book? Tsuke and Ren's Heated Hot Spring Affair?"
...insert many blinks from Hojou and Sasuke, peels of laughter from Inuyasha, confusion from Kikyou, and a blank expression from Sesshoumaru..."You want me to autograph...what?"
...Kagome breaks out laughing..."I'm sorry, I shouldn't be so mean..."
"Somehow I feel I'm at the blunt end of a joke in the next chapter," Sesshoumaru says to TK, thoroughly displeased. TK blinks at him in complete innocence.
"Are you?" she asks, reviewing her next chapter with a thoughtful look. "No, no, I'm sure you're imagining things." she insists, closing the file and locking it with several highly encrypted passwords, security programs, and an unbreakable, unburnable computer. Sesshoumaru's hand glows green, and TK grabs her lappy and runs away. She had forgotten to poisonous-acid-proof her computer.
