A/N: HOLY. Ten pages of Chapter 21. I HAD to stop, I really did. You don't know how much I would have loved continuing…

Anyways, before you can sink your teeth into this one…

A ryokan is a Japanese resort, with Japanese-styled architecture and rooms, with lots of hot springs. Everyone wears these standard hotel-issue yukata robes. You might even get lucky and score a haori jacket. n.n Anyways, you should be able to guess what this chapter's about, now.

I see lots of you really felt for Kagome and her miscarriage, ne? Sad… but as lots of you also pointed out, it wasn't Sesshie's so what the heck. XD

Animefreak242: You're one of my best readers and reviewers. Thank you SO much for pointing that out, though I was hoping someone would just skim past it. XD The Myouga thing was my bad, though I'm not going to change it. Midoriko was intended, though. n.n Thank you for reviewing.

Without further ado… may I present –

Chapter 21: The Resort

"You sure you can do it?" Jakotsu asked dubiously.

"What?" asked Kagome, irritated, leaning on her crutch in annoyance. In her other hand, she balanced a tottering stack of files. Damn her ankle - honestly; Kaede had sent herbal brew, her grandfather had insisted on wrapping it a foul-smelling medicine, and Kagura had all but carted her off the hospital. "I'm not an invalid, you know."

"I'm serious, I'll take them down for you," he said.

"Don't you have work to do without wasting time standing around yapping?" asked Sesshoumaru, appearing from his office.

"Exactly," Kagome said. "I'll manage, Jakotsu, thanks though."

"But Kagura said-"

"Nothing," interrupted Sesshoumaru.

"Ohaaaayou gozaaaaimasu!" chirped Kagura as the elevator doors opened.

"Umm, ohayou. I'll just go now, okay?" asked Kagome.

Kagura frowned. "Oi, Jakotsu, what did I tell you?"

"To help Kagome. But they won't let me!" Jakotsu complained, casting a particularly nasty glare at Sesshoumaru, who matched the look flawlessly.

"Nonsense," Kagura said coaxingly. "Jakotsu can manage perfectly well."

"Exactly," Jakotsu said. Without warning, he took the files from Kagome and sailed into the elevator. "Ciao!"

Another elevator opened and Sango stepped out. "I have to deliver these files for- ne, Kagome-chan, what happened to your foot?"

"Sango-chan!" Kagome hopped over on one leg to give her friend a hug. The flash of gold on Sango's hand did not escape her notice. "You're getting married? Oh my god, congratulations!"

"Thank you," smiled Sango. She handed the files to the closest person, Kagura. "Anyways, I have to go." She stepped back into the lift.

"Wait, wait," Kagome called. "Who's the groom?"

"Yeah?" Sango smiled. "Oh, Inuyasha."

"Did I miss something?" stared Kagura.

Sesshoumaru looked impassive. "No. My brother is getting married."

"No, not that. Your little brother is getting married before you."

"So? We aren't exactly living in feudal times when I must marry before my younger siblings."

"You could get married to Kagome," sighed Kagura. "Just make me happy for once."

"She doesn't like me."

"For heaven's sake! You're Sesshoumaru Taishou. You can make anyone fall in love with you."

"Well, maybe I don't want to."

She stared. "Why ever not? Do you have any idea how old you are already? It wouldn't hurt to get married."

"Contrary to popular belief, I am not old."

"Certainly old enough to have slept with her."

It was his turn to stare. "I never slept with her."

The staring game was getting fun. "Didn't you?"

"Of course not."

"But… the hotel mailed me a tape along with your bill."

"What tape?"

"Apparently all the rooms' music players are tape recorders too."

"So?"

"Well, the hotel staff retrieved a recording and then mailed me the tape."

"What tape?" snapped Sesshoumaru, beginning to get exasperated.

"This tape." Kagura pulled a tape out of her bag. "It's -"

"Sesshoumaru!" Inuyasha burst through the door. "Guess what? Guess what!"

"What?" Sesshoumaru's hand hovered dangerously close to his phone; Kagura couldn't guess if he was going to hurl it out the window or at Inuyasha's head.

"Our sales this quarter exceeded expectations. Dad said we can go to a ryokan for a week!"

"Who's going?" asked Kagura.

"Well, um, the executive staff, and two people of their invitation."

"Ooh, pick me," Kagura said sarcastically.

Inuyasha looked too excited to care. "Sure, if you want."

"Idiot. Like I would want to go with you. How old are you? Tell me you've never been to a ryokan, I'll call you a liar."

"Whatever. I've got better people to invite anyways. Sango… Kagome…"

"Hey!" cut in Kagura. "Sesshoumaru's inviting Kagome."

"Am not. I'm not even going," Sesshoumaru said.

The two of them stared. "Why not?"

"Pray, who will look after the company while I'm gone?"

The door burst open. "I see Inuyasha got to you early," Inutaisho said wryly. "What's this I hear about you not going?"

"Do I look like the sort to visit a ryokan?"

"Do I look like the sort of visit a ryokan?" mocked Inuyasha.

"Shut up," growled Sesshoumaru, tightening his yukata belt as though he was strangling Inuyasha.

"Don't worry, you look marvellous in a yukata. Well, I'm off to the hot springs. See you later," Inuyasha sang, leaving his brother alone to perfect his yukata knot. He was such a stupid perfectionist – the whole point of a ryokan stay was to relax and enjoy, not worry about your yukata knots.

"Oi, Inuyasha!" Stepping out into the common garden at which all the Japanese-styled cabins clustered, Inuyasha could already see Miroku heading towards him.

"Can't wait to feel the water on my skin," sang Jakotsu.

"Shut up," laughed Bankotsu.

"We'll go to the clear springs, those are next to the ladies' springs," Miroku said with a grin.

"Sure, and get ourselves castrated. No thanks," Inuyasha said.

"Nothing's fun without women," grumbled Bankotsu.

"Nonsense. Men are fun too," insisted Jakotsu.

"That being said, what the hell are we dawdling here for?"

"You still haven't told me how you ended up from Miroku to Inuyasha," Kagome said, settling into the steaming water of the spring.

"Long story," sighed Sango. "I was drunk when it began."

"We always start our stories drunk," observed Kagura.

Kagome laughed. "And I don't suppose you have any experience in that field?"

"Too much experience," grimaced Kagura.

Sango continued. "Ok. The thing about Inuyasha… he's just like, a five-year-old in the mind, a twenty-four-year-old in the body, and a well-travelled middle-aged man when it comes to sex."

"Hear, hear," giggled Kagome.

"You slept with Inuyasha?" Kagura asked, her eyes widening. "Both of you?"

"It was ages ago," Kagome said carelessly. "I was drunk."

Ha. Bet Sesshou-kun was a better screw. Kagura smiled to herself. "And Sango?"

"Well, Inuyasha has the cutest ears…"

"He told you?" Kagome and Kagura stared.

"Yeah, about the whole youkai-hanyou deal. Anyways, I don't know what happened… I thought Miroku and I were going to last forever. And I thought Inuyasha was a one-night thing. Strange, how Miroku turned out to be the one-night thing and Inuyasha proposing instead."

"Ring?" Holding out her hand, Kagome watched as Sango twisted the gold band off and gave it to her. Carefully, the other two girls scrutinized it.

"That's an E grade diamond, square cut" Kagura said, peering at it. "I'd say, roughly… slightly over one carat?"

"Twenty-two carat gold," Kagome said. "He could have been more generous and made it twenty-four, don't you think?"

"Two emeralds… about half a carat each or so?"

"Estimated worth about…" Kagome looked at Kagura.

"One point four million yen and counting?"

They looked at each other.

"That's pretty ok, you could say, considering it's Inuyasha," smiled Sango.

Kagome waved a dismissive hand. "Keh. I think you deserved better. Where are the guys anyways? They've been quiet since we've arrived at the springs."

"I think next door," Kagura said, pressing her ears to the bamboo wall that separating the men from the ladies.

"You're joking." Pressing her ears to the bamboo, Kagome could make out some of Jakotsu's laughter.

Slowly, she lifted herself up till her eyes peeked over the fence.

The guys were too busy guffawing to notice the six eyes looking at them.

Ducking, Kagome giggled. "I'll teach Inuyasha for being a cheapskate. Sango, you just wait and see if he gives you another diamond."

Grabbing one of the buckets the women used to wash with, Kagome waded over to the cold pool and filled her bucket. Peeking over the fence again, she spotted Inuyasha's silver head, most conveniently just below her.

Quickly, she dumped the entire bucket of freezing water onto Inuyasha.

"Hey!" he yelled, spluttering and looking up.

No one was there. Holding in their laughter, the girls sank deeper into the water on their side.

"Who the hell was that?" yelled Inuyasha, shivering.

"Kagura," Miroku nodded.

"No, Kagome," Bankotsu said.

"Sango?" asked Jakotsu.

"One of them," growled Inuyasha. Storming over to the cold spring on their side, Inuyasha grabbed a bucketful of water. "Knowing girls, if I dump it on one of them, she'll scream and say it wasn't her, it was so-and-so."

Peering over, he saw Kagome, Sango and Kagura together.

Taking aim, he poured the bucker's contents on Kagome.

Smarter than he had been, instead of spluttering around Kagome quickly turned to see who he was.

Inuyasha held the bucket, while Miroku, Jakotsu and Bankotsu watched, grinning.

From the main hotel building, in his room, Sesshoumaru winced as three combined screeches of "HENTAI!" assaulted his ears.

"I didn't see you at the hot springs," Kagura said, drying her hair with a fluffy towel.

"Maybe because… I didn't go?"

"You're moody," she commented, stretching and flopping onto Sesshoumaru's futon.

"I'm busy," he corrected, his hands flying over his laptop keys.

"You just wasted the air ticket money by coming all the way here to work." She rolled her eyes. "You little workaholic."

"Little?" He actually paused to look at her.

"Yeah, by a month if I remember correctly… but that's not important. Oh, wait want to hear the tape from the hotel? I even burned in onto a CD, so no excuses."

"Then will you go away?"

Kagura nodded vigorously. "Cross my heart. On my honour, I'll leave straight after that."

"Yeah, right." Like he would believe her. Nevertheless, Sesshoumaru took the CD she handed him and inserted it into his CD drive.

"Hey, Kagura! Dinner," called Kagome from outside.

"Oh, perfect timing." Kagura stuck her head outside and dragged Kagome in.

She looked at Sesshoumaru quizzically.

"Kagura insists we have slept together and has the tape to prove it," Sesshoumaru said disbelievingly. "She's about to make me listen to it."

"Ha. Um, then I should… go?"

Windows Media Player, however, loaded too quickly. Along with very incriminating rustling of sheets, their voices could be heard clearly.

"What?" Sesshoumaru cringed inwardly as he heard his own voice play out merrily.

Kagome was next. "I heard someone knocking."

"Well, go open the door."

"Umm… your tail…"

More rustling could be heard. Kagome cringed, remembering the night she'd nearly gotten herself kicked off Sesshoumaru's bed. And then in the morning she'd pressed all those random buttons trying to find the alarm clock… had she set off the tape recorder?

"Woman."

"What?"

"Your hand."

"Where?"

"Not there."

"I can't get it out!"

"Who told you to put it in there?"

"Not my fault! I didn't know what I was doing!"

"You were the one that wanted to sleep with me."

"And you agreed! So it's your fault!"

Another long pause, before -

"Oww! It hurts!"

"Well, I'm trying to get it out."

"Will you hold your legs still?" Did he really sound that authoritative? "I'm trying!"

"Open them a bit." Oh, god. No wonder Kagura thought… Sesshoumaru kicked himself. They did really sound like they were doing not-so-innocent things.

"Huh?"

"Spread them."

"Oh. There we go. It's free now."

"Whatever."

Kagome wore a bright, fake grin on her face. "Ha, Kagura, you know… We weren't really having sex that morning…"

"What?" Kagura stared.

"It's a long story…"

Kagome's eyes grew round at the plates of food just waiting for her to dig in.

Inutaisho smiled at her eagerness, and nodded at her.

Beaming, she picked up her chopsticks, chirping; "Itadakimasu!"

"Where's Inuyasha and his friends?" he asked. "Sesshoumaru?"

He looked disgusted. "I don't baby-sit my brother or any of his immature, hentai friends." Stressing the word 'hentai', he glared at the girls. Damn it, his ears were still suffering.

"Ha," laughed Kagura nervously. "The boys are, um…"

"Recuperating!" Sango finished.

Kagome wasn't so eager to let the guys off. After all, they had poured cold water on her. "Those hentai boys were peeking at us in the springs. They were begging for a good whack."

Inutaisho roared with laughter, trying to picture everything in his mind.

"Don't worry, we sent them ice," Sango said.

"Yeah, loads of it," added Kagura. She simply didn't specify how they'd sent the guys ice – they had more like… pelted them with the cubes.

"Sesshoumaru, go check on them," his father ordered, unable to stop grinning. "I'm sure they must have been really pounded."

Looking almost sour, Sesshoumaru left his place. He found his way to Inuyasha's cabin.

The sliding door was slightly ajar. Obviously, they'd been too trampled to even shut the door properly.

Voices were coming from inside.

"Bah. They had the nerve to throw ice at us!" Inuyasha could be heard grumbling.

"Your fault. You dumped ice water on Kagome," cursed Bankotsu.

"And you three idiots went peeking!" sniffed Jakotsu. "I say, stick to men… Because of you that Kagura nearly castrated me."

"I bet Miroku enjoyed the beating, you should have seen Kagome straddle him to bash him up," Inuyasha said, holding a cold compress to his unfortunate companion, who was duly unconscious.

Bankotsu swore. "You think Miroku is a sorry case because he nearly stopped breathing, but I can tell you your fiancée is a spitfire! She managed to hit both you and I at the same time, and she pinches like a crab!"

"But trust me, she's worth it in bed," Miroku said, waking up too coincidentally for it to be true.

He couldn't stop himself – Sesshoumaru wanted to burst in, announce how wimpy they all were and that he didn't employ wimps. But he couldn't – he kept quiet, leaning towards the doorway.

"And I suppose you're going to say Kagome's worth it in bed too?" snorted Bankotsu.

"Most definitely," Inuyasha said arrogantly. "Even when she's drunk and half-comatose."

Sesshoumaru flinched unwittingly.

"You screwed Kagome?" Jakotsu asked, his jaw dropping in shock. "When?"

"Ages ago, on her birthday."

"Holy…" Inuyasha had everyone's attention now. "Was she virgin?" asked Bankotsu, gaping.

Inuyasha furrowed his brow. "I don't know… can't remember."

"What? You can't remember? What if she was virgin? You took it and then forgot?"

"Wait… then how come you aren't marrying Kagome, but Sango?" asked Jakotsu.

For the first time, Inuyasha actually looked glum. "She didn't want me."

"WHAT?" yelled Bankotsu and Jakotsu together.

"She said she liked me as a friend, and she enjoyed it, but she couldn't be with me anymore."

"Couldn't, or wouldn't?"

"Oh man, Inuyasha, Kagura's going to kill you if she hears. She's reserved Kagome for Sesshoumaru, you know."

"How was Kagome?" Miroku was heard asking.

Sesshoumaru turned around abruptly – he'd heard enough.

He would never admit, but he felt cold.

He needed to think.

"It's freezing," Kagome shivered, pulling a haori over her yukata.

"Nonsense, it's perfect weather," Sango said, feeling a soft breeze dance around them on the deck outside their cabin.

"You're joking, it's -" Kagome paused, sneezing loudly, "cold."

"You feeling ok?" she looked concerned.

"Yeah, it might be just a small bug… I'll be fine in the morning," Kagome assured Sango.

"Ne, you're pale. Want to see a doctor?"

Strange, how friends were. You told them it was cold and they brushed it off. You told them you might be sick and they wanted to call a doctor. "I'm fine, seriously. I'll sleep early tonight."

"Nonsense. It won't hurt to just have a doctor look at you anyways. How about that?"

"Fine, fine," grumbled Kagome, going instead. Honestly, when would they believe her when she said she was alright?

All his life, Sesshoumaru had excelled in mathematics. Well, not just mathematics, but that was simply because he used mathematical thinking.

Logic was the key to all answers, be it math, literature, or scientific.

Except now, this problem didn't seem to have any logic whatsoever to it. There was no formula he could use. There was no equation. There was no quotient; not even a goddamned remainder.

Pulling off his yukata, he slipped into the soothing water of the hot springs.

Kagura wanted him and Kagome together. But Kagome had slept with Inuyasha. Then Kagome had said she didn't want to be with Inuyasha. And that Sango person, apparently, had slept with Miroku, but was now engaged to Inuyasha.

Oh, the irony of it all. Their lives were like one big soap opera.

And Kagome had miscarried someone's child, on which Sesshoumaru would have bet his life was Inuyasha's.

If she slept with Inuyasha, why didn't she want Inuyasha anymore? Assuming she didn't like Inuyasha at all, why hadn't she gone knocking on his door when she found out she was pregnant?

Wait… then again, she hadn't known.

But if Kagome didn't want Inuyasha, then who did she really want?

"They don't have doctors in this town, but I found a healing miko from pre-war times," Sango said. "She's really skilled, and she practiced the Chinese medicine too."

"I said I was fine," sighed Kagome.

"That's what they all say," the miko said airily. She was old, but she had even more life than Kaede.

"I'll leave you two to it," laughed Sango, disappearing.

The miko began tying a thin thread around Kagome's wrist.

"You know what you're doing?" asked Kagome, amazed.

She laughed. "Everyone thinks that the method of listening to a patient's pulse is outdated and never works. I know better. It was a method used by the Chinese court for centuries."

"Ah." In the presence of such skill, Kagome shut up.

On her part, the miko held the end of the thread, keeping it perfectly still.

"Have you been eating right lately?"

"No," Kagome grinned. "I've been eating too much chocolate."

The miko shook her head, smiling. "You've got a very good figure. And have you been sleeping right?"

"No, I've been sleeping too much."

"You can never get enough sleep," declared the miko. Then, her smile disappeared, and she frowned.

"Any illnesses or allergies in the past month?"

"My ankle got sprained..."

"Is that so," the miko said, sounding disbelieving.

Her blood chilled by the second. "Yeah… why?"

That… goddamned… egotistical… son of a bitch.

Kagome had never been good at math. She had been good at everything but math. And she cared not to solve the problem that was Sesshoumaru Taishou.

Easing herself into the hot spring, Kagome curled up into a little ball. That miko had been too skilled. She'd told the miko not to say anything to Sango, because –

If, as the miko said, Kagome had miscarried, there was no way the child was anyone's but Inuyasha's. And she wasn't about to tell that to Inuyasha or Sango. A one-night stand was all fine and dandy, a child was a different story. Add a missing child…

The best part is, that Sesshoumaru Taishou knew. He had known, and he hadn't told her. She had summoned up her courage to ask him in the hotel room, and he had had the audacity to say no, she was perfectly alright and hadn't miscarried, hadn't been pregnant in the first place.

Maybe he had kept it from her because he wanted nothing to do with her anymore.

Or maybe he'd kept it from her because he didn't know.

Impossible. He knew. The bastard.

Or maybe he'd kept it because he didn't want to hurt her.

Too many possibilities… shivering, she sank deeper into the hot spring. She didn't understand anything, she didn't want to play the game adults played anymore, she wanted to cry and ask her mother to make it all better.

Because she was scared that he knew, and he knew everything about her and Inuyasha, and would hate her forever after.

He heard someone make a small splash as they slid into the ladies' spring next door.

A part of him wanted to believe it was some random woman, or Kagura, or even his future sister-in-law.

A part of him knew there was only one person who would come flying to the comfort of the springs because she'd discovered something she wasn't supposed to discover.

Behind the bamboo fence, Kagome was crying. He could smell it, hear it, sense it.

And she began to sing quietly to herself.

"Motto ima ijou ni hadaka ni natte, ikite yuku jutsu oshiete yo. Honno sukoshi dake watashi o yogoshite. Sou yatte hitori kizutsuitari mawari o nakushita to shite mo. Shinjitsu no uta wa kono mune ni nagare."

She hardly sounded like the confident rock star from DoAsInfinity that had so often belted out the song on the radio. Her voice wavered and cracked worse than a boy going through puberty.

Sesshoumaru knew the song – Shinjitsu no Uta. Song of Truth. He'd listened to it over and over again at one point, committing the words to memory. He knew exactly which verse she was coming in from.

Please teach me how to live a little more vulnerably than I do now. Won't you taint me just a little? That way, even if I get hurt and lose everything around me, the song of truth will flow through my heart.

Fine words, Kagome. Maybe I should have told you.

Her words haunted him. That way, even if I get hurt and lose everything, the song of truth will flow through my heart.

Had he done wrong by keeping her condition from her?

How strange that she, a girl just fresh from college, could cause him to doubt his own actions so.

That way, even if I get hurt and lose everything, the song of truth will flow through my heart.